Walter Weed (Tom Berenger) is an aging analyst who works at the FBI as an analyst. He doesn't seem like a particularly notable member of the team, which makes it all the more unusual that the Bureau uncovers an assassination plot against him. Agent Baker (Clayne Crawford) is on the case, whisking Weed off to a safe house situated in a bunker deep underground figuring that he'll be perfectly safe there. There's more to this than Baker realizes, however as assassins one assassin after the next shows up to collect the three million dollar bounty on Weed's head including a hitman named Finbar McTeague (Vinnie Jones), a foxy female assassin named Ariella Martinez (Martha Higareda), a bizarre master of disguise named Laslo Soot (Tommy Flanagan), and a group of related hillbilly killers made up of ringleader Lester Tremor (Maury Sterling), Fritz Tremor (Michael Parks), Kaitlin 'AK-47' Tremor (Autumn Reeser) and Baby Boy Tremor (C. Ernst Harth).

As Baker and his small team of agents set about trying to stop the plot, the assassins move in on the bunker, each one with their sights set on the prize. Thankfully, Baker has some help in the form of with the help of a club owner named Malcolm Little (Christopher Michael Holley) who arrives with his trusty shotgun in town, and eclectic FBI boss Anthony Vejar (Ernie Hudson). Shoots outs ensue, lots of people go down in a blaze of glory, and the Feds all try and figure out how Weed wound up in this situation to begin with.

As ridiculous as it is violent, Smokin' Aces 2: Assassn's Ball is kind of a lower budgeted version of the first picture in that it takes all of that first film's characteristics and runs with them, but obviously doesn't have the star power that the earlier picture had. That said, directed J.P. Pesce, working off of a script from Joe Carnahan who wrote and directed the first film, does manage to wrangle up a few interesting B-movie familiars to round out the cast. Berenger is good as the elderly desk worker who winds up in the middle of this mess and Michael Parks is good as Fritz Tremor. The real scene stealer, however (and this probably won't come as much of a surprise to many reading this) is Vinnie Jones, who crashes his way through the film with a great sense of humor that compliments his lower class British tough dude screen presence quite well.

The film is just as bloody and just as crass and just as over the top as the picture that spawned it, filled with profanity laden gun battles and plenty of creative weapon usage. Much of it feels very much like an overwrought exercise in style over substance, as there isn't really a whole lot to the story - in fact, it all feels like an excuse to frame a bunch of sporadic violence around one central character without much thought to logic or resolution. There is, however, this really thick sense of inspired lunacy that runs head first throughout the picture that can be a bit infectious. You definitely get the idea that everyone involved with this picture was having a lot of fun while they were working on it and while that doesn't necessarily make the picture's flaws any easier to look past, it does count for something.

The film moves along at a pretty decent pace, and while the script can sometimes feel like it's trying just a little too hard, the wanton bloodshed and quirky pulp-inspired atmosphere combined with a fun, B-level ensemble cast at least ensure some entertainment value. The bad guys are interesting characters and fun to watch and while this won't in the least bit appeal to anyone who didn't like Carnahan's original film, it should at least amuse those who did. The script throws in some odd political meanderings in its last act that don't really add much and feel a little forced, but otherwise you can put this one in the 'fun, loud and bloody' category along with the first one. Good entertainment on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Video:

Universal's 1080p VC-1 encoded 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer looks great despite some funky color saturation in some scenes (obviously a conscious choice on the part of the filmmakers). There are a couple of spots where the CGI looks a little flat and cartoonish but aside from that this is a very sharp, detailed and colorful transfer. You can see every hair on the characters' heads and close up shots really exhibit a lot of meticulous detail, especially in the actors' faces. Black levels are strong and deep without burying the shadow detail and there aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts, edge enhancement or macro blocking to note. The reds, of which there are plenty during the film's many gory shoot-outs, pop off the screen and really stand out. Some scenes flicker a bit in the background and some aliasing is apparent but these quibbles are minor, Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball looks pretty impressive on Blu-ray.