The Good

A very well made movie that manages to equally juggle many characters and not sacrifice a moment's worth of action.

The Bad

Packaging was too small to contain this movie. Well, I had to think of something?!?!

Smokin' Aces is a quick paced, nonlinear shoot em' up from hard hitting Director, Joe Carnahan. Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) is a wanted man. He is about to testify against the mob and bring down known boss Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin). Needless to say there are a lot of people who would like this not to happen. So, a band of ruthless assassins are assembled. There's the Tremor Bros, Georgia Sykes (Alicia Keys) and her partner (who just happens to be toting a rifle dubbed "Big Momma"), Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck) and his crew, Hugo Croop (Joel Edgerton) and others.

These are the bad guys.

On the good guys team is Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta), Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) and Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia). Their job as FBI agents is to keep an eye on some armed guards who are watching after Israel's well being. The action mainly takes place on one hotel floor, as the bad guys descend on Israel's suite in an effort to be the person who kills him and takes his heart (there is a million dollars for anybody who can pull this off). As you might guess this leads to a lot of murder, mayhem and laughs that only Joe Carnahan can seem to pull off. There are numerous storylines, each of which is juxtaposed in at various times throughout the film.

Smokin' Aces keeps the myriad of stories going all while it continues pouring out a steady stream of action. Asking a lot of it's viewers, Joe Carnahan has made yet another movie that doesn't hesitate coming out of the gate and also doesn't disappoints when it arrives.

Features

Deleted and Extended Scenes/Outtakes

There are 4 of these Deleted and Extended Scenes on this portion of the DVD. They have titles like "You Ain't No Chinese" (which basically showcases the nuttiness of the Tremor Bros.) and "Elmore Crawls Out of the Lake." I was excited to see that these scenes have all the lush visual quality of the movie. Not that I mind seeing extra footage that hasn't been touched up, but getting to see these scenes in this way they play like short films in addition to the movie. The Outtakes are given to us in one large chunk. We get to see the actors being directed on screen by Carnahan, as well as the usual moments of them blowing their lines and cracking up about it.

Featurettes

In this section they offer three featurettes. They are:

- The Lineup

- The Big Gun

- Shoot Em' Up: Stunts And Effects

The Lineup gives us an overview of the characters but it is even further broken down so we can interactively decide which characters we want to see. The Big Gun features Joe Carnahan being effortlessly witty as he talks about the film, and takes us through the day to day process of making it. Lastly, Shoot Em' Up: Stunts And Effects features exactly what the title says. The best featurette is clearly The Big Gun because Joe Carnahan is a force of nature. He never seems like he's giving pat answers, he loves dissecting the shots from this film and he even points out some personal stuff that he layered in their as well.

Cowboy Ending

Commentary Track

Carnahan and the film's editor Robert Frazen have a great time recounting how they put the movie together here. They begin the commentary by claiming that they're drinking lots of beer while doing it. Carnahan explains that nobody seems to get the "pissing in the bottle" scene that opens the movie, and then he proceeds to launch into explanations of the characters that make up this world. He discusses their motivations, how the actors bonded off screen, and he isn't afraid to get really technical with Frazen about the specifics of editing. Definitely listen to this if you are fan of the film.

Video

Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35:1. While I don't usually go for overly stylized movies, Smokin' Aces is different. It has to be done this way because if it isn't, we would lose our connection to all the characters. Each of their scenes is subtly altered so that it stands out just enough for us to orient ourselves within the film. Carnahan also isn't "cut crazy" and because of this we are able to follow the action scenes he has strewn throughout this film. At it's barest level, Smokin' Aces is an incredible visual and visceral experience.

Audio

English Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitled in English, Spanish and French. This film is big in the audio department without impaling itself on viewers. I had the pleasure of watching it on a surround sound system, and I really think that Carnahan has put together a good mix of action and audio. Something tells me that Universal is going to be very happy with how this movie does on HD-DVD simply because of how it played in the standard format. Everything about this release feels top notch.

Package

The front cover of this DVD utilizes the same one sheet that was used when the movie was released. We get the multicolored shots of the cast just in a smaller form. The back cover features what look like surveillance screens and along them is information about this movie. There is a Bonus Features listing, a description of what this movie is about and underneath that is a cast list and technical specs.

Final Word

It's hard not to like Joe Carnahan and it's even harder not to like him on the this DVD. He is so engaging and so into the movie that he's making, his enthusiasm is nothing short of contagious. He is such a strong presence and that is apparent in every frame of this movie. I also love how he isn't afraid to take chances or risk losing the audience who has so faithfully followed this film. I get the feeling that he sits down with 40 ideas to put into a script, and then ends up squeezing about 30 in them in there. However, he never seems to be overcome by the stories he's telling. Character development for him really comes through the action of his characters. This says nothing of the information we get through their exposition.

Truthfully, Smokin' Aces isn't the most easy film to take. It is a blood soaked fusillade that probably won't sit well with some in this sensitive time. However, I don't think Carnahan really cares. This is obviously a movie he wanted to make, probably exercising demons since he spent a year working on Mission Impossible 3 and nothing came to fruition for him. Personally, if he had to go through that to give audiences Smokin' Aces then I think it was time well spent.

Smokin' Aces was released December 9, 2006.