[Movie Review] 21
Better than it deserves to be.
A gambling movie in Vegas. WOW, what an original concept! A heist film set in Vegas. Never seen that before! If you’re going to do a Vegas heist movie, you’ve got to carve your own niche. You can’t do another Ocean’s 11 and expect me to fall all over it. I went into this movie dreading the worst, expecting to see more of the same thing I’ve seen over and over. Thankfully, while the standard cliches are here, there’s also a spiffy new(based on a true) story to hang over the framework.
Jim Sturgess, who bored me to tears in Across The Universe, stars as Ben Campbell, an ace student at MIT who has been accepted to his dream school, Harvard Med School. Unfortunately, the school costs quite a pretty penny($300,000 to be exact), and Ben can’t afford it. Enter his sarcastic math teacher Mickey Rosa(Kevin Spacey, looking like he’s not even trying), who has a genius scheme already in motion. He takes a small group of his best students to Vegas, where they rig the blackjack games by counting cards, a LEGAL practice by the way(feel free to try at home!). Ben can’t resist the lure of easy money, or a not-so-easy classmate named Jill(Kate Bosworth, up to her old trick of not acting). From then on, the movie becomes a fun little ride as Ben is pulled further and further into the Vegas lifestyle. Making matters worse, a Vegas enforcer played by Laurence Fishburne is closing in fast on Ben and the gang. Can he make it out with his morals(and bank account) intact?
Now, without giving spoilers, let me say that this movie is formulaic. This is a standard rise-and-fall movie, so that description alone should tell you what you’re in for here. The crazy thing is that the movie somehow manages to be entertaining in spite of this rather pat formula. This flick shows off Vegas in a way that I haven’t seen since the Ocean’s 11 remake made me want to hit the slots. The movie looks great, and the soundtrack is hip without being annoying(something Juno couldn’t do), although the final song choice will have you rolling your eyes at how on-the-nose it is. The acting across the board is rather hit and miss, though. Hands down, Spacey is the best thing about this movie. He’s entertaining as hell, although at times he sort of overdoes it. I can’t get into specifics for risk of ruining some of the twists and turns of this flick, but as good as he is at times, at other times he is hamming it up like you wouldn’t believe. He’s at his best when he’s being a bit of a wise-ass, and he gets a lot of material like that here. It makes me sad that he can’t find better work, considering his great talent. The guy seemed to fall off the earth after American Beauty, Singerman Returns notwithstanding. Jim Sturgess…I am convinced that this guy is NOT star material, and he proves it again here. Just when I think that I see a glimmer, a twinkle of SOMETHING, he pulls this dour little face that just ruins the entire moment. He’s hitting his marks without adding anything special to the role. Any number of young actors would have attacked this role like Kirstie Alley attacks a buffet line, but he’s content to sit back and let everyone else do the work for him. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that a more charismatic lead could have bumped this film’s rating up a bit. For a movie like this, you need a guy that you can get behind, someone that you could buy in this situation, and I just didn’t buy it. What makes this even worse is that Aaron Yoo, who you may recognize as Shia’s BFF in Disturbia, is really great in his small role. He should have been the lead seeing as how the guy who Sturgess is portraying is friggin’ ASIAN. However, Sturgess is not the worst performer here, oh no. Give you three guesses…
Oh yes, Lady Bosworth. Why, God, why does this girl continue to find work? She’s not all that attractive, so we can’t use the Alba Defense here(Definition:hot ass making up for no talent). She has the presence of a used maxi pad: unwanted and no longer usable. Please, if anyone of importance in Hollywood is reading this, I beg of you, stop casting this girl. I really cannot tell you just how bland she is in this movie. A movie like this requires a sexy young thing to serve as Ben’s object of desire, and she is hardly worth what Ben goes through in this film. The absurdly mixed signals that she sends in this movie are nonsensical and had people in my audience crowing with laughter. In one moment, she rejects him with the old, “can’t screw a co-worker” shtick, the next moment they’re up against a window panting like dogs. It makes no friggin’ sense, and a more talented actress could have turned this role into something more than what Bosworth does here. What a waste. And speaking of waste, do not put Fishburne in a movie if he’s only going to be onscreen in brief snippets here and there, not really doing anything. It’s an insult to the guy’s talent. He’s wasted in a big way here, and I was stunned that they didn’t build his character up. The film’s conclusion would pack a much bigger punch if I’d actually given a crap about him.
Aside from the meh acting, the film’s biggest problem is the story itself. Although the card counting is presented in a rather ingenious fashion, there are a number of things that had me questioning the movie aloud in the screening. This paragraph is gonna go spoiler bananas, so if you want to go in blind, just stick your hand on the screen and skip to the next paragraph. First and foremost, for a supposed genius, Ben does some mighty stupid s*** in this movie. For starters, he hides the money that he earns from Vegas in the flimsy ceiling above his bed in his dorm room. Not in a bank. Not in a fund somewhere where someone couldn’t just break into his room and steal it. In the CEILING. I cannot tell you how many “WTFs” I heard go up at the screening. I also don’t understand how the kids could all get to Vegas and back every weekend without ANYBODY questioning or finding out. It’s never explained, and that question hung over the film. How in the world can a teacher as obviously corrupted as Spacey’s Mickey Rosa still be employed at MIT? Why the hell did they fly cross-country to Vegas when they could take a train from Boston to Atlantic City in Jersey and do their thing there? Less expensive than the plane flight to Vegas, methinks. How’d Rosa get those fake IDs, and how could NO ONE realize they are fake? Is security in those casinos THAT lax? Why didn’t Ben report Laurence Fishburne’s character to the proper authorities? After all, Ben had done nothing illegal in counting cards, but Fishburne beat the shit out of him, anyway! Hello? Assault charges much? HELLO?
Even with all of the film’s problems, it’s still a good movie. GOOD, not great, and it really could have been great. The potential to make a special film was there, and rather than going all in, they folded. Too bad.
6 Responses to “[Movie Review] 21”
You’re more forgiving then me Kris. I got so burnt by Across The Universe that i instantly discounted seeing this coz the dude from that movie was in it. I’ll wait till its free on Film4 or unless it turns up cheap on Sky Box Office.
Yeah, Sturgess is a real douche. I really, REALLY despise Across The Universe, and his “performance” in this film only solidifies the fact that this guy is nothing special. I caught him on a late night show and the females in the crowd lost their minds when he walked onstage. WHY? He’s not very attractive. I watched his interview, and the guy was as charismatic as a dead frog. Ugh.
I read this book…and it was great! Made me want to go try what these guys did…until the whole getting chased by guys with guns thing!
well i think it was a GREAT film and i think everybody should go and see it! i found that once i got into the film i felt like i was actually there and a part of the plot. I t5hink the guy was georgeous and very charismatic.
“The potential to make a special film was there, and rather than going all in, they folded. Too bad.”
I agree, the potential for a great movie was there. The story is great, the book is fantastic and the fact that it was based on real life is exciting. I’ve seen the documentary made by British TV about these guys “Making millions the easy way”, it is fascinating.
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