Movie Info:
Writer: Peter Steinfeld, Allen Loeb
Director: Robert Luketic
Cast: Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts, Laurence Fishburne, Jack McGee
Rating: PG-13
Studio: Sony Home Entertainment

Release Info:
Theatrical Release: March 28, 2008
DVD Release Date: July 22, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon: $15.99, Wal-Mart: $15.86

When it comes to watching certain movies my requirements for interest are very small. 21 is one of those movies. Whenever I hear the name Kevin Spacey, I immediately perk up. I could pick any number of great movies where he has caught my attention, but ever since Se7en I have been watching his movies with an avid interest. Spacey always provides a stellar performance and he has a way of picking excellent movies to perform in. Finding out that this movie is based on a true story only seemed to make it more interesting.

I have to admit I did not recognize the names or the faces of such talent as Jim Sturgess (The Other Boleyn Girl, Across the Universe), Aaron Yoo (Disturbia), Liza Lapira (Cloverfield), or Jacob Pitts. Then there were stars like Kate Bosworth (Bee Season, Superman Returns) that had names I was familiar with, but was not sure why or how I knew of them. Needless to say, when you hear of a Spacey movie that is a true-ish story about a bunch of college kids that count cards and win millions of dollars at Las Vegas casinos, you can’t help but want to watch.

Let’s start with some obvious truths here. This is not going to be the best Kevin Spacey movie you have ever seen. Like his best roles, he plays an unlikeable person, but still it’s not one of his best movies. Good or great aside, Spacey has had numerous amazing roles and that means a lot of competition when his new work comes out. This is good, but it’s nothing like we have seen from him in the past.

Anything listed as “based” on a true story has taken some creative licenses to make it film worthy. Sure, this is an interesting topic, but it is about counting cards. Considering it is not an illegal practice, this wouldn’t make too much of an interesting movie if it were just about counting cards and being asked to leave the casino if the card counters got caught. The same thing that’s been said about movies concerning card counting can be said if this movie were just about some math nerds at MIT. These things alone just do not make a movie. This means that the need for subplots were necessary.

The acting by Sturgess, Bosworth, and Yoo make this film more entertaining than it might be without them. Meanwhile Laurence Fishburne provides an excellent performance and Spacey goes from being asleep at the wheel to being the enigmatic power actor that he has shown that he is, depending on each individual scene he happens to be in at the moment. The result is something that is good enough to be watchable, but that requires you to suspend some belief to make it so.

The chief complaint by critics of this film is that these are card counting geniuses that do not have the common sense to change hand signals or keep a low profile. Whether it was this way in real life remains to be seen, as I have not read the book about the MIT geniuses that this is based on. However, the one thing that really got on my nerves is that the main character Ben (Sturgess) lacks the necessary common sense to avoid placing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a good hiding spot. Assuming I lived in a dorm room I wouldn’t hide anything in there that I could stand to see stolen. Apparently, Ben didn’t get the memo. Again, this is one of those necessary elements to push the story forward, so a little suspension of logic is necessary here.

The 21 Plot
Ben Campbell is the smartest student at MIT. With dreams of ending up in medical school at Harvard it seems that Ben has his future planned out and a successful life is just around the corner. The only problem is that he’s about $300,000 short on tuition fees and he wasn’t exactly born with a silver spoon in his mouth. While trying to figure out what to do and fawning over the elusive female math genius, Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth) from afar, a solution is presented to him after a math class with Professor Mickey Rosa (Spacey) that cannot be ignored without risking the possibility of everything he’s worked so hard to gain.

Rosa runs the elusive and secretive MIT blackjack team. This small group convenes in secret to learn the proper method to counting cards. While not illegal, this is a process that is frowned upon by casinos. Rosa, who was at one point one of the best, has given up counting and moved on to taking cuts of college kids winnings, instead of doing it on his own.

The blackjack group is made up of a genius (Sturgess), a siren (Bosworth), a hot head (Pitts), a jokester/thief (Yoo), and an average female student (Lapira) that has a penchant for the slot machines when not betting the tables. Rosa heads up the team that shows up in Vegas dressed in flashy clothes with interesting personas and hand signals that let them know the hot tables and the ones that aren’t so hot.

However, things aren’t as easy as they seem. The opposition for the card counting college kids is Cole Williams (Fishburne). As casino security, it’s his job to ensure that things like counting cards aren’t a problem. Unfortunately, as the age of technology moves forth, all of his accounts are being closed in favor of software that does the job for much cheaper. Williams is on the lookout for anything suspicious and is angry about his early, unnecessary retirement, but he is only one villain that Campbell and the MIT students must face.

There is much more here than the true story would have been able to offer. The important thing is to remember that when you’re watching the DVD.

Storyline/Plot: ★★★½☆
Replayability: ★★★★☆
Acting: ★★★★☆
Directing: ★★★★☆

Audio/Visual:
21 comes out looking as fine as can be. The visual quality is presented in 2.40:1, which was the theatrical aspect ratio. The colors are bright and crisp, the visual quality is crisp, and there are little compression issues worth noting. As this is a new movie, the quality certainly lives up to what a DVD should offer.

The audio quality comes in with Dolby Digital 5.1 and things are as impressive as the video quality. The soundtrack sounds excellent, the dialogue is as clear as if the actors were standing right beside you, and there are not any issues as far as noise, scratching, or volume toggling. It’s an excellent audio and video transfer overall.

Visual: ★★★★½
Audio: ★★★★½

Bonus Features:
The bonus features for 21 offer a mix of interesting options though I have certainly seen more offerings on other new DVDs. As there are three copies of this film on the shelves, I feel it is important to note the differences between editions. All copies seem to have the same bonuses. The difference with the 2-disc set is only that you will receive a digital copy of the movie. In the case of the Blu-Ray you actually get to play Virtual 21 Blackjack, which sounds like fun.

There are several previews available before the movie begins and in the previews area. The previews include spots for House Bunny, Quarantine, Prom Night, Across the Universe, Married Life, Vantage Point, Persepolis, Rescue Me, Taking Five, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Shield, Made of Honor, Lakeview Terrace, and CJ7.

A commentary with the director, Robert Luketic and the producers, Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca is offered for fans of the movie. I say it that way because unless you really love this movie or commentaries in general, you probably won’t bother listening to this. It’s not the worst commentary that I’ve ever heard. There are some interesting moments about behind the scenes things, but there wasn’t anything I really needed to hear.

Wrapping things up are three featurettes, “The Advantage Player”, “Basic Strategy: A Complete Film Journal”, and “Money Plays: A Tour of the Good Life”. “The Advantage Player” has the actors teaching you to count cards. You won’t learn enough to become a millionaire, but it’s amusing enough to watch and you might learn something in the process. “Basic Strategy” gives you a long look at the production process. This is a making-of style featurette that looks at cast, crew, Vegas, and other aspects of filming. Finally, “Money Plays” is all about the different settings in the film and how Las Vegas was portrayed as the land of fantasy.

Bonus Features: ★★★½☆

Bottom Line:
21 isn’t about to win any Oscars, but if you’re looking for something mildly entertaining this might hit the spot. This was a good vehicle for these younger actors to get noticed. The acting is decent and the storyline is interesting enough to make the time watching, worthwhile. I recommend renting this first, merely because the “based on a true story”, and the fact that major creative licenses were taken, will make this a hard pill to swallow for some.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

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