I'm back in my own home for this post, but the format is the same as the last couple of posts because I took the frames from the film last week. The pictures do not, however, have the silly black bars at the top. I remember when TV went from the 4:3 aspect ratio to the 16:9 ratio. I resisted the change at first, and had to deal with the dreaded black bar "letter box" while watching movies for awhile, but then when I made the change to the 16:9 ratio, nothing changed. Movies still have those stupid bars. Did they change the ratio again? I wish they would get with the program and put everything back the way it was.
Anyways, today I bring you the film
Smokin' Aces. There is a lot to love about this movie, and it does leave a little to be desired. I got the feeling that only a few of the actors received any sort of advice about how to handle a weapon, and there is some realism issues throughout, but the gunfights are great, and the film is a showcase for Smith and Wesson revolvers.
The first shot is from the title page, and it shows a STI Executive 1911 that isn't seen throughout the rest of the film:
Next we have some old school FBI agents firing 4" Colt Official Police revolvers:
The storyline starts to cover the various assassins that are to kill Buddy Israel (Jeremy Piven), who is a wanna be mobster and magician. Here is a picture of one of Israel's crew (played by the film's director, Joe Carnahan) holding a M4 type carbine during a robbery:
One of the assassins is Lazlo Soot (Tommy Flanagan), who uses a pair of Skorpion Vz61s to gun down five men:
Three of the assassins are the Tremor brothers, Darwin, Jeeves, and Lester (Chris Pine, Kevin Durand, and Maurey Sterling, respectively); two of which are seen here wielding a Glock and an unknown revolver:
The Tremor brothers gun down three more assassins - Dupree, Deeks, and Elmore (Ben Affleck, Peter Berg, and Martin Henderson, respectively) via drive by in a parking lot, the latter of which survives. Jeeves is using a M3 Grease gun, and Darwin is using a Sten Mk II:
Two more assassins are Sykes (Alicia Keys) and Watters (Taraji Henderson). Sykes loads up a Glock 19, a Magnum Research Baby Eagle, and a S&W Model 642 (seen further down):
Watters is using a Barrett M82A1 with a US Optics SN3 3.2X17 scope, which is all set up in a very poor hide:
Watters some how talked US Optics into cutting this ridiculous reticule into the scopes glass, which she uses to oogle Sykes:
There is lots of movie between this point and where the shooting starts; but I'm not here to explain the whole movie to you, so we're gonna skip ahead to where Soot takes out one of Israel's guys, Hugo, who is armed with a 1911, with a suppressed EAA Witness:
Agents Messner (Ryan Reynolds) and Carruthers (Ray Liotta) are on their way to the hotel where the shooting is about to go down, and Messner does a chamber check on his H&K USP:
Carruthers gets into a scrap with Acosta (Nestor Carbonell) inside the close confines of an elevator, and he draws his H&K USP from a strong side belt holster before Acosta stabs him in the knuckles with a spike:
Carruthers switches hands and starts shooting Acosta, who has a Beretta Tomcat hidden in his sleeve. Acosta fires 16 rounds from his Tomcat without reloading, which makes sense when you look at the third picture below to see that it stovepiped:
Sykes arives, sees the two dying guys in the elevator, and draws her Glock 19:
Messner and a bunch of cops and other agents walk onto the floor outside of the elevator, and Sykes is trapped inside. She signals Watters with a pen lazer, and Watters lights them up with the M82A1. You can see the blank casing in the air:
This is where realism starts to fall off. The .50 BMG round that the Barrett is firing is very powerful, for sure, but it will not blow people thirty feet. Physics people, physics. The round is capable of removing limbs, and generally making a mess of the human body, but if the round did have the power to physically knock a 200 lb. man back thirty feet, then it [the recoil] would knock Watters 100 lb. ass back sixty feet. See Newtons
third law of motion.
Anyways, Messner and the other agents start to blindly return fire at Watters, who is sitting in a hotel about 500 meters out; I'm not really sure why. If a cop starts to fire a handgun or shotgun indiscriminately at a building then they would definitely be put in prison. Here is Messner firing his USP, and during this he executes a perfect reload before firing out the window at a target that he can't see:
Here is a cop firing a pistol gripped shotgun of unknown make out the window at a target that is about 450 yards outside of his range:
Two cops, who are obviously untrained actors, come around the corner with guns raised:
Acosta regains conciousness and pulls an unfluted S&W Model 640 on Sykes, who is still in the elevator:
Carruthers regains conciousness and kills Acosta with a S&W 340PD:
Meanwhile, Soot has infiltrated Israel's hotel room disguised as Hugo and killed one of his body guards with the suppressed EAA Witness. In the bathroom, Sir Ivy (Common) - a close associate of Israel's - is trying to kill Israel with a 4" S&W 500 because of Israel's betrayal, and he fires at least 10 rounds out of it before reloading:
What is surprising is that Israel hit Sir Ivy in the head with a playing card instead of shooting him with the Sig P232 that he had on the bathroom sink next to all his drugs:
The security guards outside of Israel's room come bursting in with their Beretta 92Fs in a close body hold. They seem to know how to handle themselves in a realistic manner. I don't know a whole lot about executive protection, but they handle their weapons well:
They take Sir Ivy in custody with flexcuffs and take him outside. While they are waiting for the elevator, the Tremor brothers are inside of it preparing for their assault of Israel's room. The security team know something is up, and some have Sig P226s in a close body hold:
. . . while Jeeves Tremor comes bailing out of the elevator with a Striker shotgun, a chainsaw, a splitting maul, and what looks like a Desert Eagle in a vertical shoulder holster, but I can't tell for sure:
Lester has a double barreled shotgun:
Darwin takes down one of the guards with a Glock 18, then he pulls two machetes out of his waistband and kills one security guard right as his vest takes two rounds from the guards Beretta 92F. Notice that he's wearing a shotgun shell bandolier with no shells in it:
Several agents are firing back with Glocks, and one of them has a Remington 870 Express:
Sir Ivy, still in flexcuffs, kills Jeeves and Lester with a Beretta 92F that one of the guards dropped:
At this point, Darwin is the last of the three brothers standing, and Sykes darts out of the elevator and puts a S&W 642 to his neck:
Her 642 is seen later when there is a standoff between Messner and Sykes, with Sir Ivy in the background:
In a real situation like this, a really real FBI agent would have shot her in the head without a moments hesitation, but Hollywood likes to believe that the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) concept also works outside of the realm of strategic nuclear warfare. -3 points for lack of realism.
Back in the hotel room, Soot is about to kill Isreal with a syringe, and Israel is about to kill himself with the S&W Performance Center Model 629 Weighted Barrel that he took from the bodyguard that was killed by Soot:
Before either one of them succeeds, a FBI tactical team busts with H&K MP5 that I originally thought was the PDW model for some reason, but is not, and one of them looks like he has a Sig P220 in a thigh holster, but I could be wrong:
Last, but not least, we have Elmore - the assassin who survived the drive by earlier - aquiring a blued 1911, probably a Colt, which he uses to shoot Darwin in the back without needing to aim, or even look in the direction he was shooting:
At first, he didn't even have the hammer back, but he did thumb it back to emphasize his point, because that scares people who know nothing about guns. It's telling that Hollywood doesn't have the slightest clue on how to operate the single action 1911; a century old weapon that's popularity has made it the most beloved sidearm of the US. Idiots.
It's a great movie anyhow. The gunfights are over the top, but somehow are still awesome. Combine that with the many types of weaponry, as well as a gratuitous amount of S&W revolvers, and you have a kick ass shoot em' up flick that deserves a watch.
