21 (2008)

My sister gave me this DVD for Christmas, and while it wasn't a movie I was dying to see, it certainly piqued my interest. I had always had a moderate desire to see it ever since its release a year and a half ago. And now that I have done so, I can say that it delivered more or less exactly what I was expecting: a decent "based on real events" story told in an overwrought Hollywood manner. The acting was alright, but there really wasn't all that much of Kevin Spacey, which was a shame as he was (as he usually is) the best part. And where there's a Kevin Spacey movie, there's a twist ending, but this one managed to surprise me by going with a different twist than the one I was expecting. The film is flashy and cool for a little while (cards! gambling! Vegas! money!) before settling into a very, very predictable rhythm that isn't all that exciting. I think the biggest problem for me were the two leads. I'll forgive the no name guy (allegedly he's from England, and I didn't pick up much of an accent at all) but Kate Bosworth really left me scratching my head. I mean, she's at least somewhat well known, right? The two of them just had no chemistry (and really shouldn't have, as this was supposed to be a tale of a card-counting crew instead of a love story) and couldn't have been less interesting. Laurence Fishburne was Laurence Fishburne (though not Morpheus Laurence Fishburne) and did just fine. The secondary, less-important members of the team were enjoyable if not a little one-dimensional. I should also point out that they were both Asian, which is what the whole crew should have been if the was really based on the real events in question. (Apparently there was a lot of boycotting of this flick because of that casting gaffe.) Ultimately, it's a perfectly standard PG-13 heist movie with a dash of "coming of age" flavor. Think of a very watered down Ocean's Eleven with a dash of Almost Famous and you've more or less got the idea.