IESB Presents - FilmGeekz.com - 21 (Single-Disc Edition)

21 (Single-Disc Edition) - Review

DVD Reviews

Genre: Thriller • Romantic • Comedy • Drama
Street Date: July 22, 2008
Director: Robert Luketic
Number of Discs: 1
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Cast: • Laurence Fishburne
• Kate Bosworth
• Kevin Spacey
• Jim Sturgess
• Jacob Pitts
• Sam Golzari
• Aaron Yoo
Running Time: 123 minutes
Format: Standard

DVD Specs: Video: Widescreen 2.40:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Audio: ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC]
SPANISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC]
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC]

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Special Features: - 21: The Advantage Player - The cast explains the game of blackjack and card counting

- Basic Strategy: A Complete Film Journal - Making-of featurette

- Money Plays: A Tour of the Good Life - Featurette that explores the clothes, luxuries and locations shown in the film

- Filmmaker Commentary
Version: Standard
Review: I love movies about card players and I love movies about geniuses, imagine my glee at the idea of card playing geniuses. Perfect fit right? Almost but not quite.

Before we get into the movie lets split this hand and talk about casting for a moment; Kevin Spacey AKA Lex Luthor (The Greatest Criminal Mind of Our Time) as the ring leader of this band of high IQ card counters is not just perfect casting…was there any other choice really? Only Kevin can pull of such a sweet yet menacing character and make you buy into it. Speaking of Lex Luthor, this is the third movie with Spacey and Kate “Lois Lane” Bosworth (21, Superman Returns, and Beyond The Sea), not sure if it’s just random or some conspiracy but hey keep it up. Rounding out this stacked deck is new guy on the block Jim Sturgess….wait…wasn’t considered for the role of Superman in that on again off again Justice League movie?...I could be wrong but funny to think about all the connections to The Man of Steel in a movie about ripping off casino’s. Jim is so much fun to watch, he’s got this charm to him that just makes you think he’s got some secret. As if these weren’t enough they sent none other than Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) after these card counting geeks, who’s not so much evil in this movie than a guy headed for being obsolete in a world of high tech casino security. Awesome cast, all good choices, now let’s go collect our chicken dinner.

Now for the other side of this split; the piece where things sort of went astray a bit; The film is based on the book “Bringing Down The House”, based on the book..not the true story. What does that mean? Well to be honest I’m not entirely sure, but I know it gives them more creative ways to play with the story and characters…which is fine by me. However if you are going to play havoc with the story and “Hollywood” it up then it should run on a much more brisk pace and get to the point and core of what’s going on with these people. The plot has these long moments where things just seem to crawl along and really go nowhere. Sure I get the idea that the director was trying to show how slow his life felt being back in the real world as compared to the lights and high speed of Vegas, but the concept is over used and just too bland after awhile. It just feels like a movie they could have trimmed a good 21 minutes off of and had a much leaner picture. I really enjoyed the movie but felt annoyed at some of the lengthy scenes where things just got too stalled too often.

Overall: Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!
Buy It Now:
Rating: 3.5 Stars

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