cool, sassy fun

Rating: 6/10 (3 May 2008)

21 is the kind of movie that ensures you even if your knowledge and tolerance of card games is zilch and thin, that they are sexed up enough to keep you watching. Ben Campbell is a young student, with a genius-like understanding of numeracy. This interests his lecturer (Kevin Spacey, clearly on weekend night-shift form) who assembles a crack team of young geniuses, including Kate Bosworth as a rocket scientist (don't laugh), to rip-off the Vegas casinos through card-counting. The movie's intellect never aspires to the level of it's subjects, but the visual aesthetics and bouncy tone are enough to wet even the most ardent of anti-gamblers' appetites.