Smokin’ Aces

I hope you appreciate my commitment to my 2007 cinematic film a week resolution. For my second film of the year I’ve taken in another turkey.

This should be easy to cover in two sentences. Buddy ‘Aces’ Israel, a Sinatra type mob figure turns high level snitch and holes up in the penthouse suite of a high class hotel on the shores of Lake Tahou. A million dollar mob bounty ensues, with a parade of unusual assassins and law enforcement officals rushing to be the first to kill or claim the prize.

What a mess – this is all over the place. It’s another one of these ‘cool’ and ‘edgy’ crime films that have surfaced in the wake of Tarantino’s work, joining the mini genre of American violent films that lack a shard of invention, interest or investment in the characters. The alleged twist is telegraphed early on, and the blaze of gunfire and exploding squibs simply bores you rigid. Still, the upsides are that Affleck gets clipped about ten minutes in, and we are treated to a hilarious cameo from Arrested Development’s Jason Bateman as a decrepit lawyer – he is the only good element in this waste of time and money.

It’s a shame, after Carnahan’s blistering debut. This smacks of that ‘difficult’ second film syndrome, where more money and of course more interference from the studio leads to a real abortion. You can almost imagine the production meeting, overwhelmed with sharp suited, coke addled junior exective pouring scorn on the first rough cut and declaring, ‘you know, this picture needs more hookers. And swearing’.

One for you spidey fans, from a blog review site – ‘So I rented a DVD of the early 60’s crime TV show “The Naked City”, which is famous for being filmed on the streets of New York City. Well, in this one episode, there is a scene that takes place in front of a newstand and look what is clearly hanging from a wall in the background; Spiderman. But not just any Spiderman comic… it’s THE VERY FIRST APPEARANCE of Spiderman ever. Amazing Fantasy #15.’

From a smilar site, one for you narcotic psyconauts – a letter from the drugfather himself, from 1956 – over 50 god-damn years ago. In other news, better get your alibi sorted out Stokster.