Smokin' Aces (2007)

Everybody wants Buddy Israel dead. And this week, we want to talk about Smokin' Aces (2007) — the gloriously unhinged, hyperkinetic, Tarantino-adjacent crime thriller that critics mostly dismissed and audiences absolutely lost their minds over. This is one of the most chaotically entertaining films of the entire 2000s, and it doesn't get nearly enough credit.Written and directed by Joe Carnahan, the film centers on Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) — a Las Vegas magician turned mob associate who agrees to turn state's evidence against the mob, triggering a one-million-dollar bounty that sends every assassin, hit man, bounty hunter, and psychopath in the country converging on his Lake Tahoe penthouse at the same time. Standing between Buddy and a very messy death are FBI agents played by Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta — if they can survive the chaos long enough to matter.The cast alone is worth the price of admission: Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Common, Andy García, Alicia Keys, Taraji P. Henson, Ray Liotta, Chris Pine, and Matthew Fox all colliding in a hotel full of bullets, bad decisions, and genuinely unhinged energy. It was the official acting debut of both Alicia Keys and Common. And then there are the Tremor Brothers — Chris Pine and Kevin Durand as a pair of neo-Nazi psychopaths so spectacularly unhinged they almost steal the entire film from everyone else.We're breaking down everything: Carnahan's frenetic direction and split-screen style, the film's bonkers third act, Clint Mansell's propulsive score, why critics were wrong to dismiss it, and why even Terrence Malick went out of his way to praise the film's direction at a Princeton University screening in 2016. We're also asking the big question — is Smokin' Aces actually an underrated masterpiece of controlled chaos, or is it just the world's most entertaining beautiful mess?Whether you're a fan of hyper-stylized crime thrillers, an ensemble action movie junkie, a Jeremy Piven devotee, a Chris Pine completist, a Joe Carnahan fan, or just someone who loves a movie that throws absolutely everything at the wall and somehow makes most of it stick — this episode is for you.Topics covered: Smokin' Aces 2006 | Joe Carnahan | Jeremy Piven | Ryan Reynolds | Ray Liotta | Ben Affleck | Chris Pine | Alicia Keys | Common | Taraji P. Henson | Andy Garcia | Jason Bateman | Matthew Fox | best ensemble action movies | 2000s action films | Tarantino-style movies | hitman movies | Lake Tahoe film | best guilty pleasure movies | cult action films | underrated 2000s movies | Clint Mansell score | movie review podcast | film analysis | best ensemble casts | crime thriller films | mob movies | Joe Carnahan films ranked | Narc director | most chaotic movies ever madeSubscribe, rate, and leave us a review — and settle this: team FBI agents or team assassins? And who's your favorite character in the whole glorious mess?YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@RegularorMentholContact us: [email protected]