Pileup!

I mentioned that I was going to be watching a couple of movies over the weekend. Well, one of them was Smokin’ Aces. It’s a hot mess of a film. But *WHAT* a hot mess! Here’s the basic idea: Buddy “Aces” Israel, Las Vegas Showman Of The Year 5 Years Running has decided to make a deal with the FBI and testify against the Las Vegas Cosa Nostra. There is a bounty placed on his head for 1 Million Dollars. This kind of scratch attracts all kinds of hitman types while a group of bail bondsmen are also looking for Buddy while, at the same time, the FBI wants to get to Buddy and take him into protective custody. Buddy is camped out in a Reno suite with his entourage… and all of these trains are running towards each other all at the same time.

Anybody who has a speaking part in this movie is someone you’ll recognize from somewhere else. You will say “Hey, it’s that guy!” about pretty much everybody who says anything… not that you came for the dialog, of course. It’s just as well. The writers were trying to get the whole Tarantino thing going on but Tarantino’s pretenders really kinda suck (let’s face it… many of the people who hate Tarantino hate him for the people he’s inspired as much as they hate him for his own stuff). Heck, the movie reminded me of someone who saw the last half hour of True Romance and said “let’s make an entire movie about that but add two or three more factions.”

That said, the last half hour of True Romance *WAS* pretty cool and an entire movie about that but with two or three more factions would be interesting to watch. Which is what Smokin’ Aces pretty much accomplishes. It steals from Tarantino shamelessly, has a kabillion bullets flying, “Hey That Guy” is in it, and I was surprised that it was so much better than I expected rather than disappointed that it wasn’t as good as it could have been (hell, it was better than it had any right to be). All in all, I’ll not really recommend it… it certainly doesn’t rise to *THAT* level… but it was a surprising guilty pleasure.