21: What Happened In Vegas Wasn't Pretty, But It's Okay
Watching 21, I was reminded of Gordon Gekko, the Wall Street shark that told everybody in the late 80s that Greed is Good. I wondered what Gekko was like in college. Just how did he get to be so ruthless and nasty while tearing away any signs of conscience? I think he had a professor like Micky Rosa, who can smile and make you anything, not allowing you to see the pen that you used to write over your soul with.
The movie is 21 and is about blackjack. Actually, it’s about a group of MIT students led by Rosa (played by Kevin Spacey) to bring down Vegas’ vast assortment of casinos by using a foolproof scheme. It’s about the business of math, as in counting cards. It’s about critical thinking, as in how do you move chips when the heat’s looking for you (why strippers of course). And yet, it’s basically about nothing more than third act that goes completely out of control and skids into a trash compactor. The protagonist is Ben Campbell (Across The Universe’s Jim Sturgess), a 21-year-old MIT senior looking at Harvard Medicine, but since he’s a townie with no money and a long shot at a scholarship, he’s desperate for cash. Enter Rosa, who is his professor. After an impressive display of logical mathematics, Rosa invites him into his club of five students who make up the elaborate scheme. After some initial hesitation, he joins and becomes the point man.
And like any story about students under bad influences, his personality changes, he stops having out with his best friends and starts lying to everybody about where he goes weekends. And of course they stop trusting him. And then he is put on the radar of an old-school casino enforcer (Lawrence Fishbourne) and abandoned by Rosa who is more interested in the money than his student. Pure Gekko.
The movie’s first two parts were good, promising on something better, and perhaps actually being as smart as it thought it was. When we get to the last act, things get even more predictable than usual. And it gets wacky. Then it just gets dumb. As was the case with The Devil Wears Prada, the filmmakers decided to ignore the darker undertones of the characters and end on a happy note. I think this is a real mistake since none of the characters have deserved any happiness outside of the Ben’s old friends.
Kevin Spacey tries to steal the show in each of his scenes, but lacks the gumption that used to have. It’s sad to see one of America’s finest actors to get lose his way in self-absorption primarily through projects that did little more than cash in on his once brilliant star power. He also produced 21 and brought in his second-in-command Kate Bosworth, who is dull and drab. All she seems to do is stand by characters, do what the story tells her to do and very little else. This was also why she was not a really good Lois Lane in Superman Returns. In fact, I really can’t say if there was one character that really intrigued me, though I was close to liking Fishbourne’s bruiser, who tells his boss “I do it [the job] because I don’t wanna be on the other side of this.” Subtle Translation: I like to inflict pain for a justifiable cause.
Director Robert Luketic seems to be caught in a perpetual state of confusion if he wants more comedy or drama. In doing this, he robs the movie of suspense by not making the stakes a little higher and a few close calls might have helped as well. But then again, this is the director of Legally Blonde and Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, two movies that never quite understood the word nuance. There are some amazing shots such as the first night at the tables and Ben is moving at a regular speed while the rest of the world sped by. And the hooker thing could have been done differently with a little more tension, but it did pay off well.
All in all, I guess you can say that it works, but I really can’t say more than the sum is not greater than all of it’s parts. I still say that the movie should have ended with Ben, now older with slick hair at the blackjack table, tacky clothes, steely eyes, and maybe a cigarette on his lip, working his own new protégé, another MIT student. Martin Scorsese would have been proud.
Grade: B-
Check Out the FilmScope Two-Minute Review Podcast Here:
The movie is 21 and is about blackjack. Actually, it’s about a group of MIT students led by Rosa (played by Kevin Spacey) to bring down Vegas’ vast assortment of casinos by using a foolproof scheme. It’s about the business of math, as in counting cards. It’s about critical thinking, as in how do you move chips when the heat’s looking for you (why strippers of course). And yet, it’s basically about nothing more than third act that goes completely out of control and skids into a trash compactor. The protagonist is Ben Campbell (Across The Universe’s Jim Sturgess), a 21-year-old MIT senior looking at Harvard Medicine, but since he’s a townie with no money and a long shot at a scholarship, he’s desperate for cash. Enter Rosa, who is his professor. After an impressive display of logical mathematics, Rosa invites him into his club of five students who make up the elaborate scheme. After some initial hesitation, he joins and becomes the point man.
And like any story about students under bad influences, his personality changes, he stops having out with his best friends and starts lying to everybody about where he goes weekends. And of course they stop trusting him. And then he is put on the radar of an old-school casino enforcer (Lawrence Fishbourne) and abandoned by Rosa who is more interested in the money than his student. Pure Gekko.
The movie’s first two parts were good, promising on something better, and perhaps actually being as smart as it thought it was. When we get to the last act, things get even more predictable than usual. And it gets wacky. Then it just gets dumb. As was the case with The Devil Wears Prada, the filmmakers decided to ignore the darker undertones of the characters and end on a happy note. I think this is a real mistake since none of the characters have deserved any happiness outside of the Ben’s old friends.
Kevin Spacey tries to steal the show in each of his scenes, but lacks the gumption that used to have. It’s sad to see one of America’s finest actors to get lose his way in self-absorption primarily through projects that did little more than cash in on his once brilliant star power. He also produced 21 and brought in his second-in-command Kate Bosworth, who is dull and drab. All she seems to do is stand by characters, do what the story tells her to do and very little else. This was also why she was not a really good Lois Lane in Superman Returns. In fact, I really can’t say if there was one character that really intrigued me, though I was close to liking Fishbourne’s bruiser, who tells his boss “I do it [the job] because I don’t wanna be on the other side of this.” Subtle Translation: I like to inflict pain for a justifiable cause.
Director Robert Luketic seems to be caught in a perpetual state of confusion if he wants more comedy or drama. In doing this, he robs the movie of suspense by not making the stakes a little higher and a few close calls might have helped as well. But then again, this is the director of Legally Blonde and Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, two movies that never quite understood the word nuance. There are some amazing shots such as the first night at the tables and Ben is moving at a regular speed while the rest of the world sped by. And the hooker thing could have been done differently with a little more tension, but it did pay off well.
All in all, I guess you can say that it works, but I really can’t say more than the sum is not greater than all of it’s parts. I still say that the movie should have ended with Ben, now older with slick hair at the blackjack table, tacky clothes, steely eyes, and maybe a cigarette on his lip, working his own new protégé, another MIT student. Martin Scorsese would have been proud.
Grade: B-
Check Out the FilmScope Two-Minute Review Podcast Here:
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