ACE MOVIE REVIEW
Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Rukmini Vasanth, Yogi Babu, Divya Pillai, B.S. Avinash, Babloo Prithviraj
Director: Arumuga Kumar
Rating: 4/5
ACE hands you Vijay Sethupathi at his most user-friendly. Gone is the unhinged wildcard from Maharaja. Nowhere to be found is that menace he brings to his villain turns. Instead, we get smoothie Sethupathi – stylish, whip-smart, effortlessly cool. It’s the kind of performance that makes you wonder if he’s actually trying or just showed up and let his natural charisma do the heavy lifting.
Which, honestly, creates its own problem. Hard to feel genuine concern for a guy who treats high-stakes poker like a casual Sunday game.
Bolt Kannan arrives in Malaysia looking like he raided a vintage store – lungi, bargain-bin sunglasses, the works. His buddy Arivu (Yogi Babu) picks him up in what’s definitely a borrowed Benz, spouting businessman nonsense to impress his girlfriend. Turns out Arivu’s a ragpicker with delusions of grandeur, which somehow makes him more endearing than pathetic. Kannan’s supposedly done with the criminal life, ready for a fresh start. Right.
Then there’s Rukku (Rukmini Vasanth), working double shifts just to survive – upscale clothing store by day, waitressing by night. She’s stuck living with Raja Durai (Babloo Prithviraj), her corrupt cop stepfather who’s basically what happens when power meets zero moral compass. The man’s a walking red flag convention: abusive, hedonistic, and creepily obsessed with control.
Kannan falls for Rukku hard. Follows her around like a lovesick puppy until she grudgingly acknowledges his existence. When he learns she’s struggling to meet sales quotas, his hero complex kicks in. Time to make some quick money at Dharma’s underground casino.
Now, Dharma (B.S. Avinash) runs the kind of establishment where common sense goes to die. Loan shark by trade, poker host by day, and about as trustworthy as a chocolate teapot. Kannan’s brilliant at cards – until greed clouds his judgment. One rigged hand later, he’s half a million ringgits in the hole. To a gangster. Who probably doesn’t accept payment plans.
What follows is Arumuga Kumar’s attempt to juggle heist thrills with relationship drama, and surprisingly, he mostly pulls it off. The Malaysian locations feel genuinely lived-in rather than tourist-brochure pretty. No lazy Twin Towers establishing shots here – this is Malaysia as a character, not a backdrop.
The film’s biggest strength might also be its weakness: everything flows too smoothly. Kannan’s plans work almost too well. The bad guys feel more like speed bumps than genuine threats. You’re never really worried he won’t figure his way out of trouble, which sucks some tension from what should be nail-biting sequences.
But sometimes that’s exactly what you want. Not every film needs to put you through an emotional meat grinder.
Yogi Babu gets room to breathe here, and it shows. Sure, he recycles some familiar beats – the complaints about getting dragged into trouble become a running gag that runs a bit long – but his chemistry with Sethupathi sells the friendship. Rukmini Vasanth brings genuine steel to Rukku, even if the romance subplot feels more obligatory than organic.
The villains land somewhere between threatening and cartoonish. They’re performed well enough, but you get the sense they exist more to give Kannan obstacles than to pose real danger. Which, again, might be the point.
Justin Prabhakaran’s music and Sam C.S.’s background work know when to step forward and when to fade back. Karan B’s cinematography makes Malaysia look both exotic and familiar.
ACE doesn’t reinvent anything, and it’s not trying to. It’s comfort food cinema: familiar flavors executed with enough skill to satisfy. Sometimes that’s more than enough.