{"id":4812,"date":"2009-07-06T01:33:58","date_gmt":"2009-07-06T09:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=4812"},"modified":"2009-07-09T20:45:44","modified_gmt":"2009-07-10T04:45:44","slug":"21-robert-luketic-2008-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=4812","title":{"rendered":"21 (Robert Luketic, 2008): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by William Conlin<\/a>. Viewed on Netflix Instant View.<\/p>\n

\"\" For anyone who has ever played blackjack in Las Vegas, Robert Lucketic\u2019s casino caper 21<\/em><\/a> is more of a fantasy film than a drama. But despite its outwardly enjoyable nature, this film has just as many flaws as it does successes. So instead of my standard reviewing style I\u2019ve decided to post the \u201cPros\u201d and \u201cCons\u201d of this film.<\/p>\n

MIT student Ben Campbell is the smartest in his class. He can disprove Newton\u2019s principles and design cars that drive themselves, but there\u2019s one field he\u2019s lacking in: money. He needs $300,000 to attend Harvard and has no clue how to pay it. When he\u2019s invited to join a group of elite mathematicians for the chance of a lifetime, Ben finds his financial solution in the form of card counting in Vegas. But with the thrill of the game, the danger of the heist and the chance to finally fulfill his dream, Ben finds himself tangled in a game with much higher stakes than Blackjack.<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s look at performances:
\nPRO: Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne. Both actors not only play their characters with precision, they manage to completely dwarf the principle actors in the process. Spacey portrays the MIT professor who organizes the card counting operation and Fishburne is the casino watchdog tasked with ending it. Though the two actors barely interact, their characters’ animosity is palpable throughout the film.
\nCON: Jim Sturgess. Jim Sturgess is one of my favorite young actors today but this role was not meant for him. His attempt at a Boston accent leaves a sour taste in your mouth for the whole film and his transition from geek to hero (that everyone expects to see) happens in such a convoluted manner that it makes you wonder why they didn\u2019t just cut the second act right out of the film.<\/p>\n

Now to the all important production value:
\nPRO: Cinematographer Russell Carpenter. \u00a0He carpenters camera angles that lend an interesting feel to otherwise mundane scenes. His use of long, smooth shots captures the \u201cchaotic order\u201d that is Las Vegas and his interesting use of ultra slow frame-rates gives the sharpest moments of the film an added intensity.
\nCON: Editor Elliot Graham. Sadly, this film was not edited well. Graham takes otherwise well-made scenes and dulls them down with extremely noticeable jump cuts and continuity errors.<\/p>\n

And finally, let\u2019s talk about the film\u2019s content:
\nPRO: Concept. Who doesn\u2019t want to take a Vegas casino for millions of dollars? The sheer idea of this film (and the fact that it\u2019s based on a true story) is enough to make a gambler\u2019s mouth water.
\nCON: The script. Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb\u2019s script has some interesting moments but overall the film is chock-full of pop culture clich\u00e9s and jokes more likely to come from an old \u201cB movie\u201d than a current drama.<\/p>\n

Though I enjoyed watching this film because I like the game of Blackjack, unless you are interested in gambling, I\u2019d say pass. The casual “Vegas” film watcher would probably be much happier with something along the line of Ocean’s Eleven<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by William Conlin. Viewed on Netflix Instant View. For anyone who has ever played blackjack in Las Vegas, Robert Lucketic\u2019s casino caper 21 is more of a fantasy film than a drama. But despite its outwardly enjoyable nature, this film has just as many flaws as it does successes. So instead of my standard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-online-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}