"21" Review & Trailer
March 29, 2008 by Jane Boursaw
| Movie: 21 | In Theaters: | March 28, 2008 |
| MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity. | Gecko Rating: |  |
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is an MIT math whiz, just about ready to enter Harvard Medical School. Getting in is no problem. Paying for it’s another story. And while he’s smart and hard-working, Ben’s life experience is nil, having sacrificed his social life for school.
Enter the lure of Vegas. Professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) has a plan to gather the best of the best students, teach them the fine art of card-counting, and fly them to Sin City for money-making weekends. Along with Ben, there’s Jill (Kate Bosworth), Choi (Aaron Yoo), Kianna (Liza Lapira), and Fisher (Jacob Pitts).
More after the jump, including a trailer…
What they don’t know is that in the security office at the casino is Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne), whose keen eye and face recognition equipment does not bode well for the card-counters. That, and the fact that he and Professor Rosa have a history that’s as complicated as they come.
Pretty soon, Ben realizes that the allure of money and easy street may cost him everything — his future, his graduation from MIT, and his acceptance into Harvard.
Based on Ben Mezrich’s non-fiction book, “Bringing Down the House” (yes, it’s based on a true story about MIT student Jeff Ma), this movie is slick, stylish, and seductive.
But it seems more like a fun caper than a true story brought to life on the big screen. Kevin Spacey is a great bad guy, and ooh, when Laurence Fishburne gets mad, he really gets mad.
I love Jim Sturgess’ performance — he built his street creds with Across the Universe and The Other Boleyn Girl. But some cliched storylines and clunky dialogue keep this movie from being everything it could have been. Still, it’s a fun way to spend a couple of hours.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] 21 is still bringing ‘em in, which is surprising because it’s been out for several weeks. Nim’s Island really wasn’t that good in my opinion, so I’m shocked, SHOCKED! that it scored higher than Leatherheads. And frankly, I’m surprised Stop-Loss isn’t further up the chart. When I talked to Josh Seftel, director of War, Inc this weekend, he said he thought people didn’t want to go to a movie and get all depressed over the war. Maybe he’s right, and that’s why his war movie is funny. Believe me, I’m looking forward to it. Anyway, here’s the numbers from Box Office Mojo: [...]
[...] 3-21 - $10.8M [...]
[...] 9-21, $2.0M [...]
[...] Stars Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Jack Gilpin, Jack McGee, Laurence Fishburne, and Kevin Spacey. Gecko Review. PG-13. Buy It on [...]