21
Movie Review
"21"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: C+
Rating: PG-13
Released: Friday, March 28, 2008
Directed by:
Cast:
In "21," an M.I.T. math whiz joins a secret cabal of card-counters who fly to Vegas on the weekends to make a killing at the blackjack tables. That's the hook, the part you might not have seen in a thousand other films. But the rest is as generic as the title ("21"? Really? That's the best you could come up with?), a story about a nobody who becomes a somebody, forsakes his friends, and learns What's Really Important.
Yawn is right. This is a prime example of a movie that isn't bad, per se, just unnecessary, a competently made but wholly unremarkable trifle. It trades exclusively in clichés and stock characters -- and yet, strangely, director Robert Luketic ("Legally Blonde") seems to believe he has made something compelling and original. And I have to think, if I'VE seen lots of movies exactly like this one, then shouldn't Luketic have done so as well?
[To read the rest of the review, please visit Cinematical.]
Grade: C+
Rated PG-13, a little profanity, brief partial nudity, some mild sexuality, a little violence
1 hr., 58 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
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This item has 4 comments
April 3, 2008 at 7:58 am
This is, quite possibly, the only time I have thought you were wrong, Eric. It seems you've missed the point of 21 completely. In other films portraying evil, sin, temptation, etc, it tends to be hokey and unbelievable as a real-life possibility. In 21 the temptation is so near, so easy and so harmless- you can either do it or not- it wouldn't affect you, either way. That's the only thing that makes evil possible- apathy.
21 shows the slight, gentle hand of evil in a relationship between Sturgess and Spacey that is so subtle and comprehendable- from mentor to friend to protector and admirer- and when Spacey lashes out like the devil himself; you realize that your life is no longer your own, your choices are not your own. He owns you.
April 3, 2008 at 9:12 am
I didn't like this movie. It was extremely boring, particularly if you consider the subject matter and the hijinks they got up to. I really recommend the book, though. The book is great.
I even recommend the documentary (Discovery Channel? History? Travel? one of those channels) over the movie.
The movie, by the way, only bears a fleeting resemblance to the book.
June 8, 2008 at 6:18 am
What bugged me most about the movie (besides the weak plot that Eric describes) was how entitled everyone felt. In the beginning, Ben whines about how he's so smart but no one will give him a free ride to one of the most elite institutions in the world (and by the way, if he's so poor, how is he paying for MIT?). Kid, just do it the way the rest of us plebeians do: go to a state school and take out craploads of student loans.
The movie's lack of a moral compass also troubled me. It doesn't ever come out and say that card counting is wrong, but if it isn't, then why are they being so sneaky about it? And besides Ben, no one else had a motive for making all that money playing blackjack. Professor Rosa wants to go on a sabbatical? Jill is playing blackjack because she used to play it with her dead father? I'm not buying it, movie. Without motivations they just look like greedy, elitist jerks who feel entitled to money because they're smarter than everyone else.
August 6, 2008 at 3:42 am
My husband and I agreed that it's like Ocean's 11 for people who thought Ocean's 11 was too complicated.