Pretty Good Story, but with bland support and poor middle

Rating: 6/10 (26 September 2009)

"21" reportedly inspired by real events has pretty good pull and storyline. The leads in the movie of Sturgess and Kevin Spacey do a respectable job keeping the picture afloat. However (spoilers), the rest of the "team" and development for supporting actors is underdeveloped and unremarkable. They become cut-outs in the background - almost stick figures. Worst of all is Bosworth who may be a better actress than this role provides, but is utterly uninteresting and unbelievable as MIT brainiac, and playing the love-interest blandly. Lawrence Fishbourne in a guest-starring role gives the movie a bit of depth and validity while the finale scene(s) are foregone conclusions and predictable as are a lot of the happenings the simple drive of the story works and is entertaining. This is something akin to "Rounders" but not quite as good. The middle third or so of the movie feels empty nonetheless as edits show too many boring Vegas parties and lavishings devoid of meaning or fire. Finally The narration is satisfactory as well as the ending, so Overall mildly recommended if you like gambling.