Film Of The Week: Smoking Aces

What a fantastic film. Nothing like what I expected, at least not in the second half, but fantastic anyway.

From the trailers, I expected a gung-ho, funny-ironic, action film. Lots of guns, bullets, and funny characters. But it turns into this almost gut-wrenching tale of loyalty, revenge, love, betrayal, and justice.

You know the plot: Various hitmen (sorry, hit-people, as some are female) are after a mob informer. Obviously, what happens is they all end up killing each other and the mob guy gets away.

Or at least, that's what I thought. And there is a bit of that, to be fair.

But as the tension mounts, a (somewhat predictable) twist changes the game, and mayhem ensures, including a shoot-out with the biggest sniper rifle I've ever seen outside the Halo games.

Some of the characters are a bit cardboard cut out, and some of the faux-nigga dialogue was a bit hard to follow for a pasty white lard-ass like me, but some gems shone through. The two female assassins started out as wise-ass sistas, but developed a little depth when one of them is injured in the firefighting. The two FBI agents were well played by Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta, and Ryan, to his credit, played the role just right as the twists were unfurled, and the final scene, basically involving just him, was sublime.

Excellent, excellent film. Well recommended.

Labels: movies

posted by Blakey UK @ 1:29 pm