Smokin’ Ace 2 - Assassin’s Ball: I was never taken with the original film, even though I am a fan of director Joe Carnahan. I thought it was an incoherent mess. “Smokin’ Ace 2” is more of the same, multiplied by a factor of 10, where the director has slathered over the holes in his wafer-thin derivative plot with cartoonish violence (not to mention the title makes NO SENSE now as “Aces” Israel from the first film is nowhere to be had) in an effort to make an “art movie“ (his words from one of the documentaries on the disc, not mine). This is a prequel to the first film, involving some of the same assassins (since they were wiped out in the first one, a sequel isn’t really in the cards), including additional members of the bullet-catching Tremor family. A government paper-pusher (Tom Berenger) is targeted for extermination so the FBI has to keep him alive while a collection of exotic assassins descend on an FBI safe house located in a bunker under a jazz bar. Squib mayhem abounds, as the “The Usual Suspects”-ish plot ensues. Violent for its own sake, gory (why shoot someone once when you can shoot them six times or in the face?), with low-quality special effects (not unexpected for a direct-to-video release), and just all-around dumb. The only good thing is getting to watch the incredibly hawt Martha Higareda as one of the assassins. Otherwise, this is almost completely worthless. Director P.J. Pesce’s non-career directing worthless sequels (he did give us “Sniper 3”, “From Dusk Til Dawn 3”, and that worthless “Lost Boys” sequel) continues apace. Woodchuck sez, “Skip it.”
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