21 (2008)

The critic universe has not been kind to 21. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has scored a 35% (the percentage of critics that said the film was good). I guess that I fall into that 35 percent. I love these kinds of movies. These movies that take a simple phrase and twist it into a brilliant thriller (for example-fighting for Fight Club-drugs for Limitless-and card counting for 21). And 21 is not a brilliant thriller. It is a dramatic thriller that takes a true life story and makes it interesting. It takes the true-life story of a group of MIT students that took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the casinos by card counting in blackjack and turns it into a dramatic thriller that is a lot of fun to watch. The film’s main character is played by Jim Sturgess, who I have never seen before in a film, is not terrible, but he really isn’t good either. His acting just seems extremely melodramatic and soap opera-like. And his teacher is played by Kevin Spacey, who is brilliantly abrasive and verbally violent as always. Don’t get me wrong, I love Kevin Spacey, but I think the man has some anger issues. No one should be able to play angry that brilliantly so many times in his career. But he does. And rounding out the cast is the casino worker (with some legitimate anger issues. I know card counting is frowned upon, but that doesn’t mean you can beat someone up brutally for it), who is sporadically seen in flashes, played by Laurence Fishburn (who every single time I see him, I feel like I’ve done something wrong). If nothing else, the film is inspired. It shows that people are actually trying to make a good film, and not cash in. But, the film does have its faults in it. As with its main actor, the film can be a bit melodramatic at times, and does falter and is uneven at times as well. But in the end, 21 is a movie that is the reason that the movie industry makes a lot of money-pure, unleaded fun.
8/10