Smokin' Aces 2 Assassin's Ball is hardly a worthy film. Given that it is a prequel and meant to suck up extra money based on it's original's success. It is also a given that sequels and prequels of mediocre films tend to be even less entertaining that the parent film. Aces 2 is no exception to these givens.
The films timeline seems to make this prequel close to the original, if you aren't paying attention you would never know. But it really doesn't matter. The goal is to get several assassins together to kill one man. In this case it's Walter Weed (Tom Berenger) that is the target, a meek FBI agent in his declining year of his career. The assassins are introduced, extermely slowly, and include:
And of course we have a team of agents that are on the job to protect Weed from this group, Agent Baker (Clayne Crawford) and Malcolm Little (Christopher Michael Holley) are the only ones of note.
Earnie Hudson has a small role in the film at the end, slightly more than a cameo, to tie up the loose ends of the story - much like Andy Garcia's role in the first film - as Anthony Vejar.
Now the characters include 2 from the original film. Neither is really all that important. Nor does this film break any new ground. It's formula is almost exactly the same as the first, except it's pace is slower and he events even less logical or intersting.
Basically Weed is taken to a location that is supposed to be secret to everyone, a safehouse in Chicago that the FBI has disguised as a functioning Jazz bar. Of course every single bad guy knows exactly where this is, and the schematics of the safehouse bunker.
After more time getting to the location than needed, and various scenes foretelling the final climax of the film, and an extened time in the Jazz bar itself, the killing finally starts. This is supposed to be the big payoff for watching the film to this point, but it fails to really deliver. Then enters Vejar after all the shooting is done, informing Baker of vital information that would have prevented all this, and Baker ending the film much in the manner as did Ryan Reynold's character from the first film - though without the negative consequences to his career.
There are 3 things I liked in this film.
"Hip hop is the unwanted bastard son of superior musical forms like Jazz, Blues. The Kids today don't know about Miles Davis, Dizzy Guilespe." - Malcolm Little discussing why he does not like rap that he needs to be a fan of for an upcoming undercover assignment.
Yes, those are the best parts of the film. The instant love affair between McTeague and Martinez is just unbelievable. The pace of the film is slower than listening to Soot talk. The Tremor family is more interesting in thier incest driven conversations than anything else. It strains belief that only after all this happens that Baker would be given all the details, that he had a crew of people investigating for throughout the film.
The worst of the film is likely the political statement that is set up in the first 5 minutes of the film and brought back for the last 15 minutes. It's America bashing, and useless. But it does connect all the dots in the plot.
Why Berenger, Jones, and Hudson did this film I don't understand. They all should deserve, and are capable of making, far more money and working in far better films.
Hollywood knew this film was so bad it couldn't make money in theaters. They went straight to DVD to cash in on the name of the first film, since there was nothing else worth paying for in this film. Hollywood was right. Don't buy this DVD.
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