21 seems eerily similar to the Last Casino

Rating: 7/10 (12 April 2008)

The movie was good but awfully familiar....In fact, living in Canada, there was a film called "The Last Casino" starting Charles Martin Smith as a University Professor who assembled a team of his brighter students and taught them how to count cards playing Black Jack. While certainly there were differences between the two films, I couldn't help but get the feeling I'd seen it all before. I did enjoy the acting of Jim Sturgess as the main character, and Kevin Spacey was chillingly evil. Kate Bosworth was good, but mostly eye candy. Laurence Fishburne had a good role as a Security consultant at the casino. I have to admit, the scenes where Jim Sturgess was showing his mind worked while counting the cards was ingenious. It gave the feeling that everything was slowed down and he could interpret the cards in a leisurely fashion, while in fact it was probably happening at break neck speed. The ending was satisfying.