21

After Reading Ben Mezrich's "Bringing Down the House", upon which this movie is based, I was excited to the movie. I am usually let down by movies that are based on books, but that was not the case this time.

Although there were a handful of cliché parts of the movie, all in all it was excellently done. The visual effects were well done, and the acting on the part of Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, and Kate Bosworth, was exemplary. Some people may criticize Spacey for his 'gusto', but I believe his portrayal of Mickey was stellar.

The movie had suspense, a solid plot line, scattered funny scenes, and a good ending. The people I went with, none of whom had read the book, found it an even better movie than I did. If you like the movie enough, I recommend reading the book for a more complete story.

I was lucky enough to see this film for free at a special screening in greater London as part of a market research by the film industry. even though it was free i would have paid good money to see that film. but I was presently surprised about how good the film was and everyone seemed to agree that the film was really good. I thought it made the card playing parts actually riveting even though i am not a card player myself. i thought the acting performances were all good especially that of Kevin Spacey's. In terms of the story. In many ways it reminded me of all the good things that was in the BBC TV show hustle. But in a much more real way. On the down side, you may see the ending coming and there is a romance part of the film that feels unnecessary. However it is a very slick film that gets away with it. I would say that it clearly the best film in this genre of film. I enjoyed it more than films such as Confidence and the Oceans 11 type films. I would highly recommend it to anybody when it eventually comes out in April!! I would have thought that they would cut down and re-edit it a bit on the basis that it was quite long. however it kept my attention for the whole film and that is not something that is also done during these sorts of films

This film is about a group of mathematical geniuses trying to make lots of money from Las Vegas by playing Black Jack.

The start of "21" is too slow, and I think they could have cut out a lot of scenes to make the pace quicker. Black Jack is a fast pace game, but the film does not give that pressing pressure during the game. I would also have liked to know why everyone in the team is in this business venture, but the film only explains why Ben is in. This would give the other members of the team more development and depth. In the film, Kianna and Choi are nothing more than mannequins that give signals one in a while. It's a pity that their characters are not explored.

Though they explain the communication codes well, they have not explained the points system that is central to the whole plot. I was so lost about those +15 and +16's that it killed my enjoyment.

It's also annoying that they keep going to the same casino, which causes their downfall. If they were so smart, why did they not think about this?

A great young cast tell a whirlwind story that zips in places, but drags slightly in others. Kevin Spacey steals the show as the mastermind behind the MIT card-counting team (who are all remarkably glamorous - wonder if they were in real life?) The cinematography captured the bright lights of Vegas particularly well and the sheer fun and excitement of what they were doing was well communicated to the audience. It plays the twists and turns in a similar way to the Ocean's series and there was a flavour of those here. My 12 year-old son thought it was great and although there were some adult themes it was played in an easy-going harmless style.

21 is worth seeing on a restless Friday or Saturday night with friends, but it isn't anything more than that. The film features nice performances from actors Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne, as well as nice entries from the lesser known ensemble.

However, it doesn't take a film expert to notice some of the more...awful lines. "That's is impressive software."...come on, seriously? Just bad writing.

And the flow of the plot is painfully cliché, up until the end where things are admittedly pretty unpredictable. The ending was unexpected, but it worked and made up for earlier plot points that were predictable.

"21" is entertaining, that's it. Nothing more, nothing less.