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  • 21

    Students (Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology become experts at card-counting and use the skill to win big at Las Vegas casinos.

    Reviews

    REELZ REVIEW
    "A group of good-looking nerds take on Vegas in this cinematic retelling of real-life events...."  [more]
    — Thomas Leupp

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    Please Log in or register to comment on 21.
    • Johnnynny23

      04/17/08 04:00 PM
      oh god this movie is the best! jim sturgess totally made this film look amazing and i love the suspense and humor! i love this movie!
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    • Thomas Leupp

      ReelzChannel.com, March 27, 2008


      A new movie about group of clever, sharply-dressed cats who team up in an elaborate scheme to fleece Vegas casinos for millions? No, it's not Ocean's 14; it's 21, and it's based on the real-life events chronicled in Ben Mezrich's 2002 bestseller "Bringing Down the House."


      Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth star in 21Aussie import Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) stars as Ben Campbell, a star student at M.I.T. who plans on becoming a doctor. Faced with a staggering med school bill and apparently disinclined toward taking on the requisite student loans, Ben is forced to ponder other methods of funding his career in medicine. Enter Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), a savvy math professor with a very lucrative side gig: he runs a "team" of M.I.T. students who've developed a sophisticated method of counting cards at blackjack. Armed with an complex system of code words, secret signals and elaborate disguises, the whiz kids venture to Vegas each Friday, play cards all weekend and return to class on Monday with thousands of dollars in their pockets. Principled Ben initially refuses the team's invitation to join their shady-yet-not-illegal operation, but he ultimately relents after Micky dispatches team hottie Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth) to help persuade him.


      At first everything goes smashingly. Brainy Ben proves a natural at the game, and soon he's well on his way toward raising the $300,000 needed to pay for medical school. Best of all, nobody suspects a thing. Well, nobody except casino security boss Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne), a canny Vegas relic with a knack for old-school (read: violent) methods of protecting his assets. Viewing Ben and his braniac buddies as a threat to his livelihood, Cole makes it his personal mission to put them out of business for good.


      From the outset, 21 has two major strikes against it. First, the "Breaking Vegas" thing's been done before, most recently by the Ocean's trio of movies, which together have grossed about a bazillion dollars worldwide. Second, it's exceedingly difficult to make a card game look interesting on celluloid (even the splendid James Bond flick Casino Royale lagged considerably during the poker scenes).


      Faced with this dilemma, director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde, Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!) attempts to compensate for the handicaps by playing up the more glamorous aspects of the story, lighting up the screen with splashy cinematography and lots of pretty faces (including a cast of math geeks so hip and photogenic that they look like they'd be more comfortable at F.I.T. than M.I.T.). 21 isn't entirely shallow -- due attention is paid to the nuts and bolts of the operation at the beginning -- but the end result feels much like the Sin City experience itself: exhilarating at times, but ultimately empty and unsatisfying.


      ReelzChannel Rating: 5


      Disagree? Let me know at tleupp@reelzchannel.com.

    • fairy_good_gal

      03/19/08 07:47 PM
      mmmmmmm................. it looks ok but in not a card/gambling freak so I'll p***
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    • movieac

      03/29/08 05:40 PM
      very good. i got out of the theater wanting 2 things.
      to see is again, and to go to Vegas! well only if Jim Sturgess went with me!
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    • MissBizarre182

      04/05/08 11:38 AM
      i saw this movie last night it was seriously really good, everyone kept telling me that they heard the movie sucked an it was really dumb, so i went an saw it for myself an it was so good...it was so twisted at the end which mad it really good an jim strugges an the chinese guy looked sooo good in the movie it was awesome. an all the other acters/actresses were really good in the movie too, it was exhalent. so u should def. see the movie!
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    • Johnnynny23

      04/17/08 04:00 PM
      oh god this movie is the best! jim sturgess totally made this film look amazing and i love the suspense and humor! i love this movie!
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    • gb2300

      04/21/08 04:07 PM
      great movie but the book was better<3
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    • bbedford

      04/30/08 11:26 AM
      Took my 13-year-old daughter who is a bit of a math geek. We both loved it. I though it was an incredible, fun movie that is even more appealing because it's based on a true story. My daughter thought it was cool because the smart kids were, well, cool! It took me the whole ride home to convince her that counting cards in Vegas wasn't a good career option. I had heard this movie wasn't that good, but it was well worth the trip to the theater.
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  • Cast

    Crew

    Director Robert Luketic
    Producer Dana Brunetti
    Producer Michael De Luca
    Executive Producer William S. Beasley
    Executive Producer Brett Ratner
    Executive Producer Ryan Kavanaugh

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  • Spider-Man: The Musical coming to Broadway. Seriously.

    One...singular sensationWhen it was announced that Across the Universe director Julie Taymor was developing a Broadway musical based on Spider-Man, many of us dismissed it as some sort of practical joke. When it was revealed that Bono and The Edge from U2 would be writing the music, we dismissed it as a really elaborate practical joke. But the joke's on us, it seems, as Spider-Man: The Musical is increasingly close to becoming a reality. Taymor even recently brought in Universe stars Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood to workshop an early version of it. At a recent press event for his new card-counting flick 21, Sturgess recounted the experience:

    "We just kind of saw it as a fun thing to do for two weeks in New York City, writing songs with Bono and The Edge about Spider-Man. By the end of the two weeks we'd performed an entire structure of what the play is going to be to Marvel Comics and people from Sony and stuff like that. So it's there and Julie's definitely gonna make it. Whether I'll be in it or not, I have no idea."

    No word yet on how the musical's story will differ from the Spider-Man movies, but we're hoping Emo Spidey at least gets a cameo. We loved his moves in Spider-Man 3.


    Next Showing: 21 opens March 28th.

    Posted 03/17/2008 by Thomas

    Julie Taymor | Jim Sturgess | 21 | Across the Universe

Thursday, March 13

  • Spacey still game for Superman sequel

    Lex Luthor, eyeing some KryptoniteHopes for a sequel to Superman Returns, Bryan Singer's 2006 reboot of the fabled comic book franchise, received a welcome shot in the arm recently when Singer announced that he's moving forward with a follow-up, ending speculation that he might be finished with the Man of Steel. The project's still in its infancy, but if it does indeed take flight, star Kevin Spacey is down to reprise his role as the follicular-challenged archvillain Lex Luthor:

    "I'm scheduled to come back, meaning that I made a deal to do a second film, and I think Kate (Bosworth) did as well," said Spacey today during press conference to promote his new gambling flick 21. "Bryan and I spoke last spring and I knew he was gonna do this film in Germany and then he was talking about doing another film after that. My suspicion is that if they are moving forward, it probably wouldn't start shooting until sometime in the spring of 2009 to be released in 2010."

    Spring of 2009 -- that'll give producers more than enought time to find a replacement for Brandon Routh.


    Posted 03/13/2008 by Thomas

    Bryan Singer | Kevin Spacey | 21 | Superman Returns

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