21 (2008)

Based on a book by Ben Mezrich, which was inspired by true events, this film tells the thrilling and fascinating story of a group of MIT students who won millions of dollars at casinos all across Las Vegas, counting cards at blackjack tables.

Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a promising young student at MIT, studying mathematics and hoping to earn a scholarship to study medicine at Harvard. He has been accepted to study at Harvard, but will need a scholarship if he's to have any hope of being able to afford it.

Enter one of his lecturers, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), who has seen his brilliance in class, and so recruits him to join a small group of students involved in some interesting extra-curricular activities.

Ben joins four other students: Jill (Kate Bosworth), Kianna (Liza Lapira), Choi (Aaron Yoo) and Fisher (Jacob Pitts) in a card-counting scheme that sees them net enormous amounts of money from casinos all over Las Vegas, a system devised by Rosa that is all but indetectable.

You see, while counting cards is by no means illegal, it is most certainly a practice that is frowned upon by virtually all casinos, because if done properly, it will cost casinos dearly.

It isn't long before Ben has made quite a tidy little pile of cash, which looks like it will more than cover his Harvard tuition.

But hot on their heels is casino security guard Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne), who has some past history with Rosa, and is certain the group is cheating the system somehow, but hasn't been able to catch them at it. Yet.

The screenplay by Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb is reasonably clever, with the system the team use explained in minute detail, so much so that anyone watching the film could probably start counting cards themselves without too much difficulty. The 'thriller' aspect of the script, however, is quite derivative and predictable, with no characters ever really surprising the audience, and no particularly clever twists one might expect from such a story.

David Sardy's music serves it purpose to an extent, but is not particularly inventive or clever or even unique at any point.

The performances of the entire cast are fairly lacklustre as well, with not even career performers Spacey or Fishburne able to express strong emotion by any method other than yelling, or shaking their fists. This is very disappointing, as many of the cast have portrayed quite complex characters in other films they have done, but in the case of this particular film, seem content to deliver their lines without a great deal of feeling.

Missy Stewart's production design, however, is beautiful. The scenes set on the casino floor are particularly well designed and dressed, with realism being the main intention. And it definitely has paid off.

The cinematography, too, courtesy of Russell Carpenter, works well here, though nothing particularly out of the ordinary for the genre. Light and dark are contrasted well, but no better than any other standard run-of-the-mill thriller.

Director Robert Luketic has made a fairly sub-standard thriller with this film. It is probably worth a watch (at least once) if you haven't seen it, particularly if you enjoy suspending your disbelief and watching a reasonably-paced thriller. But if you like your thrillers to have a few more twists, turns, surprises and - dare I say it - decent acting, I'd suggest you give this one a miss.

5 out of 10.