SMOKIN' ACES 2: ASSASSINS' BALL - Blu-ray review

"Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball" is a direct-to-video prequel of the ensemble 2006 hit film "Smokin' Aces." This film contains two characters that appeared in the first movie as well as making some mention of other characters. The biggest connection to the two films is the general theme of a band of killers converging onto one expensive target and facing incredible odds and strong measures to defend the target. The film itself fits into the "Smokin' Aces" framework and has the same ‘cool' feel and over-the-top characters of the first movie, but the first film was far more serious in tone than this entry. It's hard to go against exploding clowns and they are in abundance in "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball," but whether or not this is a sequel or prequel doesn't change the fact it is an inferior product to the original.

It didn't occur to me until after the film that Tom Berenger was the lead character. I loved Berenger in "Gettysburg" and "Platoon." He was amazing as a baseball player in the comedic "Major League" and having not seen him in a film since "Training Day" nearly a decade ago, I was surprised at how he aged and particularly in playing the wheelchair bound retiring FBI agent Walter Weed. Weed is a man who did very little of importance during his time at the FBI, but on his retirement day it becomes known that there is a three million dollar contract out on his life. This is bound to assemble a who's who of assassins to collect and while they can't figure out why a contract would be on Weed's life, Agent Baker (Clayne Crawford) puts together a team and takes Weed to a very safe location to sit out the day of September 19th.

The secure location happens to use a nightclub as a cover. It always makes perfect sense to hide under a very public place where security and patronage cannot be controlled. Agent Little (Christopher Michael Holley) works behind the bar and takes his turn on drums for a jazz band in his bid to help protect Weed from the vermin that are bound to gather. Agent Redstone (Hrothgar Mathews) and Weed have difficulty in getting along and ‘Red' is placed into the bunker with Weed with a large team of FBI agents secretly helping protect their own. There is even a special secure hatch that delivers jokes about Saddam Hussein that can be used as a last ditch effort to protect Weed. The only communication to the outside world is a secure channel to FBI headquarters where Vicky (Keegan Cougar Tracy) provides information to Baker and his team.

Numerous professionals of character get wind of the contract on Weed and two assassins from the first film make an appearance. Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan) escaped capture and is back in this film to once again copy the identity of someone else and create a very realistic and elaborate mask of his victim to go undercover. The other returning character is the skinhead killer from the first movie and more of Lester Tremor's (Maury Sterling) family is revealed. He travels with his sexy sister Kaitlyn "AK-47" Tremor (Autumn Reeser) and his father Fritz (Michael Parks). Another Tremor brother is Baby Boy Tremor (C. Ernst Hart). They are the ones who gather up the clowns that eventually get shot out of a cannon with explosives during the siege of the nightclub, but I'll leave the humorous exploding clowns for you to fully appreciate on your own. Kaitlyn is the most dangerous of the three and goes through the whole film with a small leather bikini top on.

The remaining assassins are talented and deadly in their own way. Ariella Martinez (Martha Higarda) is drop dead gorgeous and those that kiss her lips typically drop dead. She uses her voluptuous curves to lure her victims into a kiss and a poison sack hidden within her mouth brings about a quick death. She is as talented with a throwing blade as she is sexy and her morality is nearly non-existent as she kills a priest in the early going. Beyond Berenger, the only other star power in the film is cult hero Vinnie Jones who brings life to Finbar "The Surgeon" McTeague. The physically imposing McTeague uses his knowledge of anatomy to kill his victims and a mildly humorous torture scene introduces the character and he gets to spill another's guts before the credits roll.

The film is fun and I did laugh at the exploding clowns, but I'll be the first to admit that my favorite moments centered around Martha Higarda in her leather assassin's garb and her low cut shirts. I don't recall any drugs and there wasn't a lot of rock and roll, but the producers decided that sex does sell and I applaud the tastefulness in which it was handled. Director P.J. Pescue shows you don't need gratuitous nudity to succeed and neither lady appeared fully topless. There was a nice little jazz number that had Jones' character pretending to be a record producer in order to gain leverage against Agent Little, but the soundtrack of this direct-to-video film could not compare to the original.

It didn't need any drugs, because there was a plethora of violence. The exploding clowns were just the small of it. A head was shattered in a gory and entertaining scene that had brains dripping down a wall. A few other head shots created quick deaths for some of the characters and a victim held their intestines in their hands after a blade to the gut by Jones' character. The gore was on par with the recent "Inglourious Basterds" and quickly edited so it wouldn't sit on the screen too long. I loved the squishy sound of one ill-fated clown and while it was violent, "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball" didn't seem too terribly bad. Maybe I've just become that desensitized to violence, but horror films are far worse these days.

The acting of "Smokin' Aces 2" is not anything impressive. Vinnie Jones and Tom Berenger are really the only familiar faces and I couldn't help but view Clayne Crawford as a low-rent Leonardo DiCaprio. "Ghostbuster" Ernie Hudson does pop in for a few moments and I loved it when he appeared on-screen to chew out some ass. I can't wait to see Hudson reprise his role as Winston Zeddemore in the upcoming "Ghostbusters III." The man doesn't age! Berenger was good enough in his performance as an old aging FBI man that I thought he was somebody else. I'll give him credit for his acting job and not current physical appearance. The rest of the cast isn't half-bad, but the Tremor family and carnies were too over the top for my tastes.

The feel of "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball" moves away from the fairly serious tone set by the first film and more towards that of a graphic novel. Sure, there were a couple scenes that was a bit ‘out there' in the first movie, but it was a fairly slick crime thriller with a couple great death scenes. I loved seeing the fifty cal machine gun throw people around in that film, but that was nothing like the violence and cartoonish action in this second film. From the odd backdrops as the Tremors drove around town to the weird carnivale-based characters, vehicles and exploding clowns, "Assassin's Ball" was stylized in a manner that was more fitting of "Sin City" than the first picture. It's a new direction and it was interesting, but it was a noticeable departure from the film that made this direct-to-video sequel even possible.

I'm not sure I want to attend the "Assassin's Ball" too many more times, but it was worth at least one dance. I figured out most of the plot twists before they happened and a lot of that was because I assumed the film would follow a similar arc to the first and that the ending would reveal a little tomfoolery in the reasoning behind all the assassin's coming together. I had missed one of the major plot twists and I won't spoil that. The story isn't that great and not overly imaginative, but it is an upgrade over a lot of direct-to-video sequels and I'd much rather sit down to a third "Smokin' Aces" film at this point than another "American Pie Presents" travesty.

Video:

While I prefer a more serious tone to the series, there is no doubt that the graphic novel approach creates a more visually stunning picture and the 1.78:1 "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball" is a more visual and more engaging experience in high definition. The first film looked good enough on Blu-ray, but I found this transfer to be top-notch and while I was only mildly entertained by the film, I enjoyed watching it because of the beautiful colors and stunning level of detail. An early scene showing a concrete wall displays how fine the granularity of detail is and the colors on display in the nightclub are a testament to the hues in the film. There is a lot of color and a lot of scenery in the picture and it looks great throughout and shadow detail and black levels are also strong. I'd be willing to bet this film was shot digitally and there are zero faults of the original source print and no problems with the mastering of the title.

Audio:

Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" was one of the licensed songs that populated the original film, but after just a few hours I cannot remember any songs from this direct-to-video sequel. Tim Jones handled the original music for the score and the music was good enough and the one performed song at the jazz club sounded good, but strength is not in the music for this film. The sound I remembered the most was the entertaining sound of the first exploding clown. There wasn't a ton of bass, but the crystal clear squishing of organs was great. The track is engaging and enveloping during the more hectic scenes. It sounds as if the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is amped up at times to be louder, but this only covers up the sometimes thin sound design. "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball" sounds good and there is plenty of slashing, gunfire and other sounds that come from all directions, but the sound is not of the reference level that the picture is.

Extras:

"Smokin' Aces 2" arrives as an "Unrated" special edition that contains both the Rated and Unrated versions of the film. The disc boots up and utilizes BD-Live if connected to download and display previews. I've found this feature problematic as the discs that access the Internet to determine which previews to play do not seem to enjoy playing on my Panasonic DMP-BD80 player. Hopefully, a firmware revision will fix that soon enough. In addition to using BD-Live to connect to the BD-Live Center, the disc also features Pocket Blu technology for "Mobile-to-Go" access to special features and to use your iPhone or iPod Touch as a remote control device. The new content pushing Ticker is also thrown in. Credit certainly goes to Universal for using new technology, but most of this is being used for promotional purposes.

There are a good number of bonus features on the disc that begin with a collection of Deleted Scenes (10:01). These dozen scenes are lumped together in one feature and include an alternate ending and further background information on the characters. A Gag Reel (6:32) is also included and you get to see a lot of green screen in these scenes that aren't overly funny, but vulgar. Behind the Scenes with Joe Carnahan (6:30) has the first film's director and this film's producer talking about his views on how the first film was perceived as well as some information about this picture. This was a good little feature. Confessions of an Assassin (25:59) is a longer making-of feature that includes the actors and filmmakers as they discuss the picture to promote it and show good footage from the making of the film.

The features continue with Ready, Aim, Fire: The Weapons of Smokin' Aces 2 (4:17). This is a brief feature that looks at the multitude of weapons used in the film. There was a minigun and that was cool, but no fifty caliber sniper rifle this time around. Cue the Clown (2:57) is a very brief feature that looks at the art of shooting explosive clowns. This was fun. The Bunker Mentality: Designing the Set (3:35) looks at the evolution of the set and how the bunker was perceived by the cast and crew. Aside from My Scenes, the final supplement is the Feature Commentary with Executive Producer Joe Carnahan and Director P.J. Pesce. This is an informative and interesting commentary track and you can tell that Carnahan feels a little upset with the critical reception of the series, but this commentary should please those that enjoyed the films.

Closing:

Direct-to-video prequels are usually a recipe for disaster and while I question whether or not this was actually a sequel based upon the fact that the only Tremor from the first film to appear was the one to survive, I can't question that this was a lower budget direct-to-video release intended to capitalize on the success of the first picture. I enjoyed watching "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball," but I'm not going to go as far as calling it a good movie. It is an acceptable form of entertainment and is a fun little guilty pleasure. The problem is that after watching it once, all of the surprises and cool moments are revealed and the second time around is going to feel quite stale. The Blu-ray release showcases its gorgeous ladies with a perfect visual transfer and aggressive surround mix. The features are decent. If you loved the first film and perhaps Vinny Jones, this one is a no-brainer, but for others it is probably best left a rental.