21 {2008}

Cast: Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne
Director: Robert Luketic
Running Time: 123 mins

Inspired by true events the film 21 follows a young and genius MIT student Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) who joins MIT professor Micky Rosa's (Kevin Spacey) secret blackjack team. He is then trained to count cards along with his other student/partners who proceed to practice their new found talents in the Vegas casinos over the weekend.

Campbell swears to stay in the team only for as long as it takes to get him enough money for his tuition but soon gets trapped in the world of Vegas and its vices. The film also features Kate Bosworth, who plays team mate and Campbell's love interest Jill Taylor, and Laurence Fishburne who plays the washed up casino security agent who also shares a long history with Rosa. The film is directed by Robert Luketic who's best known for Legally Blonde and was based on the bestselling book by Ben Mezrich, Bringing Down the House.

The film delivers much of what is expected from a casino/ Vegas movie coming out from the US these days. The film does little to wow the crowd in terms of the plotline and in all fairness could do much better if it was complete fiction. Still the film was not in the least bit original in its delivery and was predictable right throughout its two hour span. In fact its two-hour span seemed around 30 minutes longer than what was required for what seemed like an unimportant and ultimately pointless script. The film regretfully got caught up in a genre where vastly greater movies have been there and done that 'better.'

Most of the main characters of which the film is based on are Asian-Americans. However in classic Hollywood style the casting only had two minor roles for Asian American actors Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira. The story itself had Hollywood written all over it as did the directing and the script. What seemed to be a decent story in the first half and hour soon deteriorated into a predictable melodrama of truly Hollywood-like proportions.

Jim Sturgess who was cast as the lead in Across The Universe played a seemingly uncharismatic and downright boring front man around whom the entire story hinged flimsily. His performance was no better as his clear lack of personality showed greatly especially in depicting the changes within Campbell's character as a result his new found wealth and confidence. His chemistry with lead actress Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns) also suffered at the hands of a completely uninteresting script which failed to deal out even an iota of charm. Bosworth who played along Kevin Spacey (Usual Suspects, American Beauty) for the third time delivered a forgettable performance that can only be regarded as what can be expected of a largely one dimensional character. The great Kevin Spacey however suffered at the hands of an over-embroidered character that seemed inconsistent and plain annoying at times. Spacey's performance no doubt kept the movie from being an out and out fluffbox but none-the-less failed to give that injection of life which we are so used to seeing in his performances.

Laurence Fishburne was completely and utterly infuriating. He only proves his worth at the end and much to my irritation ruined what hope I had for decent closure. The final scenes of the film seemed to pull the rug from underneath me after what I was built up to expect by the rest of the movie but then it all ends with a giant hollywoodised one liner which pretty much summed up the entire film for me. If you hope to learn a few tricks from the movie, keep hoping because it reveals nada.

There was certainly a bit of hype building up for the movie and the story seemed to be an interesting one. Nothing however could ready the world for the cliché they were in for as the script, the acting and the plot all came together for a team performance of intolerably overcooked garbage with a tinge of big budget formula which will almost always work with less expectant audiences.

What more could you expect from the likes of such directorial talent then from that which bestowed upon us the likes of Legally Blonde and Monster in Law.