Inspired by Ben Mezrich's book Bringing Down the House—a true story of how some of the country's brightest young people took Las Vegas casinos for millions—21 stars up-and-comer Jim Sturgess as Ben Campbell, a brilliant mathematician and science geek who desperately needs big money to pay his M.I.T. tuition. Deceptively sympathetic math professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey), recognizing Campbell's preternatural facility with numbers, recruits him to join a group of gifted students—including sexy Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth)—who travel to Vegas every weekend, using their card-counting abilities and an intricate system of signals to beat the odds at blackjack. Eventually, the group runs afoul of one casino's menacing enforcer, Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne), who has a stake in making examples of smarty-pants college kids. Up to this point, director Robert Luketic's 21 is reasonably engaging if not terribly suspenseful, but the story kicks into gear when the double perils of Ben's cockiness and Williams' interference force Rosa to take a more active role. Spacey is superb as the polished manipulator who wraps the kids around his little finger, only to turn frighteningly menacing when his youthful protégés slip up. Recommended. [Note: Available in single-disc and two-disc standard DVD editions, DVD/Blu-ray extras on this two-disc set include audio commentary (by director Robert Luketic and producers Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca), a 25-minute “Basic Strategy: A Complete Film Journal” making-of featurette, a “Money Plays: A Tour of the Good Life” production featurette (7 min.), “The Advantage Player” featurette with cast explanations of blackjack and card counting (6 min.), and trailers. Also included is a bonus digital copy of the film. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is the “21 Virtual Blackjack Game.” Bottom line: a solid extras package for a solid film.] (E. Hulse)
21
Sony, 123 min., PG-13, DVD: $28.98, Blu-ray: $38.98, July 22 Volume 23, Issue 4
21
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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