Release Date:
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The Skinny: An MIT math whiz (played by the charisma-challenged Jim Sturgess) is sucked into the life of card counting by one of his professors (Kevin Spacey). The plot is somewhat predictable, but it's a decent ride.
Very Loosely Based on True Events: The only similarities between this and the book on which it is supposedly based (Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions) is that both main characters played blackjack. Everything else in 21 is pure Hollywood.
Reminded Us Of… Rounders, Casino, Good Will Hunting, our gambling addiction.
The Good: It looks great, and found a way to make watching blackjack interesting; there are a lot of cool gambling montages; Kate Bosworth is still really cute.
The Bad: This paint-by-numbers story includes every Hollywood cliché there is; Sturgess as the lead guy is pretty boring. We know math nerds aren't supposed to be cool, but since they changed everything else from the original story the least they could have done was given him some personality.
Best Extra: The "21 Virtual Blackjack Game" teaches you some, um, BJ skills and is quite addictive for an exclusive Blu-ray disc game. There are also some typical behind-the-scenes featurettes, which are on the 2-disc special edition as well.
Missed Special Feature Opportunity: A short documentary about the real team would have been awesome, but it's not here. Instead they interview one of the main MIT originals, who mainly sticks to the movie. Lame!
Here's an exclusive clip with some insight from the cast and crew.
Very Loosely Based on True Events: The only similarities between this and the book on which it is supposedly based (Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions) is that both main characters played blackjack. Everything else in 21 is pure Hollywood.
Reminded Us Of… Rounders, Casino, Good Will Hunting, our gambling addiction.
The Good: It looks great, and found a way to make watching blackjack interesting; there are a lot of cool gambling montages; Kate Bosworth is still really cute.
The Bad: This paint-by-numbers story includes every Hollywood cliché there is; Sturgess as the lead guy is pretty boring. We know math nerds aren't supposed to be cool, but since they changed everything else from the original story the least they could have done was given him some personality.
Best Extra: The "21 Virtual Blackjack Game" teaches you some, um, BJ skills and is quite addictive for an exclusive Blu-ray disc game. There are also some typical behind-the-scenes featurettes, which are on the 2-disc special edition as well.
Missed Special Feature Opportunity: A short documentary about the real team would have been awesome, but it's not here. Instead they interview one of the main MIT originals, who mainly sticks to the movie. Lame!
Here's an exclusive clip with some insight from the cast and crew.