Saw this with my brother last night, based on the premise, commercials, and cast (Ray Liotta! Andy Garcia! Jason Bateman! Jeremy Piven!). Packed theater, so I guess the commercials were striking the right chord for many.
The entire movie is basically buildup to the implied impending clusterfuck of its premise - a million-dollar hit is put out on stage magician/mobster Buddy “Aces” Israel for turning state’s evidence, and the Feds, bounty hunters, and about 4-5 unique and odd hitman teams are all converging to get him at the same time, in the same place.
The film does a decent job of build-up, showing the backstory on its various players to heighten the anticipation of the climactic confrontation.
And wow, when it happens, it’s a bit of sweet chaos. Pistols, machineguns, chainsaws, machetes, daggers, a .50 cal sniper cannon - it all comes into play, and it’s riotous and bloody as hell. Personally, I thought these scenes were a bit of sheer fun.
The movie, and framing storyline, are fairly weak and predictable, but this isn’t a movie you watch for that. You watch it for the stylish carnage and the bemusing number of “Hey I know that guy!” cameos. Oh, and Alicia Keys is super hot. A fun movie to see, but not as lighthearted as the commercials might imply.
I also enjoyed it a lot more then I thought I would. The reviews made it look pretty bad. Yes, the plot’s weak, and they’ve got a pretty easy to spot twist. The movie makes up for it with style, I loved all of the different characters. The movie’s junk food for your eyes, the more you think of it the less fun it is. There’s no real action for the first 45 minutes, but when it starts it doesnt stop.
The cast is great and I enjoyed the dialog. My only problem with the movie that it’s somewhat schizophrenic, it jumps from being fun to serious somewhat randomly and without flow. I didn’t really mind this, but I had a friend who did.
I thought the movie was pretty diappointing. It tried very hard to be cool and clever and it showed. The whole time through I just got the feeling that it was trying desperately to be something else. The action scenes were good and there were some really funny parts, but the rest was just missing…something.
I have to admit I enjoyed this one a lot. I could’ve watched a whole movie about almost any one of the various “teams”. It strangely reminded me of Cannonball Run though… anyways, probably one of the most fun “popcorn flicks” I’ve seen in a while.
