Although Ben Affleck’s A-list career has many highs and lows, one of his most underrated action thrillers was unfairly hated by critics upon its original 2006 release. In only six years, Ben Affleck went from winning an Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting alongside Matt Damon to starring in Gigli, one of the lowest-rated movies ever made. Affleck’s worst movie is infamously awful, but the blackly “comedic” crime thriller serves to highlight just how many ups and downs his big-screen career has weathered over the decades.
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For every one of Affleck and Damon’s acclaimed collaborations, there is a disastrous flop like Reindeer Games or Surviving Christmas. For every critical darling like Gone Girl, Argo, or Gone Baby Gone, there is a critical flop like Daredevil or Pearl Harbor. However, some of these critical failures deserve to be revisited, like 2006’s underrated Smokin’ Aces. A propulsive, brutal action thriller, this blackly comedic crime movie is a hidden gem in Affleck’s back catalogue.
Ben Affleck’s Smokin’ Aces Was Way Better Than Critics Claimed
With a 31% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics and 62% rating from audiences, it is fair to say that director Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces made a better impression on viewers than reviewers. The movie, which tells the story of a beleaguered FBI agent’s attempts to protect a sleazy magician informant from a bevy of hired killers, has an admittedly convoluted premise and a lot of characters to keep track of. However, this is easy to excuse when those characters are played by stars like Affleck, Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, and Alicia Keys.
With early starring roles for Ryan Reynolds, Common, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pine, and Taraji P Henson, Smokin’ Aces has one of the most stacked casts of the 2000s. While Affleck’s later thriller series, The Accountant, might have impressed critics more, it is worth noting that Carnahan’s underrated thriller made $57 on a budget of only $17 million. Bizarrely, cinematic icon Terrence Malick also said that he was a fan of Smokin’ Aces and its ambitiously complex story while giving a rare interview in 2016. Smokin’ Aces deserves to be revisited as the action thriller is clever, tense, inventive, and funny, and after the critical success of director Joe Carnahan’s Copshop and The Rip, a movie whose unpredictable story has earned another look.
Smokin’ Aces Succeeded Despite Its Critics
Smokin’ Aces spawned a direct to video prequel, 2010’s Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball, but the movie also helped elevate many members of its massive cast to stardom in the years that followed. Luckily, Affleck and Carnahan’s later Netflix movie The Rip received better reviews for its similarly twisty, morally grey, brutally violent crime thriller story, which goes some way to redeeming the unfairly negative reviews that Smokin’ Aces received upon release.
While a lot of critics called the movie a Tarantino ripoff back in 2006 and complained that its final act was unexpectedly downbeat for a high-octane crime comedy, rewatching Smokin’ Aces proves that Carnahan’s chaotic thriller was a big influence on the likes of Bullet Train and the John Wick franchise. Blending operatic tragedy with blackly comic violence, this underrated Ben Affleck vehicle deserves to be remembered as more than a footnote in the star’s oeuvre.
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