Sure-Fire Streaming: Smokin’ Aces, Backdraft, Scarface, and more

By Jordan Parker
https://parkerandpictures.wordpress.com/

The best in TV and film from your living room.

Smokin’ Aces – Available On Netflix

One of my major guilty pleasures, Smokin’ Aces is one of the few true, blue ultra-violent actioners from the 2000s that actually worked.

Centred around performer and magician Buddy Israel and his decision to snitch on the mob he knows in Vegas, it follows both those trying to protect him and those trying to kill him as he awaits courtroom testimony.

Writer-director Joe Carnahan – an absolute action maestro – fills this one with snappy dialogue and gratuitous gunfire, and it works.

The cast is enormous and fantastic. Jeremy Piven is given the perfect role as smarmy Israel, and Ryan Reynolds partners with Ray Liotta as they play two cops trying to keep him alive.

Among those hitmen/hitwomen seeking the huge bounty on Israel are thespians Ben Affleck, Peter Berg, Martin Henderson, Common, Alicia Keys, Taraji P. Henson, Chris Pine and Kevin Durand.

Throw in some key performances from Jason Bateman and Andy Garcia, and we have ourselves a pretty awesome lineup.

It’s a huge thrill-ride start to finish, and if you’re an action fan, you’re going to love it.


Home Team – Available On Netflix

I’m going to be straight-up here: I truly didn’t love this movie.

But I’m biased. I neither like football or recent Adam Sandler movies, but I recognize many do. That’s why this one is on the list.

Produced by Sandler’s Happy Madison banner and surrounding the real-life one-year suspension of New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, it will be a crowd-pleaser, even if I wasn’t a fan.

It follows Payton and his decision to coach his son’s sixth-grade football team during his 2012 suspension.

He was part of a scandal during which Saints coaches encouraged players to injure the opposing team’s stars. It doesn’t particularly make its character atone for his sins, but it’s a bit too lighthearted to cover that subject matter.

The child actors are all pretty adorable, and Kevin James is actually pretty good as Payton. It was nice to see Rob Schneider dialed down.

All in all, this one is a more enjoyable Sandleresque flick than normal, and if you want something lighthearted, you’ll get it here.


Backdraft – Available On Prime Video

One of the best B-movies of all time, Backdraft is just cheesy enough to make a ton of entertainment, and just serious enough to give us a decent story.

With technical Oscar nominations for Sound Effects and Visual Effects, it’s one of those movies you can’t help but sit down with if it comes on TV on a Sunday.

It follows two brother firefighters in Chicago who have to push their estrangement aside when an arsonist starts terrorizing the city.

Oscar-winning director Ron Howard didn’t create his best work here, but it’s a pretty great mainstream effort.

The cast is amazing, and includes Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Robert De Niro, Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Scott Glenn.

It’s not high art, but Backdraft is a whole lot of fun, rollicking action, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need.


Limitless – Available On Netflix

Just as Bradley Cooper’s star began to rise, he did this highly interesting little action feature.

It follows a man down-on-his-luck and unable to reach his full potential. But when he finds a pill that can help him change all that, his life takes a serious turn.

The pill allows him to access 100 per cent of his brain, giving him the ability to hit his full potential. But unexpected side effects soon show themselves.

It’s a good film made infinitely better by its performances – Cooper, Anna Friel, Abbie Cornish, and an entirely game Robert De Niro create a fun, interesting dynamic.

Limitless is full of tons of little twists and turns, and the plot is more than interesting enough to keep things floating through.

It more than exceeds its potential, and is a better film than I ever could have expected.


Scarface - Available On Prime Video

One of the best movies of all time, Scarface is an unrelenting, amazing film that showcases what greed can do to a person.

It follows immigrant and classic anti-hero Tony Montana, a Cuban who takes over the drug cartel in 1980s Miami.

Somehow hitting both ends of the spectrum – much like House Of Gucci is currently – it’s an over-the-top gangster picture that received a Razzie Nomination for Worst Director and three Golden Globes nominations.

Frankly, Al Pacino’s portrayal of Tony Montana is entirely insane, but it’s one of the most memorable of his storied career.

Shocking, intense and absolutely made of trashy B-movie aesthetic, it’s not a Best Picture kind of movie. What it is, though, is a cult favourite for many.

Pacino, a young Michelle Pfeiffer and Steven Bauer are all absolutely fantastic here. It’s a movie that absolutely has to be seen – just know what you’re in for.

Previous
Previous

Check It Out: Contradictions and historical events

Next
Next

Pop 89: More gold