Movie Review: 21

 

Let me just say, I was excited about this movie to come out. First of all, Jim Sturgess can make an egg shell sandwich great. Then there’s the lure of Vegas, particularly good looking people in Vegas. Add in some card counting and witty dialogue and you’ve got a winner. (Did I mention Jim Sturgess?) I can say I was not disappointed. Jim plays nerdy M.I.T. genius Ben Campbell who geeks out with his friends building robotic cars and not picking up chicks. I heard an interview with the real Ben Campbell about a month ago and he said he thought it was funny a really good looking guy was playing him because, frankly, he’s not all that attractive. He said he would never get a girl that looks like Kate Bosworth (but at least his character does).  

The movie is pretty typical and the trailer does give away a big chunk of the plot. Ben gets picked to be in the secret underground world of smart M.I.T. card counters who go to Vegas and make a ton of money. They split the profits with their leader Mickey (played by Kevin Spacey who always does the slightly creepy older man thing well). Things go awry, Ben starts to lose the things that matter most to him, but is kind of having the most fun he’s ever had in his life. You see the wiles of Vegas begin to draw him in. The team meets up at the strip club to regroup, he buys expensive suits and hooks up with Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth). Cue Lawrence Fishburne (who has always made me feel a bit uneasy) to come in and beat the living daylights out of people for counting cards and beating the house too well. “How do you know he’s doing it?” “Because I’m counting.” In comes the collective gasp from the crowd. We all saw the preview and knew he was counting along. The film doesn’t really touch on how he knows what he knows except that he has a bone to pick with Mickey and that he used to have his own casino. I think there were a lot of characters and a lot of character plots in the movie and, while the movie as a whole was well done, there may have been some pieces that didn’t get fully developed because there just wasn’t the time. This did, however, mean we didn’t have to watch too much of Fisher (played by Jacob Pitts) who was one of the many people in the movie who was setting Ben up to fail. There’s nothing like an ornery, probably rich, kid who goes to Vegas, gets jealous, turns raging drunk and ruins the plan for everyone. [Sidenote: If you recognized Pitts from something, but couldn’t quite place him, he played Sam Jones, the college guy Samantha on Sex and the City sleeps with because they share the same name.]   

I have to give a shout out to Aaron Yoo who played Choi, the goofy kleptomaniac on the team. Although we don’t see too much of him, he did steal (hah, no pun intended) most of the funny lines and looked adorable with his messy faux hawk and his big aviator shades. I know I have a soft spot for cute Asians, but he was pretty funny and had just enough lines to be memorable, yet not annoying. I also need to recognize Josh Gad and Sam Golzari (and by recognize I mean look up their names because I had no idea who they were, although Sam Golzari was in that horrible Mandy Moore movie, American Dreamz) for their roles as Ben’s geeked out robot-building friends. They weren’t all that humorous, but completely nailed the uber-nerd role. I have a slight feeling they fit this mold on a pretty regular basis. Sam’s character, Cam, looked like a typical geeky Jewish guy who had the potential to be fairly cute if he wore some different clothes and didn’t just stare at pretty ladies. There was no hope for Josh’s character, Miles, however, as he shoved Twinkies in his mouth by the pair. Miles seemed like he was trying to tap into his awkward fat guy meets trying to be suave ladies man but just ends up weirding them out, but doesn’t quite hit the mark like Jonah Hill who has already filled this niche.  

The ending was probably one of the best parts (yes, other than the part of the movie when Ben and Jill hooking up overlooking Vegas from the suite atop the Hard Rock Hotel). It tied it all back together, adding in a plot twist a la the Oceans movies, doing a slow rewind to show us the “real story”. Like I said, parts of the movie were a bit contrived and predictable. Lots of it was given away during the trailer, but there were some very sweet and intimate moments as well as some funny lines to catch. Of course the boy and girl get together. It’s a movie and they’re both attractive so it doesn’t disappoint us moviegoers. The moral of the story: things will work out for you even after you get your face beat in with ruby studded dice shaped rings on a big, angry black guy’s fist. Oh, and that Jim Sturgess is just as hot with a black eye as he was throwing strawberries at the wall in Across the Universe.

Rating: Four out of Five Winner Winner Chicken Dinners.