Customer Reviews

21 (+ BD Live) [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Films about gambling and Las Vegas in particular have always held a certain fascination with the public, culminating with perhaps the ultimate Vegas movie OCEAN'S ELEVEN. But this week we have a release of a film that takes the Vegas movie a whole new direction. Most stunning of all is that it is in part based on a true story.

TWENTY ONE is the story of Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), a struggling student at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) who has hopes of attending Harvard Med School. A grade A student with a 4.0 average, Ben is interviewed for a full ride scholarship. All he has to do is present an essay describing a life experience that sets him out above the other several hundred students applying. The problem is he has nearly no life experience.

That all changes when he starts a class taught by Prof. Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey). During the class, Rosa notices Ben's aptitude with numbers and mathematical equations. In turn, he invites him to join a select group of students Rosa has put together. The reason? Using the technique of counting cards, they plan to make a mint in Vegas at the blackjack tables.

At first hesitant to do so, Ben finally comes around and joins the group which consists of Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), Choi (Aaron Yoo), Kianna (Liza Lapira) and Fisher (Jacob Pitts). The group learns to not only count cards, they put together a set of signals to let the lead player know which tables are hot and when to move on. When they have it down, they become Vegas bound.

It runs like clockwork. The tables return them all a tidy profit and back to school they go, only to return weekend after weekend. Along the way a romance develops between Ben and Jill, Choi continues to pilfer tiny items everywhere he goes and Fisher places the entire project in jeopardy with a drunken night at the tables. The result is Fisher gets booted and Ben becomes the big cheese.

With money coming in like never before, the rush of taking on the tables in Vegas and finding love at last, Ben's life changes but not for the better. Grades become a thing of the past as do his friends. His focus becomes making more and more money until he takes a chance he can't come back from.

A bad night at the tables results in Micky cutting Ben lose and leaving the team in their hotel room alone. Making the decision to go it alone, Ben gets caught by Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne), the head of security for the hotel casino. Not only does he get caught, Cole has a grudge against an old gambler he lost years ago...named Micky Rosa.

The twists and turns at the end of the film along with the build up from the start make this a compelling movie that holds your attention from the starting gate. Ben's life riding a roller coaster of lows, highs and a return to the lows makes for an interesting tale that turned out much better than I expected.

All performances seen in this flick are totally believable from the leads to the secondary characters. While Spacey may have been the "name above the title" in getting this movie made, he doesn't take center stage here, instead opting to work with the ensemble and that is to the benefit of the film.

Based on the true story of a group of MIT students who actually did take Vegas for a ton of money, though not nearly in the same way shown here for dramatic effect, the film is certain to get the hopes up of gamblers seeking a way to beat the bank. Don't get caught up in that notion as the house is always the favorite. Instead, get caught up in the tale of a group of students led by a charismatic teacher who take a gamble and end up getting more than they bargained for.

The movie is based on a true story, but the plot is changed so much from the book, it is hardly recognizeable. The movie captures the excitement of the team counting cards in Vegas, but the characters are unbelievable. Kevin Spacey plays a vindictive professor who organizes the team. Spacey does a competent job, but the character's motivations are so over the top that it is unbelievable he's never been caught or he can keep his job as a professor at MIT. Sturgess plays a very smart student trying to make some money because he was accepted into Havard Med. School. The timeline is very confusing. Is the whole story a flashback? However, I thought the essay is what kicked the plot off. The love story is not very convincing or interesting. Also, these Vegas trips were business trips for these students. According to the accounts I read, they did not regularly go to strip clubs. They went on overnight trips. They did not have time to for all the partying in the movie.

The aspects of the movie I liked best was how they showed the signaling and card counting working. The gambling was done well. The scenes of college life were good.

In summary, it is not a horrible movie, but it could have been so much better. The real story is fascinating. The movie only partially generates that excitement.

fun film to watch
nothing screams oscars but its a good movie for whenever you need something to watch
-kind of predictable but a sick ending twist
-gambling scenes are fun to watch
-genius envy for the characters that graduate MIT with a 4.0
-dont have to be a genius to count cards
all in all a good flick

Many critics have found the movie distressed and compromised by the lack of vitality that should be excited by any movie that has Vegas as its stage. Indeed they do not overdraw from a tale that rehearses the usual rut of a good guy forced by circumstances to use his talents to an immoral strain so as to keep up with the rest of the world. The story is based on the book "Bringing Down the House", about the experiences of MIT student Jeff Ma and his team of gambling buddies, yet it deals with situations that both add and detract from the truth and the fiction alike. In the process of translating the narrative as a movie script the story absorbs qualities that feel jaded and ordinary by Hollywood standards, and the sensationalism of the story is depressed by the memory of Ocean's 11 and Casino, movies that have raised the stakes so high 21 flops by comparison. Not to mention the radically simplified version of the "cheating" strategy employed by the students, which seems to be so arithmatically feasible that one wonders why it does not happen more often. And by the way it does happen but to say that it is possible is not saying anything beyond the dreamy subtitle of a Vegas trip.

The movie does have numerous redemptive qualities, some of which have been so indiscreetly dealt with by most critics it gives credit to the theatregoers who simply discuss movies for fun and not as a professional happenstance. The movie has a subpolt filthy rich with a wealth of psychology that it is unfortunate the leading role went to Jim Sturgess. The star of the team of brains that "plays" the casinos is frightful to watch. This is undoubtedly the worst acting in a leading role in a long time. Emotionally he is a dud; his intelligence never shines through; his panache is invisible; his anxiety mechanical; and his attraction for Jill is melodramatic without the hint of affection and as if it were not enough, his supposed timidity is something we deduce more so by hearsay than by any true acting merit. If reminded of another Boston genius played by Matt Damon in "Good Will Hunting" we realize how bad the performance is. And he stands alongside Kevin Spacey, who is in top form as a math professor that recruits the students and schools them on how to take down the house. The wry sarcasm, the coiled irony and the implacable cynicism we have come to admire is delivered with taste as always. He elicits well the emotional farce of a stigmatized, pulverizing, insensitive, crass, demoniacal soulless leader that corrupts and avenges without any notion of a limit ever being entertained. Spacey is fabulous and Laurence Fishburne is far too good for the role dealt him, but as all great actors have time and again reminded us, there is no such thing as a small role. He practically takes over the movie. His struggles and fears, the demons of the past that haunt him and the vengence he craves as a anodyne to a tarrying heartache is impressive. His psychosis is balanced just enough to climax with irresistable loathsomeness, all the while rendered so vitally sympathethic we end up siding with him, to some extent, only to be reminded by the plot that we should not have according to script. And what about Jill? yes the genius gal who is second shafted because of gender by the math prof, she seduces the audience, even Ben (although the acting made us wonder quite a bit). Kate Bosworth emotionally composed performance fits well with the directive of her role. This film reunites her with co-star/director Kevin Spacey and director Robert Luketic. She demonstrates the maturity of an actress scintillatingly beyond the clammy classless fixture of her romantic counterpart. She admonishes Ben on several occassions thereby functioning as a alloy to his instinct and as a monition of conscience, which all american movies must support in some way so as to be rated PG-13, as this one is. Not a scene where she becomes sexy merely by physical disclosure, rather she is sensual because of her aloof poignant approach to rational stirrings. She evades close-ups, she dashes through frames as if by impetus and never loses the momentum claimed from the moment she enters the intricacies of the drama. She deserves a better mate, but the role of Ben is an excessively demanding character to do justice to.

The outstanding quality of the movie resides in its exploration of the reason/emotion dichotomy. The two spheres seem to be mutually-exclusive until we do indeed approach Shakespearean heights that defy any such garbled psychology. We are brought to economize the sentimental pragmatism that is required of such a narrative by tracing the vulnerability that such a distinction isolates. Please watch the movie again, those of you who've failed to illuminate this aspect of a trajectory that takes us card after card unto a universe where rational dictates are full force countermanded by emotional traces, and the two domains clash and clang to a barely audible cacophany that goes beyond the moral lithanies we often impose on the ethics of a movie. Here there is no such thing. We see Lady MacBeth, we see Iago, we see Othello. There have been few movies that have been able to unearth the benumbing force that these separate universes betray. 21 succeeds in this, more so than the book on which it is based. And the performances of Spacey, Fishburne, Bosworth, and not least Jacob Pitts in the role of Fisher make it a flick worth viewing. The last actor in the aforementioned list, Jacob Pitts, sidled into a minor role that is played flawlessly that storms about with thunderous energy.

21 has fertile layers, that if one is willing to explore, will yield a chill and lead to question the intellectual quality of emotion and vice versa as a proverbial Shakespearean drama has the stealth to do. And yes Jim Sturgess was legitimate in "Across the Universe", but here we have a star that drags the movies down while everyone else tries to salvage what it may.

Based on a true story, the movie makes the gambling and risky life style very glamorous.

My thoughts:

- settings, props, buildings, scenes are all believable and adds to the realism

- it looks too easy to maintain that lifestyle. Flying from the east coast to Las Vegas every weekend? That's exhausting. I can't imagine how it's possible to keep such composure through the night.

- Kate Bosworth. Goodness, she is charming and beautiful.

Adventurous movie. You'll feel like you're right there by their side while they're winning or losing.

If your expecting a movie about the book 'Bringing Down the House' you will not be happy about your rental/purchase. I didn't believe the poor reviews at first and so I rented it...I wish I had listened.

The story is narrated by our main character throughout the film and it is horrible to listen to for both content and the annoyance of his voice.

They really Hollywooded up the plot, with all the predictable twists and happy-ending everything-is-ok-in-the-end and we-have-learned-our-lesson bull-s...There was just nothing at all that stood out about this movie. They could have replaced BlackJack with any other activity, like skydiving, tennis, or working at a McDonalds and they could have reused much of the script and the plot lines. The second star is because I didn't shut it off part way through.

Wait until this one makes it to HBO.

In the movie 21,based on a true story, a college student at MIT wants to become a doctor and attend Harvard Medicial School. The problem is he has the grades but not the finances, until one of his math professors discovers his unique math skills. The professor has created a secert club within the school of some of the most gifted students, where they go to Los Vages each weekend and count cards in the game of blackjack. So he joins to pay for medicial school. He makes more money than he needs, and meets some of his best friends while participating in the club. One night in Vages everything goes wrong and he looses it all.
This movie is the perfect example of not taking what you have for granted, wheather it be friends or money. Life can change in the blink of an eye. Never let your ego get in the way of your future.

This could have had so much more but poor boy wants to have enough money to go to medical school. Has an aptitude for counting cards. You can fill in the rest. Its predictable and not very exciting.

Yet another "probably wouldn't rent if it wasn't that it was free" title, 21 seemed pretty exciting on the trailer, but fell sorta flat fully seen. This film's about a "brilliant with numbers" MIT student joining a secret college club that has figured out how to never lose at Blackjack in Vegas and walk away with thousands, all the while led by their professor, played by favorite Kevin Spacey was decent, but I kept asking myself, where did I see this story on film before? The lead is played by Jim Sturgess, who impressed me in Across The Universe, but here I could hear his English accent bleed out with every other word. Kate Bosworth, who starred in Superman Returns with Spacey, plays the love interest, but just didn't seem all that interesting.

In fact, the only thing interesting was how they got away with it, because the code-words, hand signals, and disguises seemed so transparent the film's ending should have happened when they first got off the plane! So if you're really big on Vegas Heist films, it's worth a view, but to most others, bet on another film and wait for cable.
(RedSabbath Rating:6.5/10)

I counted cards in Las Vegas, Reno, and Nassau during the 70's and 80's and made a good living at it. Rule changes and casino procedures now in place to thwart all the but the very best counters, make doing the same now difficult unless one wants to play forty or fifty hours a week with about a $300,000 bannkroll. This movie, although riddled with procedural BS, manages to catch some of the spirit and excitement of card counting. Several casinos, primarily in downtown Vegas, had no problem taking counters behind closed doors and roughing them up. Check out 21 history on www.bj21.com if you have the time to do so. This movie is a keeper and I highly recommend it.