Championed by Tom Cruise, Joe Carnahan's wire-tight thriller Narc grabbed Hollywood's attention and led to his installation at the helm of Mission: Impossible III. Alas, those pesky ‘creative differences’ cut short a beautiful friendship.

But for his next trick, the writer-director has found some unlikely accomplices. For the people who brought us Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary, this bullet-laced Molotov cocktail represents a bloody big departure.

Without any ado, Carnahan rips through his set-up by introducing his multitudinous characters via a Lock, Stock-style barrage of captioned clips and commentaries.

It all revolves around Buddy ‘Aces’ Israel (Piven), a bigtime Vegas magician anxious to be free of his Mafia connections.

Secure in his penthouse suite in Lake Tahoe, the coke-snorting, hooker-happy slimeball can quietly disappear once he's turned stoolie for the FBI, represented by agents Ryan Reynolds, Ray Liotta and gaffer Andy Garcia.

The Mob is also keen for Aces to disappear - quietly or otherwise. Hence America's maddest, meanest assassins descend on Nevada to bag themselves a million-dollar jackpot.

The death squad includes a trio of neo-Nazi rednecks straight out of Mad Max, a silent master of disguise, a hitman so hard he bit his own fingertips off, and Alicia Keys (making a confident debut) as one of a pair of gutter-mouthed gun-whores.

Rapper Common also pops his movie cherry as Aces' right-hand man, while Ben Affleck joins the fray as a scuzzy bail bondsman and Lost's heroic doc Matthew Fox appears as... well, just try to pick him out.

Constantly shuffling his deck of characters, Carnahan orchestrates the violence with ferocious aplomb, getting through more rounds than Oliver Reed in his pomp yet never allowing the confusion to become confusing.

The blue vein of gallows humour comes close to misogynistic - but with so much cartoonish carnage going on there's no time for indignation.

Until, that is, Carnahan almost spoils the fun with an inexplicable late attack of morality brought about by his weak twist ending.

Which is a pity because until it starts taking itself seriously, Smokin' Aces comes up trumps.

Elliott Noble