So much average

People are voting emotionally.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I had very high expectations for this. The sad part is, is that I can count numerous reasons why this movie passes with flying colors. The intensity, the raw energy, the action sequences...all spot on! Choreography was awesome! Acting was solid. I can go on and on about all the good stuff, however, when it comes to the "story line" for this mess, it bogs it all down. ALL DOWN! And that's sad. Why does the story have to suffer? Well. I think the film makers thought they could make a great movie by over stuffing the hell out of it with a lot of heart pounding action, and who cares about the story, right? If that philosophy were true, Showgirls would have been the greatest movie on earth, now wouldn't it have been. Sadly, we have to turn into reality, and put the fantasy thoughts on the back burner. Sure, this was a successful film for its genre. It doesn't excuse the fact that it was a mad, twisted mess for a film. Buddy has managed to piss off the mob boss for turning in evidence to the state. In response to this, the boss has set out several hit men to erase Buddy off all maps once and for all. Several hit men. Several! Even hit women. There's only one reward. These hit men are not going to be in any mood to share it. Will they turn against each other? I think you know the answer to that. With that, we set up 90 percent of what Smokin Aces is all about...a whole lot of action, boiling down to a whole lot of nothing. These hitmen are ruthless. Cold hearted. Stone cold, cold hearted. And how will it all end? You'll have to watch to find out, some may be let down by how it all ends. I think it's anything but predictable. Do I recommend it? I do not. Even though most may be entertained by it, I do not think this is anything to write home about. Bottom line: Smokin Aces is just too much smoke, and not enough ace!

I love how y'all are calling this movie "guy noir" and acting like it's a movie for guys when I am all girl and this is one of my favorite movies. I just love everything about this flick. It's good fun and the cast is to die for. Y'all need to loosen up a little ;)

This movie looks "cool" and "smokin'" as its title says, but the first hint that it's not so good is the fact that non-actress Alicia Keys is one of the main stars. And she simply can't act. She does a terrible job, even though some may think she doesn't, but it's obvious, sometimes painfully obvious, that she can't act and is not a real actress. Like in the scene at the elevator, when she meets the three over the top Neo-Nazi characters. Her response is so lame and she delivers it totally unconvincingly, like she doesn't quite know what to do. And its a major mistake, casting a non-actress in a LEADING role, even in an action flick. Jeremy Piven being there doesn't do enough to save this film from being just another in a long line of unoriginal movies that are clearly a rip off of Guy Ritchie's classics like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. And one advice to the director: adding those running name titles to introduce each major character doesn't make a movie any better! Why? Because it's already been done, to death. You had it in Faculty, those two aforementioned Ritchie films and many others.Ryan Reynolds is another reason I hate this movie, because Ryan Reynolds is the most overpaid, overrated and over-you name it in the movie industry. He simply sucks and is annoying. All this movie is made of is shootout scenes and some scenes that aim at being humorous in a rather bizarre way, like the scene with the karate boy. Vladimir Kulich, not a bad actor really, is doomed to be in second and third rate movies it seems...poor guy. And here he doesn't get more than one line even, which is totally unjust, given that he has a cool voice. Really poor and unoriginal flick, I won't even call it a film because it doesn't deserve it. Action scenes are rather well shot and that is the only treat here, along with miss Keys appearing in a short skirt. The cliché of the ending only underlines the fact that this is a turkey. 3 out of 10

The Grey Rating: Smokin' AcesA flexible rating system used to determine the quality of a movie based on a methodical comparison with the film masterpiece, The Grey.+ Joe Carnahan directsLack of Sir Liam NeesonAbsence of wolvesLack of a coherent, effect storylineLack of nuanced and sophisticated charactersFull of stock characters that don't have any interest in introspection