Smokin' Aces (2007) 109 minutes Review

Smokin' Aces had a huge marketing push earlier this year. Jeremy Piven hot off all the awards he's deservedly getting playing Ari the obsessive, success driven agent on H.B.O.'s Entourage has a pivotal but rather small role here.    Lots of folks appear in this one:  Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Alicia Keys, Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta. Peter Berg and Andy Garcia.

The question is why they bothered?   It's a violent, 'feds versus gangsters and hitmen' movie.   Nothing new.. except there's a convoluted (confusing) back-story that sorta' pays off (making an ending that I suppose was going for the Usual Suspects kind of thing).  The script is not original and features lame dialogue.  The direction is showy and full of fast cuts and music video tricks--but we've seen most of this many. many times before.  

If you are attracted to this because of the trailers, or because of the stars, you are going to be let down.  Most of the stars have one slightly interesting gimmick and have little to do.  I won't spoil it by telling you the little gimmicks, but none are worth renting the movie for.

Jeremy Piven plays a Las Vegas entertainer magician who likes hanging out with mob guys.  He has agreed to testify against the mob (or be prosecuted himself).  He decides to party it up in LakeTahoe with prostitutes and drugs before he enters the witness protection program.  Meanwhile the Feds (Ray Liotta, Ryan Reynolds and Andy Garcia with an odd Southern accent)  have to figure out a way to keep him safe.  They find out that the big mob boss is offering a million bucks to who-ever kills Piven and rips out his heart.  We then get to meet several 'teams' of wanna-be hit men and women who basically all figure out where Piven is at about the same time which creates lots of chaos, noise and bloodshed.

There's a needlessly complicated back-story involving the mob and an undercover Fed and we are introduced to characters in various supposedly creative ways. The movie throws in odd details to confuse the audience as much as possible.

The script gives us absolutely no reason to care for anyone in the movie.  It's up to the actors' charisma to keep us engaged in what's going on and they do a pretty good job, considering there is little for any of them to do or say, other then be part of a stylish goulash that seems to be moving fairly quickly.

I will warn you that Jeremy Piven appears in the movie less than 15 minutes total and for most of that time he's either hung-over or wasted. 

If you are looking for a loud, violent, movie with little substance that you'll forget an hour after you see it, then this one is for you.

I'm being generous in rating it two stars.  It's not boring, it has lots of recognizable people in it and it's less than two hours.  I realize the trailer looks good and there's lots of names in this one.. but it's a waste of time.