There were explosions and gunshots, car chases and bad guys to keep law enforcement on both sides of the state line on their toes.

The madness lasted for eight days.

And then it was over.

A perfect ending.

At least it was on the Lake Tahoe end of the Hollywood movie “Smokin’ Aces,” which wrapped up filming at Stateline on Oct. 21.

Not since “City of Angels” and “Showgirls” has a major motion picture been made with Lake Tahoe and casinos at Stateline as the main backdrop.

Production continues in Hollywood on the film starring Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Jeremy Piven and R&B singer Alicia Keys, who will make her film debut. While the show’s producers are mum on when it will open, rumor says it may be summer 2006.

More than 150 extras, many from the South Shore, were used in the film, in addition to 125 production staffers.

The movie is about the pursuit of a magician and mobster named Buddy Israel, played by Piven, who decides to jump bail and hide out inside a casino penthouse at Lake Tahoe. The film follows a cast of federal agents, bail bondsmen, professional assassins and aging mobsters as they all simultaneously close in on Israel for what publicists say will be a funny, deadly and surprising finale.

Horizon Casino Resort and Caesars Tahoe provided the lion’s share of the Tahoe filming locations, with two days’ worth of shooting at Cave Rock, Highway 50 and at the Lake Tahoe Airport.

Movie publicist Louise Spencer called the work in Tahoe “really productive,” having wrapped up shooting here within the eight-day time frame it had allotted. She said the people of Lake Tahoe were a tremendous help.

“It sounds very cliché, but if it hadn’t been for the cooperation on both sides of the line, we couldn’t have gotten done as much as we did,” Spencer said.

Horizon marketing manager Ellen Pollard said the production was both exciting and hectic, and in the end will be “great exposure for both of our properties and the lake,” she said.

When asked what she will remember most about the filming, Pollard said it was the action that swirled around the casinos.

“There were gunshots and windows breaking. It made you jump. Especially the gunshots,” Pollard said.

Even the casino guests were curious about the ruckus.

“Everyone stopped in their tracks trying to figure out what was going on,” she said.