Reviewed by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars Tom Berenger, Clayne Crawford, Tommy Flanagan, Vinnie Jones,
Michael Parks | Written by Olatunde Osunsanmi, Olumide Odebunmi, Tom Abrams & PJ Pesce
UK certification 18 | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 88 minutes | Directed by PJ Pesce
Pesce's apparent prequel (there is no reason nor reference in the film to it being a prequel) to Joe Carnahan's decent 2006 picture is packed full with as much awful CGI, bad one-liners and meaningless exposition as the original had action. In fact, as a “prequel” to a fun film that is chock-a-block with chaos and carnage, there is surprisingly very little of both in Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball.
Director Pesce brings a couple of his old buddies along for the ride; Michael Parks from From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter, as the leader of the Tremor family, a red-neck bunch of psychotic killers, and Tom Berenger, star of all three of the Sniper movies, the third of which P.J. directed. Berenger plays a disabled FBI desk jockey who learns of a plot to kill him, which involves a motley crew of assassins, such as typically-wooden Vinnie Jones and the returning Tommy Flanagan as the face-changing murderer Lazlo Soot.
With Agent Baker (Clayne Crawford) and a team of the FBI's best assigned to protect Walter Weed (Berenger) from knocking on Death's door, one would expect a high-octane free-for-all when the assassins come knocking on Weed's door. Sadly, it was not to be and instead we have a pretty much pointless film. Oh, and speaking of pointless, there's a 30-second cameo with Ernie Hudson. Go figure! The film was originally subtitled (and shot as) “Blowback”, which is significant to the story throughout, but the “Assassins' Ball” title is relevant to nothing more than a five-minute scene where the chaotic action that you would expect actually happens, but that's it, there's nothing more, no semblance to the original. And what is it with straight-to-DVD sequels/prequels to big-budget films and bad CGI? Smokin' Aces 2 packs some terrible video game-looking explosions and the height of laziness: computer-generated blood. Use squibs for Christ's sake!
As far as Pesce's direction goes, he seems to be in love with using canted angles. The film is as stylised as the first with its flashy MTV editing and on-screen-written names to introduce characters, but its used so much that it just gets tedious. Why the 1930s Universal Pictures logo is used to open the film God only knows. Smokin' Aces 2 — one I was looking forward to as a fun popcorn movie — is, mark my words, an utter waste of time, not to mention a waste of good popcorn!
EXTRAS ★★★ Commentary with Pesce and the original Smokin' Aces director Joe Carnahan, gag reel, an interesting behind the scenes feature with Carnahan, Confessions of an Assassin making of, features on set design and exploding midgets, and The Weapons of Smokin' Aces 2 (self-explanatory; interesting if you're a little trigger happy).