Kevin Spacey stars as Micky Rosa, a university professor who takes a select team of students, lead by new recruit Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) to Las Vegas for some 'life experience'.
What he actually means is they're off to 'count cards’ which, while perfectly legal, is rather frowned upon by Casino owners and their strong arm security staff.
21 is based on the non fiction book 'Bringing Down the House' by Ben Mezrich. In fact, 'inspired by' might be a more accurate term. That the actual MIT Blackjack Team was lead by Asian Americans and most of the cast in 21 are white should tell you just how 'inspired' Hollywood felt.
They say:
MTV: "Pleasurable to give in to and go along with."
TimeOut: "A thriller about law abiding undergrads gone down the rabbit hole."
Empire: "Ocean’s Eleven: The College Years."
We say:
The home of the genuine Blackjack Team this story is supposedly based on, MIT in Massachusetts, would not let 21’s producers shoot on site due to the negative impression they felt it would give.
Leaving aside the fact that the film would have made MIT seem rather cool, the so called 'genuine events' depicted in 21 bear so little relation to what actually happened that they could have shot the entire film in a space station and still got away with the 'based on a true story' tag.
Why did Hollywood feel they could not bet on race? It appears that to make the team Asian, the producers would have needed to toss in some schoolgirl uniforms and samurai swords. The group may be presented onscreen as multiracial, but the clique aspires to so much 'whiteness' their transition is less nerds to dudes and more maths club to frat house.
Reach beyond these shortcomings though and there is an enjoyable night out here. Even if, unusually for a multiplex pic, 21 flags at the beginning and end and picks up in the middle. The second act is all Las Vegas, you see. That's when the CGI and flashy art direction come into play with all the subtlety of a powder blue wedding chapel.
Slot this alongside the impending sense of doom prevailing over any film about a novice card player and, yet again, that all important voiceover to explain every little detail our usually reliable eyes and ears fail to comprehend and you have a slick filmmaking 101.
21 rarely flags in its ability to entertain, but is never particularly convincing. The bludgeoned iconography of the title (Ben Campbell is 21 years old, the film is called 21, 21 in frosting on the birthday cake etc) takes you out of the story and into the script meetings with movie execs panicking over releasing anything with a number in the title that isn't a sequel.
As the wide eyed rookie, rising lead Jim Sturgess acquits himself admirably, even with Kevin Spacey's snarling spittle drowning their every scene - ditto too for burly Laurence Fishburne and his eye watering ring collection. If neither of these old timers were being very generous to the new boy, this duly spurned his performance past mediocre and into the 'must watch career with interest' category.
Sturgess' relationship with Kate Bosworth's nerdy totty is also oddly believable - this despite her inability to look remotely intelligent and ability to parade around in a staggering push up bra. She also seems too old for the part, rather as though Campbell was dating a mature student hiding a couple of kids and a wedding ring back home.
Spacey's spiteful tutor is the most appealing however. A 1980s snapshot of his heyday hustling in The Entertainment Capital of the World would have been preferable to this fascinating, yet disposably teenybopper version of Rain Man.
That concept might have been too much of a gamble for a $35 million studio budget though - the same, apparently, as the four uncredited Asian kids who made the whole thing happen in the first place.
Extras:
A less than full deck for this, the epitome of the inoffensive (unless you’re Asian) thriller. Tacky 'Party Poker' style DVD menus lead to just three lonely extras - director/ producers commentary, three mini featurettes and a few trailers.
The blackjack history/ counting cards doc is the most enjoyable, as several of the young cast get involved in a (largely bewildering, but thankfully short) dealer beating tutorial. However it does look a tad like something you'd find on Sky Three in the middle of the night. Liza Lapira (Kianna in the movie) seems to know what she's on about though. If you're going to run away to Vegas with anybody, make it her.
Don't bother with the filmmakers commentary unless you have some serious time to kill ('I love this cinematography' - great, we're pleased you like your film so much).
The trailers are trailers, nothing too thrilling, unless a Men in Black Blu-Ray with added doggie quiz sends your pulse soaring?
All in all, 21 remains forgettable fluff to perk up a rainy Saturday evening.
CAST
Jim Sturgess
Kevin Spacey
Laurence Fishburne
Kate Bosworth
Aaron Yoo
DIRECTOR
Robert Luketic
TIME
123 mins
POSTED...
Tue 15 Apr at 5:03pm
