It wants to be a Tarantino-esque dark comedy about gun-slinging, substance-abusing lowlifes. But instead it's a convoluted, slap-happy, humorless bloodfest.

Full Review | Sep 22, 2007

The biggest and most unfortunate problem with Smokin' Aces is the complete lack of anyone to root for or even against.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2007

Not a fresh idea emerges from this risible exercise in muscle-car camerawork, squib-crazy shoot-outs and self-admiring pyrotechnics.

| Original Score: 1/6 | Feb 3, 2007

Half the time the movie wants to be balls-out weird, and it is. But the other half -- the half with the good guys -- is plodding procedural fare.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 3, 2007

We just sit there numbly, awaiting the next sensation and trying, without notable success, to comprehend the preposterous backstory.

| Jan 31, 2007

Violence is spread throughout the film, and some of it is entertaining, I have to admit. But the climax at Buddy's Tahoe penthouse is Tarantino on speed.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 30, 2007

Did Carnahan think these sickening scenes would give Smokin' Aces a moral complexity that's generally absent from this genre? I think they make the picture seem even more morally bankrupt.

| Jan 30, 2007

Smokin Aces is a Viagra suppository for compulsive action fetishists and a movie that may not only be dumb in itself, but also the cause of dumbness in others.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 26, 2007

This is from the same Joe Carnahan who impressed mightily with his Sundance hit Narc, a tale of murder and police corruption that was lean, focussed and spellbinding -- everything that Smokin' Aces isn't. What the hell happened?

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Jan 26, 2007

None of the numerous, sketchily drawn characters adds up to much to care about in the short running time.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 26, 2007

Carnahan creates a spectacle of nihilism, with a number of scenes of carnage, including a shootout in an elevator. This vision is no mere gesture, as it is for, say, Guy Ritchie.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 26, 2007

Impersonal hackwork by someone who is bending over backwards to sell out and become the new Michael Bay.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jan 26, 2007

The hyper-stylized violence isn't nearly as senseless as the narrative bits in between. And the 'twist' employs the same sleight-of-hand as The Usual Suspects.

| Jan 26, 2007

A grindhouse-inspired concoction that may not contain a shred of originality, but it is executed with unbridled bombast and glee.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 26, 2007

It's ludicrous, but not as ludicrous as the ending -- an exhausting game of Twister that'll leave you feeling stupid or cheated or both.

| Original Score: .5/4 | Jan 26, 2007

Smokin' Aces may be packing a lot of heat but its unnecessarily convoluted story means it's mostly a lot of hot air.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 26, 2007

Meaningless violence incarnate, a pointed mix of laughs and wanton death; and yes, that might actually mean something, but precisely what is never clear.

| Original Score: C | Jan 26, 2007

Anyone with a brain bigger than those of the Tremors will have figured out the big Usual Suspects twists that are designed to give all this some emotional payoff.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 26, 2007

This movie is meant to be watched the way a video game is played: just go from scene to scene and start blasting the minute you walk through the door.

| Original Score: C- | Jan 26, 2007

Sadly, more than an hour of this movie is given over to talking. And not the wink-wink Quentin Tarantino kind, either.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 26, 2007