Director Joe Carnahan chooses his words carefully when he describes his latest film, “Smokin’ Aces.”
“It’s not for everybody,” Carnahan warns. “But if you go in there with an open mind, you’ll be OK. I went into this movie with guns blazing and really wanted to–creatively–throw everything against the wall.”
What Carnahan has made is a shoot-em-up thrill-ride of a dark comedy about a sleazy Las Vegas magician (Jeremy Piven) forced to turn state’s evidence on his mobster buddies, who in turn put a $1 million bounty on his head. This leads an eclectic group (including Peter Berg, Ben Affleck and R&B singer Alicia Keys, in her big-screen debut) on a hunt to track him down before the FBI (including Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta and Ryan Reynolds) can save his hide.
The fast-paced flick, which hits theaters this weekend, is full of twists, turns and one-liners, along with enough gunplay to make fans of old-school spaghetti westerns wince.
Think “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” meets “Reservoir Dogs” meets “Pulp Fiction.”
Which leads us back to Carnahan’s original thought: It might not be for everybody.
“Yes, it’s a tough movie,” the director said. “At times, you have this really outlandish–almost cartoonish depiction of violence. It’s a cause-and-effect syndrome. That was a conscious effort. Am I worried about it? Sure. But if you key in on those things, you miss the rest of it. There is never a character that, at some point, you don’t see their humanity come through.”
Heading that cast of characters is Piven, playing the slimy Buddy Israel. It was a role that the Evanston native, who has received countless accolades for his portrayal of super agent Ari Gold on HBO’s “Entourage,” coveted from his first meeting with Carnahan.
“Joe asked me, `Do you want to go deep?'” Piven said during a recent stop in Chicago to promote the film. “Those literally are the words that every actor waits his entire life to hear. I was like, `Are you kidding me?'”
Piven soon found himself as part of a star-studded cast, which he said upped the ante for him as an actor.
“I’m so vain that the thought of taking a dive or having a rumor of a hint of bringing a `B game’ is so wrong to me,” Piven said. “It’s like every player that ever matched up against Michael Jordan. For those players, that’s their dream.”
It was Piven who helped Chicago rapper Common, making his screen debut, navigate through his role as Sir Ivy, a softspoken killer with integrity.
“Jeremy played a big part by just being on the set and making me feel comfortable,” Common said. “We were able to improvise a lot of our lines. I love doing that because I am coming from the background of freestyle.”
According to Garcia, who plays FBI agent Stanley Locke, the entire ensemble cast worked well together.
“The reality is sometimes you have to be careful as an actor or filmmaker,” he said. “You don’t want to try too hard because you want to stay in the pocket. It’s like in jazz. Sometimes you just have to lay back or people will say, `Hey man, you’re overplaying.’ As an artist, it’s important to keep your ego in check.”
Garcia credited Carnahan for letting the cast shine.
“First and foremost, he is a writer–a great writer,” Garcia said. “He also has this slightly askew point of view of life. There is this black humor in his sensibility.”
Moviegoers should probably keep that in mind while watching “Smokin’ Aces.”
“It’s a movie that’s a lot like getting into a bath,” Carnahan said. “You have to keep adding water. You just have to let it soak in. It requires the audience to make some very interesting gear changes really fast. I love that.”
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tarmour@tribune.com
