In “Smokin’ Aces,” Las Vegas magician and lounge act Buddy “Aces” Israel (Jeremy Piven) has evolved from a wannabe into a serious gangster who has split the Las Vegas mob in two.

When he decides to bring down the entire Cosa Nostra, gangster chief and rival Primo Sparazza (Joseph Ruskin) puts a million-dollar bounty on his head.

To top it off, Sparazza demands Israel’s heart be brought to him. This makes things complicated for FBI agents Richard Messner (Ryan Reynolds) and Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta), who must protect Israel from a heavily-armed freak show of thugs, bounty hunters and assassins all converging on Israel’s hideout at the top of a Lake Tahoe casino.

The acting in this movie is particularly good. Ryan Reynolds shows he can do straight dramatic roles in addition to comic or semi-comic turns such as “Van Wilder” or “Blade Trinity.”

Jeremy Piven does well as the high-maintenance, hilarious Israel, while Ben Affleck puts in a good performance as Jack Dupree, a bail bondsman hired to bring Israel in for bail jumping.

Alicia Keys and Taraji P. Henson shine as Georgia Sykes and Sharice Watters, respectively, a pair of hit- women inclined towards militant feminism.

Rapper Common, who plays Israel’s bodyguard Sir Ivy, takes what could have been a bit part and puts real pathos into it.

The Tremors, a trio of white-trash neo-Nazi brothers with a fetish for extreme violence played by Chris Pine, Kevin Durand and Maury Sterling provide a surprising amount of comedy. There are scads of one-liners and visual gags to make the audience laugh or, in some cases, gag.

One warning: this movie is unbelievably violent. In addition to lots of casual killing (and flashbacks involving torture and a man chewing off parts of his own fingers), there are three scenes of almost lunatic brutality.

When Sharice unleashes her .50 caliber sniper rifle, FBI agents literally go flying, and there is an epilepsy-inducing gunfight in a dark elevator between an FBI agent and a hit man.

Everything hits a gruesome crescendo when the Tremors collide with hotel security in a fight that involves chainsaws and fire axes in addition to guns.

Another problem is that although the movie was billed as a crime-comedy, it was a lot less humorous than expected. Ryan Reynolds is a magnificent comic actor, but his character engaged in virtually no funny business -most of the humorous stuff went to the hit men and bounty hunters.

Finally, Israel’s desperate desire to get out of the Mafia business, which is apparent later in the film, could have been made less vague. Although the beginning hints at why Israel wanted out, it wasn’t completely clear why.