Smokin’ Aces – Blu-ray Disc Review
January 17, 2010 – 6:08 PM - Posted by: Brendan SurplessTags: Alicia Keys, Andy Garcia, BD-Live, Ben Affleck, Bonus View, Common, D-Box, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven, Joe Carnahan, Ray Liotta, Ryan Reynolds, Universal
has an average rating of 6.6 on IMDb
1080p in VC-1 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
includes Bonus View & DVD ports
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– 2006
– 109 Minutes
– Universal
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This uses 27.2GB for the movie out of 30.6GB total.
Street Date: January 19th, 2010
Overall Verdict – Recommended
Buy it for $17.99 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by: Brendan Surpless —
The Movie Itself was directed by Joe Carnahan (known for “NARC“). January is typically the month when most studios dump those films they think won’t succeed on our laps. Unfortunately this was the case with “Smokin’ Aces“, a film that has such an odd sense of humor that we can’t help but smile at what’s in front of us. As we know Joe Carnahan’s previous effort Narc was a dark, gritty film with little to no humor. The question at hand is how could a man with such a dark, violent mind direct a film with as much violence but such a level of humor?
Our film opens with two federal agents sitting in a surveillance van late at night. Messner (Ryan Reynolds) and Carruthers (Ray Liotta) are eavesdropping on a conversation a few mob bosses are having. Before you re-read that sentence, yes Ryan Reynolds the typical college film guy is playing a serious man here. Talk about weird huh? Moving on though, we soon learn that Buddy “Aces” Israel (Jeremy Piven), a Las Vegas stage magician and man who absolutely loves that Vegas lifestyle (read pimps, gangsters, drug dealers) made the big mistake of pretending to be a gangster himself. Such a miscalculated move that has the FBI agreeing to work with Israel as he rats out his varying Mob connections in hopes of being protected.
Primo Sparazza (the big mob boss) obviously doesn’t want this to happen so he puts a hit out on Israel’s head. A few step up (one lead by Ben Affleck, another a group of lesbian assassins lead by Alicia Keys) in hopes of claiming this large cash prize, in hopes of all trying to meet up with Buddy to have a nice one on one talk. Oh yeah, also to literally cut out poor Buddy’s heart.
Director Joe Carnahan, whose last film was the excellent Narc succeeds in this directorial effort simply because he presents a film filled with so much comedy and so many laugh out loud sequences yet also presents a movie with characters and sequences that realize that they don’t need to be taken serious. Think of that sentence as a child knowing he doesn’t have to take himself serious simply because he’s juvenile in his behavior. The different groups all have a goal in mind of killing Buddy to collect on a bounty (well that’s clear for the bounty hunters at least), but all the groups try to kill him in such a comedic manner that I found myself smiling many times throughout. Not necessarily because I found it funny that a man was on the verge of dying but moreover because now, especially after listening to Carnahan’s comments on the included commentary, I feel I may understand what Carnahan was aiming for in this film. He wasn’t trying to develop a serious assassin film but rather a film that showcased his dark humor that he has briefly hinted at in his previous efforts.
In closing, “Smokin Aces” proves that director Joe Carnahan has become that type of filmmaker that I’m definitely going to pay more attention to from now on. His sense of humor may not have been completely up front in his previous efforts, but he has showed us his “‘Ace’” here. Recommended on all fronts. Just be sure to go in with a sense of wanting to smile and enjoy yourself.
Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the VC-1 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte, dual layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Color usage was great with solid blacks, blues and grays. I will mention that some of the darker moments do lose a bit of detail thanks in part to a bit of black crush occurring. This doesn’t happen more than during the opening scene though. Grain was noticeable in a few areas making me wonder if the first few minutes of the film, with the notice of a bit of grain in the darker sequences, would be an indication of the type of transfer this one might be (somewhat flat). Luckily the transfer immediately improved with the film’s grain in check and items like video noise and EE (somewhat noticeable) being kept on the low end. “Smokin’ Aces” obviously benefits from being a recent film (and a failure at that) as the film’s print is in fine condition. This easily shows in the print’s sharpness and quality. Again this one isn’t the new demo disc, but rather another winner in Universal’s column of solid HD transfers. All in all this earns a solid “4.5 Star Rating“.
Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. The oddity I experienced was that so many of the film’s more robust effects (the gun shots and the booms) resulted in some of the film’s dialogue sequences to become hard to understand. This wasn’t a huge issue though as I just raised the center channel from +2db to +4db. Anyhow the film’s surrounds were loud and robust resulting in the rears getting a nice workout. Dynamic Range was noticeable with a handful of discrete effects showing themselves. Pans were also clean and invisible with fine transition between rears. LFE is solid with deep, immersive bass. The varying action moments do add in a sense of boom here and there as done the film’s musical selections. All in all this is a good effort earning a “4 Star Rating“.
Bonus Materials are presented in Standard Definition video with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound @192kbps.
- BD-Live: As per all Universal titles, BD-Live is included and gives fans access to current and upcoming trailers and bonus content.
- Assassin Tracker: Now this feature is kind of like the feature included on Miami Vice. Where in that feature we could track the boat race, this one allows us to track the films assassins to Reno. It also allows us to track the varying assassinations they complete while in Reno. While this was definitely a cool feature, I wonder if it’s one I’ll be looking at more than once.
- Picture in Picture: This PIP features cast interviews, comments from director Joe Carnahan, actors Ray Liotta, Andy Garcia and Ben Affleck, a look into the making of the film and a few different on the set glances. Considering my enjoyment of the film, I absolutely loved this one and I’m sure fans will agree with me. As always, I’ll remind you that this uses Bonus View (as does the feature listed above), meaning they require the user to be on a “Profile 1.1” or higher Blu-ray Disc Player.
- Alternate Ending: This short ending (running about 1 minute) offers pretty much the same conclusion as the theatrical ending.
- Deleted Scenes/Outtakes: Running 10 minutes, we’re given 4 different scenes and one extended scene. The scenes definitely felt that they were deleted, as they didn’t really do much for the film at hand. The Outtakes run 9 minutes and were actually pretty funny as the actors intentionally messed up their lines.
- Shoot ‘Em Up: At 5 minutes in length, this one was pretty funny as it showed the training the actors went through to prepare for the film. Another interesting aspect was the ‘blood packet’ aspect.
- Audio Commentary with director Joe Carnahan and editor Robert Frazen: In Commentary 1, a funny immediate occurrence sets the mood for this one. Both participants inform us their drinking beer while doing this. I’m immediately thinking this one is going to lead to a lot of stupid comments about the film. Such isn’t the case here as both individuals remain interesting and a joy to listen to. As they dissected each scene, I personally enjoyed the level of insight the two gave about the cast, the shooting process and the film itself. This one’s well worth a listen.
- Audio Commentary with director Joe Carnahan and actors Common, Christopher Holley and Zach Cumer: Oddly enough we get a commentary with the director and a few of the lesser known actors instead of some of the higher profiled actors. Anyhow, this one was rather dull (maybe because I listened to it right after listening to the above commentary) and disappointing. Carnahan makes reference after reference about the shooting only causing the other participants to kind of suck up to him forcing a laugh. You were already paid guys! Skip this one folks.
- The Line-Up: Here we’re given 2 minute looks into five of the film’s main characters in Buddy Israel, the bounty hunters, the FBI agents, the female assassins, and the Tremors.
- The Big Gun: Running 12 minutes, this one looks into Carnahan himself and the type of director he is. While this was more of a self-appreciation for Carnahan, it was interesting to see the type of man Carnahan is.
- D-BOX motion code is included for those of your out there with the proper equipment to enjoy this.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.
