Not since the hit gambling film Rounders have I found myself looking forward to seeing a movie of this nature. While I enjoy playing cards, I usually find blockbusters about any form of gambling to be riddled with cliches and usually pretty boring. With a cast that included the likes of Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth, I expected 21 to be different...
...I was wrong...
This movie revolves around a group of MIT students who learn how to count cards and spend their weekends in Vegas racking up cash. In theory, this sounds like an action packed, solid idea. However, the movie is painfully long and takes a great deal of time to get going. About 45 minutes into the movie I found myself already losing intererst wondering why I should care about their method to counting cards when it was incredibly obvious the director of this film had no desire to actually try and make the audience understand how that works.
Thus, for around the first hour you are treated to some of the most trite and over the top dialouge I have ever heard from someone playing a college professor, courtesey of the usually great Kevin Spacey. In fact, as a whole the dialouge throughout this film was laughable at best and downright embarassing at worst. The problem is that the plot of the film is also flimsy and is therefore reliant on the actors to save it and they fail miserably in their attempt to do so...
As the film "picks up steam" it does have redeemable moments, but they are far outweighed by the negatives. So much of what they do is never fully explained, their trips to Vegas are filled with gaping plot holes, and their time at MIT is so cliche at times that you will laugh out loud with the rest of the audience.
At the end of this film, which runs a touch over 2 long hours, you will be very happy to be leaving the theatre.