It was just okay..

Rating: 5/10 (27 June 2008)

21 is a film by Robert Luketic starring Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, and Lawrence Fishburne. It is inspired by the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team, and is based on Ben Mezrich's bestselling book, Bringing Down the House. The film revolves around Ben Campbell, a Harvard Medical School hopeful studying at MIT. His dreams of going to HMS are put on hold because he does not have the necessary amount of money required to enroll. He is pulled into a group of 'geniuses' who, under the supervision of Mickey Rosa, their mathematics professor, learn the art of counting cards in order to outplay the casinos in Vegas.
All of the above added with some flashy Las Vegas images, heartfelt (not really!) best friends, a cheesy sequence near the end, and a non-existent romantic chemistry between Sturgess and Bosworth, makes 21. It's not as bad as I make it sound. The introduction is nice, so is the technique in which they show how one learns card counting. I had no difficulty in understanding it at all. The film is fairly gripping with some nice background music, and the Vegas shots are kind of okay. I've seen much better though. Jim Sturgess and Kevin Spacey are the only ones who actually act. Kate Bosworth is flat. I loved her in Superman Returns. Here, she hardly makes an effort to act. Plus, she looks highly weird (with her whole doll-hair). And lets not even talk about Lawrence Fishburne. The film is verging on two hours. It might have been a better movie if they did away with about 15 minutes (read: the whole best friend thing!). It got a little boring near the middle.
I liked Jim Sturgess in Across the Universe. He was quite good here too. He's building a nice career for himself. Getting to the main point.. If you've got nothing better to do, you can watch 21. You surely wont be missing anything if you don't.
5/10.