Customer Reviews
**1/2 = I found this movie to be a lot of fun. 
2008-08-21
I have to say that Jim Sturgess is actually a very handsome guy. He was excellent in "Across the Universe," which made me think: would "21" be a good movie now that he's actually in it. But I would have to admit as well that anything with Kevin Spacey in it is worth seeing. And yes, Kate Bosworth is actually very hot.
So I rent "21" hoping for some good things. The movie is as predictable as it can be but that's okay. It still is a fun movie.
"21" is the story of Ben Campell (Sturgess) who is the smartest guy in MIT high school aka Straight A student. His math teacher Micky Rosa (Spacey) teaches him how to play Black Jack and gives him the rules about how to play Black Jack. Ben falls in love with a girl named Jill (Bosworth) and together on weekends, they go to Las Vegas.
But the biggest criminal in Las Vegas is the idiotic Cole Williams (played by Laurence Fishburne). Cole Williams has the death fist and spies on people playing first come first served basis games of Black Jack. But that's the catch, Ben must try to get rid of Cole Williams ASAP.
The movie is sure a lot of fun but there could be some rough spots you can add up to. First of all the ending is very predictable. We all knew that Ben was going to get the money to go off to college. So what else can you add up to?
Laurence Fishburne was actually pretty good. He sure is the devil to beat but at least he's got the whole idea and concept of his character. I'm sure he knows that he follows up to his character more than Kevin Spacey, which Kevin Spacey is doing being rude and an evil menace to Kate Bosworth like he was in "Superman Returns" and that's the weirdest you can get from a sequel.
I wouldn't say that "21" is a terrible movie, but it's one of those movies that you can venture of into Las Vegas. It's fun, but we've seen movies like that before. We've seen that type of stuff in the Oceans movies and "Casino Royale" only Jim Sturgess doesn't have Sean Connery or Daniel Craig James Bond style.
Like a lot of films, there is something to catch. And the catch with "21" was that it was a great concept but weak on story and silly on characters.
Great Vegas Movie! 
2008-08-20
I just came back from visiting Las Vegas for the first time and that inspired me to rent this movie. I am very impressed with 21.
The actors are great. Kevin Spacey is a great actor and he proves it again in this movie. The rest of the cast is great too.
The Blu-Ray looks great on a 1080p HDTV. Perhaps I just had Vegas fever from just being there but the scenes of the Strip and of the hotels make me feel like i'm right back in Vegas.
This is a great movie for a Blackjack fan, a Vegas fan, or just a fan of great movies. Highly recommended!
21 - a fun Ride while it lasted 2008-08-19
Jim Sturgess plays Ben, a working-class science nerd . He needs to find tuition for Harvard. Along comes his favorite math professor, Kevin Spacey, with an offer of extra credit that pays off in hard cash. The clincher is an invitation from the campus golden girl,Kate Bosworth, to join the team.
Ben ignores the obvious foreshadowing and joins Team Vegas, a gang of weekend card sharks with seductive double lives. At least until he loses his mentor's money and Spacey turns his charm into a threat.
Without giving away too much, let me just say, if you enjoy the rush of the fast life, and you also enjoyed the book "Bringing Down the House", give this movie a go.
21 reasons TO SKIP THIS FILM ! 2008-08-19
21. The soundtrack is a cacophony of bad music including rap, some folk and modern rock. Soundtrack diversity in film is great when it some thought and flow is considered such as the album to Pulp Fiction or Smokin Aces, but this is more like a random pick of blare.
20. Not enough Kevin Spacey, he's on the front of the poster and the DVD cover but he's hardly anywhere in the film, the few appearances he makes could've been shot in a single day.
19. Laurence Fishburne is so chubby he's unrecognizable he could audition for Chef I don't know if he pounded up for this film but this isn't the Morpheus you're used to.
18. Cute Kate Bosworth, but not enough of her and NO I DON'T MEAN NUDITY, I mean just not enough of her in the film.
17. Skip the main character Ashton Kutcher look alike and just get the real Ashton instead, this guy tries too hard to be Ashton and the only thing more annoying than Ashton Kutcher is an actor imitating Ashton Kutcher !!!
16. There isn't even a decent montage, "...we're gonna need a montage, even Rocky had a montage.." whelp, not this film.
15. Not enough technical details for the audience nerds, no emphasis on the real technique of the card counting or the surveillance of the casinos.
14. The characters have about as much depth as pee on a flat rock, there is more time spent developing the strippers than the main cast.
13. Not enough emphasis on Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne), we can tell he's a struggling business and expert at spotting cheats but the audience thirsts for more backstory -does he have a prison record, ex cop, who knows?
12. The shots of Boston and Harvard are better than any of the film of Vegas, there was no effort to show anything about the luster of Las Vegas or even the airport.
11. You gotta have night-vision goggles to watch this film, the whole thing is shot in strip bars, dark dorms and fading escalators.
10. There isn't any morale lesson or struggle in this film despite the fact the poster lures the viewer into believing there is one.
9. The rise and fall of the character is pitiful when you watch the devoted nerd main character dump his loyal friends for the new popular card counting kids then comes crawling back when he's dumped by them and their unwinding scheme.
Reasons #8 - 1, If you still need a reason to skip this film then take a deck of cards with you whether it is in from of the DVD or DVR and play a card game with this junk film as background noise !
Loved it! 
2008-08-18
Fun and Entertaining, really enjoyed this movie, even more so because it's based on a true story. I'm really puzzled as to why this wasn't more of a box office success. A hidden gem, highly recommended.
cool heist film 2008-08-14
Inspired by the true story of MIT students who mastered the art of card counting and took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings. Looking for a way to pay for tuition, Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) finds himself quietly recruited by MIT's most gifted students in a daring plot to break Vegas. With the help of a brilliant statistics professor (Kevin Spacey) and armed with fake IDs, intelligence and a complicated system of counting cards, Ben and his friends succeed in breaking the impenetrable casinos. Now, his challenge is keeping the numbers straight and staying one step ahead of the casinos before it all spirals out of control.
Some loose ends and holes, but certainly worth viewing 2008-08-14
Okay, I have not read the book this was based on, so I don't know how accurate it is. Still, it is a compelling story of the attraction of a lot of money, an ambitious and needy student, a conniving professor, and what happens when you compromise on integrity in the quest to get rich fast.
Kevin Spacey gives a fine performance as the professor in question, who sucks in a group of gifted students in his scheme to make gazillions of dollars in Vegas via card counting at 21. Jim Sturgess, the newest team member, turns out to be the smartest but also the most desperate, and it becomes clear that excitement, alcohol, and complacency can wear down even the most serious card-counters.
I would have liked seeing some crawls at the end explaining what really happened to these students, their professor, and the casino "eyes" who kept an eye on the action and the perpetrators. Unfortunately, we are left to wonder about their true fate. Also, who the heck would hide huge stacks of money under a loose ceiling panel in a dorm room? Nobody--except one guy in this movie.
Insulting to the informed viewer 
2008-08-14
From the outset of this farce it is clear that the creators of this film did not do their homework. Granted, as a private school alum with a math degree who has also spent many an hour playing blackjack and counting cards, who also has a passing knowledge of the russian language, I was in a unique position to either tear this film apart or thoroughly enjoy the rich nuances one would expect about a movie that appealed to me on so many levels. Massive run-on sentences aside, this movie fails on many levels. If you are hoping to find in this film Bringing Down the House brought to life, you will sadly have to wait 20 years for the inevitable remake. This movie is for laypeople who want to envision winning lots and lots of money and screwing the casinos. In the interest of retaining the few readers who have read this far, I will now list the many lapses:
1. When the protagonist (PROT) is first introduced to the secret card counting society, watch the cards that Spacey deals. Keep your eye on them as the camera cuts back and forth to PROT. The number of and orientation of the cards is different each time we cut back to Spacey, though he is clearly just chatting the entire time and has not manipulated the deck at his side.
2. PROT devises a new method for solving equations on the first homework assignment of an undergraduate math class? Sorry, that's absurd. Also absurd is that Spacey doesn't even call any attention to it until PROT has reasoned through the silly variable change problem. Further, the lecture material would seem more appropriate for a 100 or perhaps 200 level course and not MIT seniors.
3. The name on the fake russian id is mispronounced. The pronunciation they use transposes the actual letters of the last name on the id. How convincing of a con can you be if you can't even pronounce your own name?
4. The movie goes to elaborate lengths to demonstrate that PROT is an ungodly genius among men. Such intelligence is not necessary for card counting.
5. Einstein reincarnate would not need signals from his cohorts after having sat at the table and played. The signals and code words inform him of the count at the time of his entry, whereupon he presumably would commence counting for himself.
6. An MIT valedictorian of limited financial means who finds new solutions to age old problems, which have previously been slogged through by generations of students, professors, and scientists, would find himself with a generous scholarship to Harvard. If nothing else, it would be easy for him to borrow money. I'd speculate he's already had to borrow plenty to get through MIT, but the coffers do not tend to dry up for students of his ilk. He would have no problem getting the money he needs legitimately, even if he fails to win the prestigious full ride.
7. Does the PROT intend to pay for Harvard Med in cash? Why else would he stash hundreds of thousands of dollars in the rafters of his dorm room? The money should have been deposited in interest bearing accounts and later claimed as gambling winnings.
8. There's an "intense" scene early on where PROT is forced to fill his pants up with cash in the airport bathroom before he boards his first plane to Vegas. From Boston. No one cares if you are carrying large sums of money on a domestic flight. It would be more problematic to be found with money in your pants during a random security check or to appear as if you're smuggling a bomb under your sweatshirt. The scene seems to be an ignorant homage to the great movie I recommend in the next sentence.
If you want to watch an awesome movie about true to life gambling, check out Owning Mahowny.
Awful 2008-08-13
Terribly disapointing movie. Kevin Spacey mails it in, playing the same likable villain he played in The Client, minus the southern accent. Choopy, uneven, inplausible script. No character development. Just a waste of time.
Haven't we bet on this script before? And Won? 2008-08-12
I can't think of the exact movie... but about 10 minutes in I thought I'd seen this all before. About an hour in I knew every part of the ending. It was an absolute cliche' from opening credits to ending credits. My god- it even had a VO Montage ending.
If you're dying for a kids version of Ocean's Eleven- this is it. If you want 'the Goonies do Vegas'- this is it. If you want a good movie with a decent plot and a lot of believable characters who can act... this isn't it.
