Smokin' Aces (2006)
Country: GB/FR/US
Technical: Technicolor/2.35:1 109m
Director: Joe Carnahan
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys
Synopsis:
A pair of FBI agents move in on their top Mafia informant before he can be 'offed' by the godfather who, it is rumoured, has a contract out on him. At the same time, however, a bail bondsman and some maverick cops, plus assorted rival hitmen and psychopaths who have also heard the rumour, converge on the Lake Tahoe hotel.
Review:
This Working Title production, all digitally manipulated colour and rapid editing, as if itself on Benzedrine, tries hard (too hard) to be a transatlantic Lock, Stock. Two viewings are probably required to unpick all of its complexities, but only worthwhile for those really into this sort of thing. Needless to say, it is unscrupulously violent, but aspires to a certain kind of morality with its hero's grand final gesture. It also leaves several of its villains alive at the end, thus shamelessly rendering possible the arrival of a sequel. Four years later, the same starred Vinnie Jones and went straight to video.
Country: GB/FR/US
Technical: Technicolor/2.35:1 109m
Director: Joe Carnahan
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys
Synopsis:
A pair of FBI agents move in on their top Mafia informant before he can be 'offed' by the godfather who, it is rumoured, has a contract out on him. At the same time, however, a bail bondsman and some maverick cops, plus assorted rival hitmen and psychopaths who have also heard the rumour, converge on the Lake Tahoe hotel.
Review:
This Working Title production, all digitally manipulated colour and rapid editing, as if itself on Benzedrine, tries hard (too hard) to be a transatlantic Lock, Stock. Two viewings are probably required to unpick all of its complexities, but only worthwhile for those really into this sort of thing. Needless to say, it is unscrupulously violent, but aspires to a certain kind of morality with its hero's grand final gesture. It also leaves several of its villains alive at the end, thus shamelessly rendering possible the arrival of a sequel. Four years later, the same starred Vinnie Jones and went straight to video.
Country: GB/FR/US
Technical: Technicolor/2.35:1 109m
Director: Joe Carnahan
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Alicia Keys
Synopsis:
A pair of FBI agents move in on their top Mafia informant before he can be 'offed' by the godfather who, it is rumoured, has a contract out on him. At the same time, however, a bail bondsman and some maverick cops, plus assorted rival hitmen and psychopaths who have also heard the rumour, converge on the Lake Tahoe hotel.
Review:
This Working Title production, all digitally manipulated colour and rapid editing, as if itself on Benzedrine, tries hard (too hard) to be a transatlantic Lock, Stock. Two viewings are probably required to unpick all of its complexities, but only worthwhile for those really into this sort of thing. Needless to say, it is unscrupulously violent, but aspires to a certain kind of morality with its hero's grand final gesture. It also leaves several of its villains alive at the end, thus shamelessly rendering possible the arrival of a sequel. Four years later, the same starred Vinnie Jones and went straight to video.