the movieGOOMBA

The people who made the trailer for this film got the tone of this movie VERY wrong. Either that, or they lied to us by depicting this movie with a Tarantino-esque quality; lots and lots of guns but with a kind of tongue and cheek humour to it. Even the title art looks more fun than it should be. I feel lied to . . . I feel used . .

Smokin' Aces doesn't even come close to how this film was promoted. It was serious and kind of like an upgraded action B movie. Buddy 'Aces' Israel, played by Jeremy Priven, is about to fink out his mobster associates to the cops, but before he goes into protective custody, he wants to have one last hurrah in Reno. During Aces' holiday, the mob boss puts out a $1 million reward on Aces' head, and every hit man and their mother is out to get him. Meanwhile, an FBI agent tries to unravel the mystery surrounding the mob and the greasy squealer he's protecting. A pretty recognizable cast, Smokin' Aces includes Andy Garcia, Ben Affleck, Alicia Keys, Matthew Fox, and Ryan Reynolds.

I fell asleep during the movie. I know, right? How am I suppose to review a movie I didn't even see 100% of? Let me just tell you this. Even though I fell asleep for about half the movie, I didn't miss much. It was sort of like a soap opera . . . you watch it for a good solid time period, walk away from it for two years, come back and you still know exactly what's going on. This movie focused too much on the shoot 'em up scenes and disregarded the attempted plot twist. It was almost anti-climatic. Why have a plot twist if it's just going to be a movie about guns? It did have some really well framed shots and creative camera angles (I especially like the picture I chose for this blog). But I still didn't like it, and I didn't really like the trailer much either. Don't see it, they lied to you.

Sidenote: I was half expecting to see Priven's buddy, John Cusack, in this movie, considering that Priven is known to grace Cusack's films with minor roles.