I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The first must-see film of the year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Despite a simple premise seemingly rife with possibilities, this fast-moving yet unfocused action thriller bounces around from character to character without any real through-line until it reaches a twist-ending that thinks it's more clever and important than it actually is (as it doesn't even impact anything really). 'Smokin' Aces (2006)' is a film that screams "I'm cool" at every chance it gets but rarely makes more than a whimper, especially when placed in a room with its much more effortlessly stylish peers. Unfortunately, the script features frequent expository dumps that overload the viewer, making it hard to retain any of the information, and the infrequent action is always brief and underwhelming. The movie really isn't fun and it's actually quite cringe-worthy, at times. 4/10

Like several jobs around the world, only a hand select group of people get the best jobs and are called back frequently to continue their style of work. This type of search goes the same route for those looking to show their skills in the movie making business. Only some people get their name in the trailers as "..., the director of..." or something along those lines. This particular headline also isn't biased on the critical fame of the designated individual. As long as the director to the movie makes the studio a truckload of money, it doesn't matter. Unfortunately, this doesn't let other possibly qualified people of that profession to excel. The person to represent this group is the man to this film; Joe Carnahan. Heading only six movies in the last fifteen years or so, Carnahan has proved that he has what it takes to be an acceptable action director along with critical flair. It was actually the release of this film that got him recognized to direct The A-Team (2010) reboot. Weird how that happened because this isn't a good film.Joe Carnahan positioned himself as writer/director to this feature and this could be why it just isn't even decent. Being a solo writer/director is not easy. Anyhow, the story is a collaborative character plot where a bunch of assassins head out to kill a once famed magician named Buddy Israel (Jeremy Piven) who decided to turn on the mob that made him filthy rich headed by Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin). While Israel hides in his penthouse suite, F.B.I. agents Messner (Ryan Reynolds) and Carruthers (Ray Liotta), amateur assassins Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck) and his buddies played by Peter Berg and Martin Henderson, a rogue trained assassin Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell), chameleon killer Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan), Neo-nazi hillbillies Darwin (Chris Pine), Jeeves (Kevin Durand) and Lester Tremor (Maury Sterling) and lastly fem fatales Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson) and Georgia Sykes (Alicia Keys) all converge on that point to kill him. With all that said, hardly any of these characters have development.For a two-hour film one would think some kind of story would occur. Instead, there's a subplot about as to why Buddy Israel needs to be kept alive but it's written as some kind of government plan that is unnecessarily convoluted. Without saying much more, the story will in fact waste the time of the viewer. It completely makes everything pointless. Imagine realizing that after the movie ended, sitting and watching two hours of nothing. Substituted for that is an overstuffed cast of personalities that are difficult to connect with in any way and the list of names mentioned continues. There's also appearances from Common, Andy Garcia, Jason Bateman, Joel Edgerton and more. There's just too much to go around. That's not to say the cast can't act or don't have distinct personalities, they just feel rushed and wedged in. Along with that are unresolved character threads that do not conclude the way they should; they just go missing. There are also inconsistencies with security being a thing. How does someone get into a hotel with a sniper?There are also comedic bits thrown in but that's a mixed bag. Seeing Alicia Keys being a complete tough girl and spewing manly lines is fun. Then there's also a couple scenes where a knock-off karate kid shows his moves to one of the assassins. By golly is he annoying; why was he even included again? It's just unfunny padding that makes no sense. However, even with all this said, the technical quality of the film still thrives. Action-wise, again director Joe Carnahan proves that's his genre. He doesn't rely on the shaky camera effect to make action look real. He films real cinematic action and it's very entertaining. The type of action to this movie are just gunfights but its rated R so there's decent blood effects. At some points it even goes beyond that to the point of demented horror action. That's mainly credited to the Tremor Neo-nazi brothers for their weird antics. Speaking of which, Chris Pine had a stupid comical scene. Not hilarious, just enough to create one laugh.The director of photography to this picture was Mauro Fiore. Fiore was also the guy behind the camera for Training Day (2001), The A-Team (2010) and Southpaw (2015). All of which these films did not involve much of or if any shaky camera movement and that's commendable. There's no particular scene that isn't well lit nor is it frustrating to follow what happens. Clint Mansell composed the musical score. The scores Mansell has produced for various films range in critical praise but some are movies like Requiem for a Dream (2000), Sahara (2005), Moon (2009) and Black Swan (2010). Mansell's Smokin' Aces (2006) score may only be forty-five minutes, but there are number of solid action and emotional cues. Soft electric guitar and strings highlight the action, which helps get the blood pumping. The softer cues that easily stir the correct emotion use more acoustic guitar, and more drawn out strings in a tragic key. Mansell shows that he is proficient at both ends of the spectrum.Joe Carnahan is naturally a well-equipped action director and his technical crewmembers hit the mark as well in music and cinematography. The actors can act in their roles but with little development, very few come out feeling likable in any way. The story wastes time and the plot is bloated with too many character threads.

Overall, this movie wasn't very enjoyable. It felt like the directors never knew what to make of it. Is it a shoot em up, a comedy, a drama, a series of criminal events with a twist; it never could maintain a theme. Additionally there were too many characters and subplots. For all they had going on, you need a slower better paced movie, but this one was trying to be flashy and stylish too. There were a lot of interesting characters, but we never got to know them that well. Jeremy Piven's seemed like it could have been good with a little humor added they never took him that way. Overall, lots of good pieces, lots of interesting characters, lots of potential, but this movie tried to be a little bit of everything and ended up not being much of anything.

In 2006 this was a wacky and crazy film. In 2013 we now recognize that this was the first (and very likely the best) in an entirely new category of film, call it, for lack of a better term, "extreme crime/action." (I have on IMDb reviewed another of my faves in this category, SHOOT EM UP). Prior to doing this retrospective review I re-watched SMOKIN' ACES, beginning to end. My notes: 1. Great script -- a crazy concept well addressed, with a script that even now is several notches above the stuff that JJ Abrams is currently peddling. Logic says that a movie about a bunch of idiosyncratic assassins converging on a single target should not work, should not make sense, but this story strikes just the right balance between sensible and nuts; 2. Cast? In this genre, probably the largest assortment of stars ever assembled. Credit for not merely trying something new, but front-loading it with talent to spare. 3. Direction? As good or better than any martial arts film, in other words, a very high standard, every bullet seems to go somewhere. 4. Ending? Clever, attention-getting and satisfying. Overall score 10, both for being an excellent production and for creating a new category of film