Smokin' Aces is a 2007 American crime film, written and directed by Joe Carnahan. It stars Jeremy Piven as a Las Vegas magician turned mafia informant and Ryan Reynolds as the FBI agent assigned to protect him. This film was the official debut of R&B singer Grammy-winner Alicia Keys as an actress and rapper Grammy-winner Common as an actor, and also starred Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Andy García, Ray Liotta, Chris Pine and Matthew Fox. The film is set in Lake Tahoe and was mainly filmed at MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa, called the "Nomad Casino".

Plot[link]

Las Vegas magician and wannabe gangster, Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) is hiding out in a Lake Tahoe hotel penthouse with his entourage. His agent, Morris Mecklen (Curtis Armstrong), discusses a potential immunity deal with FBI Deputy Director Stanley Locke (Andy Garcia). Agents Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) and Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta) learn that ailing Las Vegas mob boss Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin) has issued a bounty on Israel worth one million dollars, and involving a mysterious assassin known only as The Swede, stipulating that he will bring Sparazza Israel's heart. A number of assassins also seek the reward, including Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan), who specializes in disguises and impersonations; Sharice Watters (Taraji P. Henson) and Georgia Sykes (Alicia Keys), two hitwomen hired by Sparazza's underboss; Pasquale Acosta (Nestor Carbonell), a calm torture expert and mercenary; and the psychotic neo-Nazi Tremor brothers, Darwin (Chris Pine), Jeeves (Kevin Durand), and Lester (Maury Sterling).

Locke dispatches Messner and Carruthers to take Israel into custody when the deal is struck. Meanwhile, a team of bail bondsmen, Jack Dupree (Ben Affleck) and his partners, "Pistol" Pete Deeks (Peter Berg) and Hollis Elmore (Martin Henderson) have been hired by the firm that posted Israel's bail to bring him into custody. The bondsmen are attacked by the Tremors, and only Elmore escapes alive. Messner is dispatched to the murder scene while Carruthers proceeds to Israel. At the same time, each of the assassins gain access to the hotel in their own various ways.

Carruthers encounters Acosta, disguised as a security officer, in an elevator at the hotel. Carruthers senses something is wrong and both are mortally wounded in a gunfight. Meanwhile, Soot gains access to the penthouse by posing as one of Israel's henchmen. Israel's second-in-command, Sir Ivy (Common), learns that Israel agreed to inform upon Ivy as part of the plea deal and attempts to kill him, but Israel injures Ivy long enough for the hotel security team to restrain Ivy. Georgia finds Carruthers and Acosta in the elevator, but assumes Acosta is Soot. In Los Angeles, Locke abruptly withdraws from the deal with Israel and orders that Messner and Carruthers are not told. The Tremor brothers reach the penthouse floor, where they engage in a shootout with the security team and Ivy, who manages to kill Jeeves and Lester. Israel, learning of the FBI's new position, attempts suicide.

Messner arrives at the hotel and sets up a position around Georgia's elevator. Sharice provides cover from another hotel with a .50-caliber, M82 sniper rifle, outgunning the FBI agents. Acosta, still alive, shoots Georgia, but is shot by Carruthers. Sharice, thinking Georgia is dead, refuses to escape and keeps shooting at the FBI team. Georgia escapes to the penthouse, where she stops Darwin Tremor before he can kill Ivy. Tremor escapes, and Messner, distraught over the death of Carruthers, stops Ivy and Georgia on the stairwell, but lets them escape. Sharice, after seeing the pair alive and free through her rifle scope, is gunned down by the FBI.

Locke and a team of FBI agents descend on the penthouse and take Israel to the hospital, while Soot escapes by tearing off his disguise & dressing as a member of hotel security. Acosta, carted away on a gurney, is also shown to be alive. Darwin Tremor tries to escape, but is gunned down by Hollis Elmore.

Messner arrives at the hospital and learns the truth about the day's events from Locke. It transpires that the mysterious Swede is a prominent heart surgeon and that Soot was hired by Sparazza to get Israel's heart so it could be transplanted into the body of Sparazza. Sparazza is further revealed to be Freeman Heller (Mike Falkow), an FBI agent who went undercover and was thought to have been killed by the mob. The FBI had attempted to kill Heller, after they thought his assignment had blurred the lines between being a mobster or an FBI agent. But Heller survived and ended up taking on the role as Sparazza full time. The mobster has agreed to expose the mob's operations in exchange for Israel's heart as he is Sparazza's love child and, thus, the most compatible donor.

Messner, furious over the unnecessary deaths, especially Carruthers', protests and is ordered by Locke to leave the hospital and go home to Washington, D.C, as he is no longer on the case. Realizing that the FBI will never admit what they did, he walks into the emergency room, locks the door and pulls the plug on both men. He then lays his gun and badge on the floor while Locke and his men desperately try to break in, apparently resigning as a detective.

Cast[link]

• Ryan Reynolds as Richard Messner
• Ray Liotta as Donald Carruthers
• Andy Garcia as Stanley Locke
• Jeremy Piven as Buddy "Aces" Israel
• Tommy Flanagan as Lazlo Soot: A legendary hitman and master of disguise who wears realistic latex masks. He agrees to kill Israel's crew for a $1 million bounty, not Israel..
• Alicia Keys as Georgia Sykes: A female contract killer. She and her partner, Sharice Watters, are hired by Serna to abduct Israel from his hotel before Soot can kill him.
• Taraji P. Henson as Sharice Watters: A female contract killer and the partner of Georgia Sykes. She is an outspoken feminist and a closeted lesbian with a crush on her partner.
• Nestor Carbonell as Pasquale "The Plague" Acosta: A Latin American mercenary notorious for both his love of torture and his having chewed off his own fingertips while in SAS custody to avoid identification by Interpol. He learns of the contract on Israel and tries to collect on it himself.
• Chris Pine as Darwin Tremor: The eldest of the Tremor brothers, a trio of redneck, speed-freak, neo-Nazi skinhead hitmen with a penchant for scorched earth tactics. They get wind of the hit on Israel and decide to horn in on the action.
• Kevin Durand as Jeeves Tremor: The largest and youngest of the Tremor brothers.
• Maury Sterling as Lester Tremor: The smallest of the Tremor brothers.
• Jason Bateman as Ripley "Rip" Reed: An insecure, disheveled, and perverse attorney with any number of paraphilias and addictions. His law firm bailed Israel out of jail, so he hires three bounty hunters to get him back before he officially jumps and they forfeit the bond.
• Ben Affleck as Jack Dupree: A world-weary Las Vegas bail bondsman who is hired to bring Buddy Israel back from Lake Tahoe and see that he makes his next court appearance.
• Vladimir Kulich as The Swede: Feared to be an extraordinary assassin, but is actually a surgeon.
• Peter Berg as "Pistol" Pete Deeks: A former Las Vegas vice cop fired from the force for corruption. He and his partner Hollis are hired by Dupree to help him recover Israel.
• Martin Henderson as Hollis Elmore: A former Las Vegas vice cop and the partner of Pistol Pete. He was not corrupt, but took the fall anyway for sticking with Pete.
• Common as Sir Ivy: Israel's head of security.
• Joel Edgerton as Hugo Croop: An Eastern European bodyguard and hanger-on.
• Christopher Michael Holley as Beanie: Israel's favorite procurer. It is revealed in Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball that "Beanie" is actually an alias. His real name is Malcolm Little, and he is an undercover FBI agent.
• Matthew Fox as Bill: The head of security at the Lake Tahoe hotel where much of the action occurs.

Wayne Newton cameos as himself along with Joe Carnahan, the film's writer-director, who cameos as an armed robber at the beginning of the film.

Soundtrack[link]

The movie itself contains 18 songs,^[1] leaving only 1 out of the official soundtrack which was "Spottieottiedopaliscious" by Outkast. The score music was composed by Clint Mansell who has also scored such movies as The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream.

Track listing[link]

Release and reception[link]

Box office[link]

According to Box Office Mojo, the movie grossed $14,638,755 on its opening weekend (2,218 theaters, averaging $6,599 per theater). The movie grossed a total of $35,662,731 in the North American market and $18,878,474 outside the U.S, making a total worldwide gross of $54,541,205.

Critical reception[link]

The movie received mostly unfavorable reviews, scoring a 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, with that site's consensus being that it is "A violent mess of a movie, Smokin' Aces has some Quentin Tarantino's style but not much of his wit or humor".

DVD sales[link]

Smokin' Aces was released on DVD on April 17, 2007 and sold 1,853,397 DVD units which produced a revenue of $35,714,831, or more than double the movie's budget.^[2]

[edit] Prequel

On July 17, 2007, director Joe Carnahan announced that production had been approved by Universal Pictures for a second Smokin' Aces film, which he would not direct. The film is a prequel to the original and was released straight to DVD on January 19, 2010.^[3][4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Smokin' Aces at AllRovi
• Smokin' Aces at Box Office Mojo
• Smokin' Aces at the Internet Movie Database
• Smokin' Aces at Rotten Tomatoes
• Smokin' Aces review by Brian Holcomb at Cinema Blend
• GreenCine Daily interview with Joe Carnahan and Jeremy Piven

Clint Mansell
Mansell with the Sonus Quartet, playing in Union Chapel, London, 20 July 2009
Background information
Birth name	Clinton Darryl Mansell
Born	(1963-01-07) 7 January 1963 (age 49)
Origin	Coventry, England
Genres	Classical Contemporary classical Electronic Alternative
Occupations	Musician, composer
Years active	1981–present
Associated acts	Pop Will Eat Itself
Website	clintmansell.com
Notable instruments
Music sample
Clint Mansell – "Lux Æterna" noicon

Clinton Darryl "Clint" Mansell, (born 7 January 1963) is an English musician, composer, and former lead singer and guitarist of the band Pop Will Eat Itself.

After the disbanding of Pop Will Eat Itself in 1996, Mansell was introduced to film scoring when director Darren Aronofsky, hired him to score his debut film, π.^[1] Mansell then wrote the score for the next Aronofsky film, Requiem for a Dream, which has been well received.^[2] Its main composition "Lux Aeterna" has become extremely popular, appearing in a wide variety of advertisements and film trailers.^[3][4][5]

Mansell's composition for The Fountain was nominated for Best Original Score at the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards. His other notable film scores include Moon, Smokin' Aces, The Wrestler, and Black Swan.

Career[link]

Pop career[link]

Mansell was the lead singer and guitarist of Pop Will Eat Itself. When PWEI signed to Nothing Records, Mansell became close friends with Trent Reznor,^[6] and he performed backing vocals on the 1999 album The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails.

Soundtrack composer[link]

Mansell's score for Darren Aronofsky's π was followed up by his score for Aronofsky's next film, Requiem for a Dream, which became a cult hit.^[1] Since their first collaboration in 1996, Mansell has composed the music to every Aronofsky film.^[7]

Other notable achievements include the theme for the film The Hole, the music for the pilot episode of CSI: NY, and the score for Aronofsky's later films The Fountain, which was nominated for Best Original Score in the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards, and The Wrestler.^[8] Mansell has also contributed the score to HBO's Voyeur. His most recent work has been on the soundtrack for Black Swan in 2010.^[9] and the video game Mass Effect 3^[10][11]

Film trailers[link]

The trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers contained a rearranged version of the track "Lux Æterna", using a full orchestra and choir.^[3] The piece, named "Requiem for a Tower", was recorded especially for the trailer.^[3] The orchestration was arranged by Simone Benyacar, Dan Nielsen, and Veigar Margeirsson.^[3]

"Lux Æterna" has since become popular, with both the original and the "Requiem for a Tower" version having appeared in a wide variety of advertisements and trailers, including the trailer for the Red Sox–Yankees games in the 2007 Major League Baseball season, and trailers for the films Zathura, The Da Vinci Code,^[4] Sunshine, Babylon A.D. and the TV series Lost and Top Gear. It was also used on Sky Sports News and as the theme for Soccer Saturday from 2007–2009. In 2006, the theme was used in EuroSport LIVE trailers. The theme was also used by America's Got Talent as an introduction of the judges before being changed slightly. The new variant is now a regular piece on the show.

The piece "Death Is the Road to Awe" from the score for The Fountain was featured in a trailer for the 2007 film I Am Legend, and the trailer for the film The Mist, as well as the trailer for the film Frost/Nixon, and toward the end of 2007 The Final Cut trailer for Blade Runner.

Mansell's theme tune for sci-fi movie Moon also appears on the trailer for the film The Iron Lady.^[12]

Scoring credits[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Clint Mansell at the Internet Movie Database
• Mansell at Yahoo Movies
• Mansell at Rotten Tomatoes^{[dead link]}
• Interview focusing on Pop Will Eat Itself
• The Wrestler Score review
• Two and a Half Questions with Clint Mansell on Headphone Commute (2009)

Ryan Reynolds
Reynolds at the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010
Born	Ryan Rodney Reynolds (1976-10-23) October 23, 1976 (age 35) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1990–present
Spouse	Scarlett Johansson (2008–2011)

Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976)^[1] is a Canadian film and television actor. Reynolds is known for playing the role of Michael Bergen on ABC's sitcom Two Guys and a Girl (1998–2001), Wade Wilson / Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Hal Jordan / Green Lantern in Green Lantern. He has also appeared in films such as National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Just Friends, Definitely, Maybe, The Proposal, The Change-Up, and Safe House.

Early life[link]

Reynolds was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. His father, Jim, is a food wholesaler, and his mother, Tammy, is a retail salesperson.^[1] He is of Irish ancestry and was raised as a Roman Catholic.^[2][3] The youngest of four brothers,^[4] he graduated from Kitsilano Secondary School in Vancouver in 1994. He later attended Kwantlen Polytechnic University, also in Vancouver, until dropping out.^[5]

Career[link]

Reynolds at the X-Men Origins: Wolverine premiere in Tempe, Arizona (2009)

Reynolds' career began in 1990 when he starred as "Billy" in the Canadian-produced teen soap Hillside, distributed in the United States by Nickelodeon as Fifteen. As an adult, Reynolds starred in the National Lampoon movie Van Wilder and the American television series Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place, playing medical student Michael "Berg" Bergen. In 1993-94 he had a recurring role in The Odyssey as Macro. He also cameoed in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle as a nurse, appeared in The In-Laws with Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks, as well as the Canadian production Foolproof.

In 2005 he played a waiter named Monty in Waiting..., and as music executive Chris Brander in the romantic comedy Just Friends alongside Amy Smart and Anna Faris. Reynolds played the protagonist in the 2008 film Definitely, Maybe. He has also appeared in the second season finale of the television series Scrubs. In 2007, Reynolds guest-starred as Brendan's friend Hams in the episode "Douchebag in the City" of the TBS sitcom My Boys. In 2009, he portrayed Andrew Paxton, starring opposite Sandra Bullock, in The Proposal, and Mike Connell in Adventureland.

Although he has performed primarily in comedies, Reynolds underwent intense physical training to play an action role as the character of Hannibal King in the 2004 film Blade: Trinity. Reynolds played George Lutz in the 2005 remake of the 1979 horror film The Amityville Horror. He played an FBI agent alongside Ray Liotta in the 2006 crime action film Smokin' Aces.

Reynolds in September 2010

In a March 2005 interview, Reynolds spoke of his interest and involvement in a possible film adaptation of Deadpool with screenwriter David S. Goyer,^[6] as well as the possibility of playing the incarnation of The Flash known as Wally West in an adaption of the popular DC Comics character in the upcoming movie project. Reynolds portrayed Deadpool in the X-Men spinoff X-Men Origins: Wolverine and was announced to portray him again in a spin-off, Deadpool which is due out in 2013.^[7] It was later confirmed that the Deadpool film will be a reboot, ignoring the events that took place in X-Men Origins and establishing a new backstory for the character.^[8]

He also starred in the Spanish thriller Buried, which screened at the Sundance film festival.^[9]

Reynolds portrayed superhero Hal Jordan/Green Lantern in Warner Bros.' film Green Lantern, released June 17, 2011 in 3D; this made him one of the few actors to headline in movies based on both Marvel and DC characters.^[10]

Reynolds is scheduled to portray Nick Walker in the Universal Pictures film adaptation of the Dark Horse Comics R.I.P.D. (Rest in Peace Department), which has a planned release in 2013.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Relationships[link]

In 2002, Reynolds began dating Canadian singer Alanis Morissette. The two announced their engagement in June 2004.^[12] In February 2007, representatives for Morissette and Reynolds announced they had mutually decided to end their engagement.^[13] Morissette said her album Flavors of Entanglement was created out of her grief after the breakup.^[14]

Soon after the end of his relationship with Morissette in 2007, Reynolds began dating actress Scarlett Johansson.^[15] The couple announced their engagement in May 2008^[16] and they married on September 27, 2008 in a quiet ceremony near Tofino, British Columbia.^[17] On December 14, 2010, Reynolds and Johansson announced that they had separated.^[18] Reynolds filed for divorce in Los Angeles on December 23, 2010; Johansson filed her response simultaneously.^[19] The divorce was finalized on July 1, 2011.^[20]

In October 2011, it was reported that Reynolds had begun dating Green Lantern co-star Blake Lively.^[21]

In the media[link]

In October 2008 Reynolds wrote for The Huffington Post regarding his plan to run the New York City Marathon for his father, who suffers from Parkinson's disease.^[22]

Reynolds appeared in People's Sexiest Man Alive lists in 2008^[23] and 2009,^[24] and was awarded the top honor in 2010.^[25] In April 2011, he was ranked #15 on People's Most Beautiful 2011 list.^[26]

On February 12, 2012, Reynolds appeared on the BBC's Top Gear as the Star In a Reasonably-Priced Car. He posted a time of 1.43:7.

Filmography[link]

Awards and honors[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ryan Reynolds

• Ryan Reynolds at the Internet Movie Database
• Ryan Reynolds at People.com
• Ryan Reynolds' writings on HuffPost

Ray Liotta
Liotta at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival
Born	Raymond Allen Liotta (1954-12-18) December 18, 1954 (age 57) Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1978–present

Raymond Allen "Ray" Liotta (born December 18, 1954) is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Henry Hill in the crime-drama Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese and his role as Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams. He has won an Emmy Award and been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. He is also known for starring as the protagonist, Tommy Vercetti in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Early life[link]

He was born in Newark, New Jersey, and was adopted at the age of six months by Mary Liotta, an appointed township clerk, and Alfred Liotta, an auto parts store owner, personnel director, and the president of a local Democratic club.^[1] Both of his parents unsuccessfully ran for local office.^[2] Liotta had believed his biological parents were of Scottish and Italian descent,^[3] but eventually reunited with his biological mother and discovered that she is not of Italian descent.^[4][5] In 1973, Liotta graduated from Union High School in Union, New Jersey, and was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 1992. Liotta studied acting at the University of Miami, where he performed at the university's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre.

Career[link]

One of Liotta's earliest roles was as Joey Perrini on the soap opera Another World. He appeared on the show from 1978 to 1981. He infamously made his film debut sexually assaulting Pia Zadora with a garden hose in the cult classic The Lonely Lady. In 1987, he earned his first Golden Globe nomination"HFPA – Awards Search". 1.hfpa.org. http://www1.hfpa.org/browse/member/29970. Retrieved July 7, 2009.  for his portrayal of volatile ex-con Ray Sinclair in Jonathan Demme's film Something Wild (1986). In 1989, he costarred, along with Kevin Costner, in the fantasy/drama film, Field of Dreams. Liotta portrayed Shoeless Joe Jackson, the ghost of the famed baseball player. In 1990, Liotta portrayed real-life mobster Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's film Goodfellas. In 1992, he costarred, along with Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe, in the thriller Unlawful Entry as an psychopatic cop. He also a leading role in No Escape. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Liotta would earn more critical praise for his turn in James Mangold's film Cop Land, starring alongside Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel. In 1998, he received critical praise for his performance as the compulsive gambling but decent policeman Harry Collins, in the crime film, Phoenix.

In addition to his film roles, Liotta portrayed singer Frank Sinatra in the 1998 TV movie The Rat Pack (for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination) and provided the voice of Tommy Vercetti for the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. That same year he appeared as Det. Lt. Henry Oak in the Joe Carnahan-directed film Narc, receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination and a Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards nomination for Best Supporting Male, a praised performance that many critics considered to be Liotta's career best. He then reunited with director James Mangold in 2003 alongside John Cusack and Alfred Molina in the dark horror-thriller Identity, remembered for its very unique and clever twist. He also narrated Inside the Mafia for the National Geographic Channel in 2005. Liotta had a memorable guest appearance that year on the television drama ER playing Charlie Metcalf in the episode "Time of Death". The role earned him an Emmy for "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series". Liotta would later spoof himself and his Emmy win in Bee Movie. He starred in the 2006 CBS television series Smith, which was pulled from the schedule after only three episodes had aired. He later appeared in Smokin' Aces (reuniting with Narc director Joe Carnahan), portraying an FBI agent named Donald Carruthers in one of the lead roles. He appeared with John Travolta in the movie Wild Hogs and with Johnny Depp in the 2001 film Blow, portraying the father of drug dealer George Jung.

Liotta has appeared in Battle in Seattle as the city's mayor, and in Hero Wanted playing a detective alongside Cuba Gooding Jr.. He was also in Crossing Over, co-starring Harrison Ford. Liotta played Detective Harrison in the 2009 Jody Hill comedy Observe and Report as Seth Rogen's nemesis from the local police. In 2011, he starred in The Son of No One, opposite Channing Tatum and for the first time in his career, Al Pacino.^[6] He told ABC's Good Morning America in 2001 that he was offered the role of Tony Soprano by series creator David Chase but turned it down to focus on movies.

Liotta's recent movies include Date Night with Steve Carell, Charlie St. Cloud with Zac Efron, the independent drama Snowmen, and The River Sorrow, which stars Liotta as a detective alongside Christian Slater and Ving Rhames.

Personal life[link]

Liotta married actress Michelle Grace in February 1997. They met at her ex-husband's (Mark Grace) baseball game; they also co-starred in The Rat Pack, in which Liotta played Frank Sinatra and Grace played Judith Campbell Exner. Their daughter, Karsen, was born in December 1998. The couple divorced in 2004. Liotta currently resides in Pacific Palisades, California.

A baseball pitcher bearing his name is currently in the Kansas City Royals system.^[7]

As part of his contract for starring in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale as Gallian, Liotta had permission to keep all wizard robes donned for the film.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ray Liotta at the Internet Movie Database