21 (Theatre)

With a keen eye and knowledge of my blog readers will notice this entry doesn’t have a who wanted to watch it and the explanation on that is that no one really wanted to watch it. We wanted to go to a film and there was nothing else on. So, Jennie, Vamsi, and I decided on this bland film that claimed the top spot for two weeks in a row (a hard feet in this movie-of-the-week world).
Early spring is a wasteland for the movie going public. Studios seem to drop films here when they didn’t pan out as ideas, or maybe they weren’t Oscary enough for an Oscar run, or they didn’t have a big name star to anchor them. Films like Daredevil (Feb. 15, 2005), Failure to Launch (March 12, 2006), Disturbia (April 13, 2007) aren’t really expected to do very much – maybe they can hold the audience over till May kicks the movie going season into full swing, maybe they can’t – who cares. But movie studios neglect the early spring. This is the only explanation for a film like Disturbia to be the only movie last year to hold the top box office spot for three weeks in a row – the only one. In that tradition I bring you 21.
This film is about a poor kid who happens to go to MIT and wants to go to Harvard medical school after he graduates, every financially handicapped kid’s dream. Kevin Spacey notices him in a class as being particularly bright, again the kid goes to MIT, and enlists him in his gang of cronies who go to Las Vegas on the weekend to make money. They aren’t doing anything illegal – just counting cards. They teach Ben, played by a forgettable Jim Sturgess, how to count cards, a talent he already seems to know, and he rises in the ranks to become head crony. One of the gang is jealous of him, one is attracted to him, and one is a stereotype Asian guy. The jealous one gets mad and then gets kicked out, the one attracted to him gets laid and befriends him, and the Asian stereotype does what stereotypes do. Kevin Spacey turns on them, then they turn on Spacey – Ben gets to go to Harvard Medical. Nothing really stands out. In the spring wasteland this movie becomes a hit, if it were released against any other competition this film would be seen by Jim Sturgess’ parents and forgotten, but in the 2.99-bin-next-to-the-gas-station-register that is spring this movie is box office gold.

4 out of 10: your two hours and three minutes could be spent doing something else, so do so.