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Tuesday, 01 April 2008 |
At first glance 21 may appear to be a weak attempt at Casino but it’s not. This half fiction/half true story steady paced drama is, surprisingly, not trying to copy anybody, but instead, roughly tell the story of six MIT students who made Vegas history.
21 follows Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess of Across the Universe) a super smart
MIT student trying to get into Harvard Medical School. Being dealt with little
money and a lack of life experience to “dazzle” the scholarship donors with, Ben
is sure that his dream of becoming a doctor will never happen.
In traipses Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey of American Beauty), Ben’s quick witted, shady math teacher
who recognizes Ben’s aptitude for impossible math problems. Mickey subsequently requests that Ben
join five other students in a card counting club that he is heading up.
Ben is hesitant at first but can’t resist the guarantee that he could raise the $300,000 needed for
Harvard Med School tuition and the extra time he would get to spend with his love interest Jill Taylor
(Kate Bosworth of Blue Crush) who is also on the team.
Ben quickly falls into the glamour, popularity and money that the card counting lifestyle has to offer.
Once he is properly trained Ben, Jill, Mickey, Choi (Aaron Yoo of Disturbia), Kianna (Liza Lapira of
Cloverfield) and Fisher (Jacob Pitts of Eurotrip) head out to Vegas every weekend to bring down the
house.
Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne of The Matrix), the guy hired by casinos to “convince” card counters
to stay clear when the house loses money since card counting is not illegal, begins to notice Ben’s
winning spree from week to week and trouble begins to brew.
Eventually things come crashing down and Ben must make some tough decisions to get his life back
before it’s too late.
This film was fairly well done. Directed by Robert Lucketic, who is responsible for films like
Monster-In-Law, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! and Legally Blonde, has really stepped up and taken on
a film not doomed to ridicule from the beginning.
I admit that the film was a bit lengthy and could have used a few less scenes here and there, but the
visuals were fast and exciting and the plot was fairly well done. It did stray rather far from the
non-fiction novel, “Bringing Down the House” by Ben Mezrich, but that is to be expected with a novel
adapted film.
The acting was not too bad. Sturgess did a rather good job getting the audience to sympathize with his
sometimes whiny character. You wanted him to win even though you knew he was going to screw it up.
Bosworth’s character, however, was quite painful to watch. Jill is a nearly impossible character to like.
She is self-obsessed, shallow and arrogant and Bosworth brought nothing to the table to at least try
and make her fun to watch.
Spacey and Yoo were the real gems of this film for me. Spacey was cut throat and intense and I
couldn’t blink the entire time he was on the screen.
Yoo provided the comic relied with his character, Choi. I think this may keep him type cast as the
funny Asian guy that never gets a starring role though, as he played the same in Disturbia. I was
particularly amused by his urge to steal hotel room amenities despite the fact that he was winning
hundred of thousands of dollars every weekend.
Overal this is a pretty good movie. It is no Oscar contender, but it is a fun escape from a boring, dreary
weekend such as the one we just had and definitely beats seeing Superhero Movie or 10,000 B.C.
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