20 Years On, Ben Affleck’s Critically Hated Crime Thriller Is Aging Like Fine Wine

by

Ben Affleck’s career has seen its share of successes and failures, but one of his action thrillers from 2006 didn’t get the praise it deserved. He went from winning an Oscar for co-writing Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon to starring in Gigli, a film now famous for being incredibly bad. While Gigli was a low point, it really shows how much his career has changed over the years, with both significant highs and lows.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have had many successful projects together, but also some significant failures, such as Reindeer Games and Surviving Christmas. While films like Gone Girl, Argo, and Gone Baby Gone have received critical acclaim, others like Daredevil and Pearl Harbor were poorly received. However, some of these less successful films are worth another look, like the 2006 action thriller Smokin’ Aces. This darkly funny and fast-paced crime movie is a surprisingly good film that deserves more recognition in Affleck’s career.

Ben Affleck’s Smokin’ Aces Was Way Better Than Critics Claimed

Critics weren’t overly impressed with Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces, giving it a 31% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences enjoyed it more, with a score of 62%. The film follows a stressed FBI agent trying to keep a somewhat shady magician safe from multiple assassins. While the plot is complicated and features a large cast, it’s easy to overlook those flaws when the roles are filled by big names like Ben Affleck, Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, and Alicia Keys.

Released early in the 2000s, Smokin’ Aces boasts an incredibly talented cast including Ryan Reynolds, Common, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pine, and Taraji P. Henson. Though Ben Affleck’s The Accountant received more critical acclaim, Smokin’ Aces was a financial success, earning $57 million with a budget of just $17 million. Surprisingly, acclaimed director Terrence Malick even praised the film’s complex storyline in a 2016 interview. With director Joe Carnahan’s recent successes like Copshop and The Rip garnering attention, it’s a good time to revisit Smokin’ Aces. This action thriller is clever, suspenseful, original, and humorous, and deserves another look for its unpredictable plot.

Smokin’ Aces Succeeded Despite Its Critics

Following the success of Smokin’ Aces, a direct-to-video prequel, Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball, was released in 2010. The original film also launched the careers of many actors in its large ensemble cast. Later, Ben Affleck and Carnahan collaborated on The Rip, a Netflix crime thriller with a similar complex, gritty, and violent style. The Rip received more positive reviews, which helped to balance out the initially negative reception of Smokin’ Aces.

When Smokin’ Aces came out in 2006, many critics thought it simply copied Quentin Tarantino’s style and disliked its surprisingly somber ending for a fast-paced crime comedy. However, revisiting the film now reveals how much of an impact it had on action movies like Bullet Train and the John Wick series. This often-overlooked Ben Affleck film expertly mixes dramatic tragedy with dark humor and deserves recognition as a standout work, not just a minor part of his career.

https://comicbook.com/movies/news/ben-afflecks-new-action-thriller-becomes-huge-netflix-hit-with-almost-80-million-hours-viewed/embed/#

Read More

2026-04-07 21:44