The Problem with '21'

Tonight I was unfortunate enough to see the new movie '21.' The movie is about an extremely smart group of MIT students who fly to Vegas on weekends to bankroll with hundreds of thousands in cash.

When the film was over, my cousin said, "You can't say anything bad about that movie." My natural response was, "Yes, yes I can." Here is where I will do so.

The first topic I will cover is 'predictability.' Oh, and there will be plenty of spoilers ahead, but honestly, don't bother seeing this movie, so go ahead regardless.

The movie opens with a glimpse of how there's trouble in the future, with Lawrence Fishburne running after our protagonist. Oh, there's going to be trouble? Thanks, I'm glad we are pointed to the 'conflict' of the movie. The only problem is the whole arc of the story. Not only is this a glimpse of the future, but the DISTANT future. A more appropriate clip would be the first time Ben (protagonist) gets busted, not the second.

But that is a tangent. Let's go back to predictability.

Ben starts with two dorky friends and has the hots for Kate Bosworth. Who thought he would ditch his real friends for the girl? And then in the end, he makes up with his friends, still gets the girl, but learns a life lesson? This character arc has been beat to death.

It seems every character in the movie is struggling to fit a mold, but can't even do that well. The secondary characters were more interesting and entertaining than both Jim Sturgess and Kevin Spacey. It's bad when no-names outshine those stars (well, one 'star').

But the real, down to the ground horrible writing, the 'tell' of the movie, is when Ben gets busted, he gets beat up. Laurence Fisburne has on four heavy rings when he delivers a crushing blow to Ben's face, which would inevitably leave some marks. But when he walks out of the casino his face is barely busted up. Is this a result of a bad makeup department, or a sign for the third act? Guess.

Another issue I have is with the actual playing of Blackjack. I understand counting cards leads to a much better winning percentage, but let's be honest: They are still going to lose hands, even on +15 counts. It's probability regardless. If you have a greater chance at hitting a 21, so does the dealer. Yet we never see this, not once. Is it to provide an illusion of invulnerability to our protagonist? Possibly. But the scenes at the table are all montages at best, so we are cheated there as well.

Give me 'Rounders' or 'Ocean's Eleven' any day of the week. Both of those were extremely successful movies about casinos and/or card playing. 21 fails.