Mediocre.

Rating: 7/10 (19 March 2018)

This is a movie that tries to act smarter than it is. It exists in a world that is inherently intelligent, since counting cards clearly takes skill and innate talent. The card counting is shown in a way that makes it so that the audience understands what is going on, but doesn't have to actually learn the skill of card-counting for themselves, which is definitely good. The characters also go to MIT, which is obviously a place that takes crazy intelligence to get into. So, basically this world should be intelligent. But at its core, it really isn't. There aren't plot holes per se, but the characters definitely miss things that they shouldn't miss. Given everything that is shown about Mickey before the climax indicates that he should really have been too smart to accept Ben's proposal. I really think he would have smelt a rat and not taken the bait. The minor team members, including Jill, didn't give the impression that they had an MIT level of intelligence. I can't think of a specific example, but just the way that they characters interacted with each other and particularly the content of their arguments was not as intelligent as it should have logically been. Yes, having a great mind for engineering does not necessarily mean that you can argue well with someone, but it does often come with a level of perceptiveness and logical acuity that is lacking in the characters here. Not every movie has to be that smart, some shouldn't be, but this was a movie that should have. The main issue was that it started off with things like the game show host scenario in Mickey's class, and then ended with a Guy Ritchie-style reveal that just felt cheap.
The plus side of the movie is that it's somewhat entertaining and has a good, cinematically appealing subject matter. I mean, when you're doing something as cool as cheating the casino system, there's only so bad your movie can be. There's also some standardly cool camera/editing techniques in the casino scenes that are cool. It's also decently paced and keeps you interested in what will happen next.
However, the protagonist, Ben, is pretty flat. He's kind of like an action hero in that the stuff he does is cool and he has mad skills, but as a character, there's not much there. Despite what he says in the ending monologue, there isn't really that big of a change that he goes through from the beginning to the end. Yes, he learns to have fun and gains confidence as he learns how skillful of a card shark he can be, but he really doesn't learn anything in the end. Jill is about as standard and flat of a female lead as there is. Mickey is really only a decent character because he's played by Kevin Spacey (yeah, I've heard what he did, but the guy's a heck of an actor). The other parts are similarly unremarkable, including Lawrence Fishburne. The only character that I actually liked was Miles, Josh Gad's comic relief character.
Overall, it isn't bad, but it's really nothing special despite what it may try to fool you into thinking. It will keep you entertained for two hours, but you'll probably forget it soon afterward. One final bone to pick, there really didn't have to be as many scenes in the strip club as there were, especially in a PG-13 movie. Basically, my main problem with the movie is that it could have been much better given the subject matter and the world that was created in it. So watch it if you want, but don't expect anything on an Ocean's Eleven level. Overall Rating: 6.9/10.