Blackjack, no but not a bust either.

Rating: 7/10 (22 July 2008)

21 is pretty much as advertised in the many trailers I had seen, but in this case that's not all bad. It's trailer pretty much sets up the whole movie, introduces pretty much every character and gives me a pretty good guess as to how it will all play out. Trust me in no movie where the character says "I'm going to do this but just until I get a set amount of money, then I'm out" do they ever hold true, never. I guess that would make for a very boring story, maybe, then again maybe not. Anyway the predictability for the most part doesn't bother me here, I'm too distracted by some solid performances and just some amazingly beautiful cinematography and camera work in all the Las Vegas scenes. But, and yes there is one, in the early moments of this film there is a scene that leaves the main character in what he feels is a hopeless situation, of course him not having the benefit of seeing the trailer like we all have, he doesn't know that the answer to his problem is just around the corner. Which separates us from the character and makes all the scenes after where he doesn't know what he's going to do so pointless to the audience. Also that early scene I mentioned earlier, remember? Ya, that anyone could watch that scene and not figure how this whole thing was going to end is beyond me. So I guess my bottom line is, the trailer tells you everything but doesn't seem to ruin it because it is a fun ride, the only thing that remains a mystery is how the ride will end, well the first 10 minutes took care of that mystery for me, so what remains, the fun ride and yes it is. Kevin Spacey is great, and by the way where has he disappeared to recently. Jim Strugess is a great up and coming young actor and Kate Bosworth plays her part well enough (but she should never have been Louis Lane). Laurence Fishburne has been better, way better but the length and pace of this film leaves little time to delve much deeper into his character and what time he has he puts to good use. Overall a fun and enjoyable movie, but far from worthy of a Chicken Dinner.