Mob boss Primo Sparazza has taken out a hefty contract on Buddy "Aces" Israel--a sleazy magician who has agreed to turn state's evidence against the Vegas mob. The FBI, sensing a chance to use this small-time con to bring down big-target Sparazza, places Aces into protective custody-under the supervision of two agents dispatched to Aces' Lake Tahoe hideout. When word of the price on Aces' head spreads into the community of ex-cons and cons-to-be, it entices bounty hunters, thugs-for-hire, deadly vixens and double-crossing mobsters to join in the hunt. With all eyes on Tahoe, this rogues' gallery collides in a comic race to hit the jackpot and rub out Aces.

What would happen if you locked a screenwriter up in a room and made him watch nothing but Tarantino movies and films like Lock, smock and Two Smoking Barrells, I think Smokin' Aces answers that question. The movie isn't a complete failure, as it is fun and does have a really high octane action feel to it that can be quite entertaining at times. The problem seems to be not the idea of the film but how to pull it off, like watching all those hyper-action films gave them an idea on what to do for a movie but not how to do it, the style and the ability to pull it off was lost in translation. There is a reason directors like Tarantion and Guy Richie are so famous at movies they have done and thats because they have a style and an ability to pull these kinds of movies off, while Joe Carnahan obviously doesn't.

I like Joe Carnahan as a director nromally, Narc was an awesome gritty look at the world of drugs but he doesn't have the panache and style to a movie like Smoking Aces justice. All the characters are there, the story and the plot is the there, all that is missing is the execution to put them all together and to do it masterfully. Carnahan spemds too muvh time with some characters and not enough with others. He is too intersted in those hyper close-ups where we get to see shots of snotty noses of durg addicts and of magic tricks played by a hasbeen magician. Joe Carnahan needed to spend more time developing the characters and the story and less time worrying about capturing the Tarantino style or the hyper-action movie feel.

sometimes it seems I am one of the people that actually like Ben Affleck as he is a good actor who just has a really bad sense for picking movies and roles. He does well in movies liek smoking Aces and is believable, he just needs to stay as far from any romatic leads as he can and just do more movies like Smoking Aces. Affleck is the perfect popcorn actor, light and fluffy who sometime will leave a kernel stuck in your teeth. Jeremy Piven is just too over the top, too interested in the style of a magician who acts in a comical manner. He is kind of a downer in the film everytime he is on the screen, taking away from all the fun hitmen and the badmen out to get him. And of course there's Ryan Reynolds, as a cop who the whole film ends up revolving around. Reynolds makes almost any movie he is better by just being in it, he has that kind of charm and charisma and Smokin' Aces is no exception. The movie made a decent try, it had its moments but it failed in execution.

Grade: C+