Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball brings back P.J. Pesce who directed the first Smokin’ Aces. In Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball there is plenty of blood, bullets and badasses.  The movie follows a similar plot of the first Smokin’ Aces.  Except this time the FBI already have the person of interest in protection where as in the first Smokin’ Aces they were attempting to get to the person of interest before the higher killers did. The movie ended in similar fashion with the bad guy getting what he deserved, I’ll leave it at that. There are three characters that are back and they are Agent Baker, Lazlo Soot, and Lester Tremor. Agent Baker who was originally played by Brian Bloom was replaced by Clayne Crawford.  Lazlo Soot is still played by Tommy Flanagan and Lester Tremor is still played by Maury Sterling.  

I think the plot of the movie is very good though I wasn’t a fan of the delivery of the film. I think the producers and director of the movie could have made it into a very serious and spine tingling movie if they hadn’t used some of the cheese affects. One particular scene that sticks in my head was when a group of higher killers was driving a dump truck and they had strange images as they drove down a road that just seemed out of place.  However, when it came to the plot there were a few times where I was wrong in my predictions and wasn’t sure where it was going next.  Smokin’ Aces 2 is easier to follow than its predecessor when they had seven different individuals and gangs going after a single man.  In Smokin’ Aces 2 there are only four going after a man with a 3 million dollar bounty on his head. This definitely helped in keeping my attention because having to following seven can be quite tedious and a little confusing. 

I would give this a movie a 7 out of 10. The rating could have been a lot higher if they made the movie in a more serious tone because there was definitely enough plot and action to justify watching it a couple of times over. If you like the Saw movies there were a couple of chilling scenes the appeared to be in that vein. Another bonus is you really didn’t need to watch the first Smokin’ Aces movie to know what is going on. If I had to describe this movie in a few words it would be: plenty of action, unpredictable though a bit on the clownish side.