Each one of the actors adds a little flair to the film as well. Jeremy Piven is sharp as a razor as the coked out egomaniac Israel, never ceasing to amaze me with his ability to play the callous jerk with a big case of little man syndrome. Jason Bateman pops up in the middle of the film as a mid-level accountant who is paying off bail bondsman Ben Affleck to go get Israel. The scene between Bateman and Affleck’s gang of ex-cops turned thugs is the comic relief moment of the film. Well timed, intelligent, and just plain wrong in many ways, Bateman exposes his character as a drunken pervert with a few odd tastes. The only disappoint is Ben Affleck, who lays on a thick East Coast-ish accent and plays right into about 5 different crime flick stereotypes. He isn’t bad, but he doesn’t shine like some of the other performers in this mammoth cast.

As the action unfolds, Carnahan and Cinematographer Mauro Fiore use some very slick camera work to put the viewer right in the middle of some of the most hellish bouts of gun fire seen since Snatch or Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. The action pounds away for almost the entire second half of the flick as characters begin to meet their ends, all done creatively and with undeniable visual bravado on the part of the filmmaker. It all leads up to an ending that many will see as slow, but in reality is just slower than the rest of the film. It is here where Ryan Reynolds emerges as the star of the film and ends it in poetic fashion – leaving the audience with something to think about.

On the whole, Smokin’ Aces is a hell of an action flick. It has all the substance and thought provoking engagement as a Resevior Dogs or a Pulp Fiction with the ball-busting intensity of a Lock, Stock. If you are waiting for 2007 to bring you a stylish, intense action flick then wait no longer – Smokin’ Aces is everything that you could want and then some.

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