Much like the title family it depicts so well, The Savages is constantly at odds with itself--hilarious yet heartbreaking, warm yet frigid. The result is one final contradiction: a movie that is tough to swallow, yet one of the year’s best.
There’s no reinvention of the wheel in this made-for-video-game movie, but Smokin' Aces is filthily good fun for (primarily) guys--and, no, it’s not Quentin Tarantino lite. The only thing that's "lite" is the story.