Tuesday, April 8

Review of the Movie, 21

I haven't done a movie review in quite a while. Partly because I don't have a chance to get out much. No fun for me, however, I was able to have a little fun last weekend and see the movie, 21. Despite the catastrophic event that occurred 3/4ths through the movie, I enjoyed it. Inspired by a true story, 21 is a movie that inspires me to learn how to count cards and go to Las Vegas, but that will never happen.

I'll explain to you the basic plot of the story. Some MIT students, led by a professor who isn't quite what he seems, tries to trick the system at the blackjack tables by a card-counting scheme. They succeed for for a while, but like a plague, horrible things follow greed, and they eventually get caught. The movie is an intriguing idea, and for the most part, kept my attention. However, there wasn't much you could fit into the movie without making it the shortest movie ever, so they through in some nifty camera effects and I was sitting there thinking, "Get on with it!", as it runs on for two hours and two minutes.

Jim Sturgess, a British actor who was also in "Across The Universe," plays Ben Campbell, the MIT student who's reluctant at first, but later decides to join in on the scheme only to get money to pay for med school ($300,000 at Harvard). Kevin Spacey - yet again - succeeds at playing the sneaky bad guy as the professor/ ultimate retired card counter, and there's a subplot about how human security people in Vegas are being replaced by biometrics -- only Laurence Fishburne plays the security guy who proves humans are better than computers.

I'm going to stop here and let you know my final verdict. Simply put, I liked it. It was slow at times, but the nifty camera shots and snazzy camera angles were a joy to watch for me as I better appreciate the work that goes into that having taken some great camera courses a while back. Still, I think something was lacking and I just can't put my finger on it. Perhaps my experience was ruined when the film burned as I watched the movie. As you would expect, there were some unhappy viewers, but they were able to fix it and provide some free tickets!

I would definitely recommend it as a rental if you are not up to going to the theatre to watch it.

3.5 out of 5 Stars

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

21 was a great movie, I happened to have the chance to watch it last weekend and it was great! Sounds like you enjoyed it quite a bit too, I actually got hooked on those bells and whistles for a while, haha.

JoCoWash said...

Yeah, I did enjoy it. Had it not of been for the film burning in the middle of it, I would have enjoyed it even more. One of these days I'll watch it again.

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