10 Movies With Great Second Halves (But Awful Firsts)

Joe Carnahan's Smokin' Aces is one of the many "post-Tarantino" movies that desperately wanted to evoke the iconic director's vibe, combining a witty word salad with brutal violence.

Except, Carnahan's film was a wonky mish-mash of hit-and-miss ideas, filled to the brim with a surprising amount of plot and expository dialogue for a movie marketed on the strength of its frantic action sequences.

Ultimately, the first half of the film is largely comprised of that aforementioned plotting and chit-chat, while the second half depicts the various parties descending upon mafia informant Buddy "Aces" Israel (Jeremy Piven) - either to rescue him or collect the $1 million bounty placed on his life.

At this point, Carnahan lets loose with the advertised action in all of its frenetically gory glory.

Better still, it all culminates in a loony final plot twist - that the FBI is only keeping Aces alive so they can transplant his heart to another informant - and a terrific final scene in which distraught FBI agent Messner (Ryan Reynolds) literally pulls the plug on the entire operation.

Though undeniably messy throughout, Smokin' Aces' thrilling second half bottles the energetic violence audiences had been promised throughout. That first half, though, is mostly just an exhausting assault of information.