The House Always Wins

The mark of Quentin Tarantino can be felt in Hollywood. Love the man or hate him (and that goes for his films as well) there is no doubt that after his first movies came out (Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction specifically), other filmmakers used to try and tap into the style of Tarantino's works. We could write lists upon lists of all the copycats that came out in the aftermath, but what's instructive is to see the films that actually took the influences of Tarantino's style and reworked them into something more than just the sum of its parts.

I look at a film like Smokin' Aces and I see Tarantino. Well, Tarantino mixed with Guy Ritchie. I would honestly say that if you were blend those two filmmakers works together the resulting sludge would be both interesting to watch while, at the same time, making it impossible to determine which part came from what director. Both features gory stories about bad men doing bad things, without the stories technically ever really judging those characters. They're crass, they're bloody, and then revel in the atmosphere. Personally I think Tarantino does a better job with it (and has shown more breadth and depth to his storytelling) than Ritchie, but there's no denying they're playing in the same genre.

Whether you see one director's influence or the other on Smokin' Aces, this film by Joe Carnahan borrows heavily from the style. That's not a knock against the film, mind you. Carnahan's work here shows that he internalized the style of the genre and used it to craft a bloody and entertaining work of crime fiction. The film utilizes the whole playbook. Multiple characters with multiple perspectives on the action, a bit of time jumping, twists and twists-upon-those-twists. And yes, of course, there's a lot of violence and crass language. It's a hard-R film that absolutely revels in it. For fans of the genre, it's a solid entry of the form.

Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) is a low-rent, two-bit criminal who just so happens to also be a resident performer on the Vegas strip. His show is famous, his criminal life less so. He got in with the mob as a kind of court jester, but then worked his way up, running his own side deals while rubbing elbows with the gangster elite. That gave him wealth and power, but it also made him a prime target for the Feds when they were looking for a rat to flip. And Buddy was in deep enough that he knew the who's who and the what's what of that whole side of the Mafia. Obviously, then, the FBI picked him up and strong-armed him into a deal.

The only problem is that the Mob knows and they want Aces put on ice. The Mob boss Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin) puts a one million bounty on Buddy's head, letting it be known that he wants the rat taken alive so he can watch as his heart is cut out in front of him. The two FBI agents on the case, Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) and Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta), have to chase down Buddy (who just skipped bail in an attempt to negotiate a better deal with the Feds) and put him under protection all while every bounty hunter, hired assassin, and crazed criminal are headed for Buddy's location to take him out. The carnage is gonna roll once everyone meets up in Tahoe to take out, or pick up, Aces.

As a true ensemble film, there is no one lead carrying Smoking Aces. Each of the threads have their own lead characters, but I'd hesitate to say that Reynolds is more the lead for this film than, say, Taraji P. Henson's assassin Sharice Watters or Jeremy Piven's Aces. Each have their part to play and it's the way they play it, as their characters meet up and mix around each other, that the film finds its true energy. The performances, including those from Common, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys, and Chris Pine, are great, and it's that strength in the ensemble that makes the film watchable.

With that said, some plot lines are stronger than others. Because the through line is the FBI's quest to get Buddy out of Tahoe safely, that storyline is given more weight than others. The two lady assassins, played by Henson and Keys, are great but they don't get as much to do in the grand scheme. Piven's Aces spends most of his time holed up in a hotel room, so his colorful character is more of a McGuffin than a real protagonist. And I love Chris Pine's unhinged performance as a redneck Neo-Nazi killer, but that character is one-note all the same. I don't know, with a cast this big, how you could balance things better without losing some threads. This film doesn't quite find that balance (if it's even possible).

At the same time, taking out too many of the pieces would probably reduce the overall chaos of the film. The whole last act involves all of the characters bumping into each other, bouncing off each other, as more and more bullets fly and blood flows. It's a stellar last act that never really lets up, and that's the promise of all these characters from all walks of criminal life. Once they meet up they not only will shoot at the Feds but they'll double-cross each other as well for a chance at the pie. There's no other way it could play out.

So yes, the film is a mess, but it's a fun mess. There are so many great character moments in the film, weird little one-off details that aren't necessary and don't add to the flow of the film but help to color the world and make it more interesting. A lawyer played by Jason Bateman doesn't need to be a coked out, drunken loser who probably is also secretly a furry fetishist. These are little details put on the character without explanation just because it colors who he is in interesting ways. Aces is a magician, sure, but he keeps doing card tricks in the movie not because it's needed but because it add dynamic shading to his background. He just does it because he can.

Hell, one of my favorite plot lines involves three skiptracers, including a character played by Ben Affleck. The film build them up to be this team who have a plan and will be able to sneak in and get Aces out of the hotel under the noses of the FBI and the hit men (all so they can claim the bail reward). And then they're gunned down within 30 minutes of the start of the film. An entire plot line, with probably the biggest, A-List actor on the cast at that point, and they're wiped out of the movie before it even really gets going. Sure, one of the characters (not Affleck) survives and goes on to have his own weird little side plot, but this whole team could have been removed from the film and it wouldn't have mattered. But keeping them in adds to the liveliness of the movie and the rampant chaos throughout.

That, really, is the joy of Smokin' Aces: it's a film that knows exactly the world it wants to build and then populates it with an entire weird cast of characters just to see what happens. It's like if you took every criminal type in these sorts of films and turned them into action figures, them spent an hour and a half smashing them together. It's rampant, violent joy and it works. The movie is silly, and overstuffed, but that only adds to it. It's the crime genre pushed to a looney degree, while still giving you just enough story to keep you hooked. It just works.

Although the less said about it's sequel (prequel?) the better, really. That was just direct-to-video slop...