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21 was such an exciting movie to just sit down and watch. The whole entire movie was very intense. Especially the last 10 minutes of this, it really keeps you on the edge of your seat. This movie had some great twists that you do not see coming at all. Especially one of the twists at the end that you will be shocked from. I loved the main actors role in this movie. I thought that Jim Sturgess did such an amazing job playing the main role. He had a whole lot of stuff going through his mind in this movie the whole time. I thought that if they tried they would not have of found a better actor to play his role. Kevin Spacey also handed in a great performance as well. Kate Bosworth was looking very hot, and also did a great job. I loved how this movie was really based on a true story. I always find movies that are based on true stories good. This one was especially good though. It sort of teaches you a little bit about black jack as the movie goes on. This movie is well worth your money and time. It's good this movie was 2 hours long it made all the better. The thing this movie is trying to show you is that you get a second chance. It really shows the main actor in it that you don't know how good you have it until you loose it all. The people in this movie get way ahead of themselves and want to do to much. Overall this was a great movie. It was well worth my time and I would love to see it plenty of more times. So just give this movie a chance and go see it. You will most likely enjoy it. I think that any ages above 13 would enjoy this. You will especially like this movie if you like to gamble or play cards.

Yes, it does take effort. Listless characters that it would take a saint to care about, turgid plot movements that make watching CSPAN seem an adventure in action movies, and a love interest that rivals the sparks thrown off by Pat and Richard Nixon dancing at a state dinner. I'll sum up how boring the movie makes LV: several scenes in strip clubs with no one naked. Oh, I almost forgot...there was one happening * with rose colored star shaped pasties. Pastie bosomed strippers/lap dancers in Las Vegas circa 2008? Not even in Shecky Greene's day. It would be hard to care for these characters even if you were related to the actors. One more howler: card counters from MIT staying under the radar, winning hundreds of thousands from various casinos, but shown in several scenes (I should have counted them) being greeted by name as a high rollers by doormen, casino executives, and dealers. Dull, dumb, and unique in being the worst Vegas movie ever.

Worth to watch for spectacular views from Las Vegas, the movie 21 starts with a "Maverick"ish gambler movie opening. Though, this movie is not even half good as Maverick. We initially see how Jack and Ace forms a lovely couple. Then we meet our leading actor Ben something, the singing frog of the movie "Across the Universe", as a very sharp-witted campus kid trying to persuade the dean of the Harvard Medical School to access student scholarships. A gambler gang of campus kids leading by Kevin Spacey drives Ben and the others' -including Kate Bosworth as another campus kid- minds over gambling in Las Vegas by means of proved mathematical methods of counting cards. Ben, who must have swallowed a calculator, becomes the smartest one of all. We are witnessing our campus kids how actually they gamble with cheating over cards at a casino. Best thing of the casino scenes are the chance of getting know how the backstage of security cams goes. There are a bunch of technicians trying to catch whoever does cheating on the games. The actual happenings of the story is hidden behind the script. Accordingly, it forces us to undone the knots. Yet regrettably, the search for straightening the story is just getting boring and boring until the end starts to occur, while leaving mentioned questions unanswered. Thankfully at the final, knots are getting undone. For five minutes long, while Rolling Stones-You Can't Always Get What You Want is playing, we see how the life takes on shape for each character. Then we end up at where we started; back on the faculty dean's room, Ben is still talking to the dean. Whole movie has passed in this room, we realize. The dean looks persuaded by Ben for his scholarship.

There are three kinds of bad movies. The kind that you'll see for free on HBO or the like if you're bored enough, the kind that are so bad they're actually funny and worth the occasional viewing, and then the kind that you never want to see again. 21 is the latter. And the only reason it got a two instead of a one was Kevin Spacey since he was the only interesting part of the whole movie. You know those movies that leave you with the feeling of "thank god that's over"? Well, 21 goes above and beyond in terms of bad moviedom and found a way to rob us of that nice, warm, and lovely feeling of accomplishment for managing to sit through the whole thing. Among the incredibly numerous cliché's in this film you find the hero of course getting everything he ever wanted in life at the end yet for some reason the director decided to play "You Can't Always Get What You Want" during the wrap up portion and credits of the movie. Now I am all for movies that make you think and have a big message at the end but playing "You Can't Always Get What You Want" while the main character is going over in detail how he did get everything he wanted is like saying violence is bad while shooting someone repeatedly in the head, it just doesn't work. There was one thing I will give the movie. It's predictable. I love the comfortable feeling of knowing that I will be able to predict the course of each and every scene two seconds in to them. I can't stand it when the scene where the main character becomes estranged from his best friends due to varying reasons depending on the movie that are usually incredibly childish springs on me from left field, especially when its followed by the scene showing him losing his cool and doing something stupid, I hate seeing that coming! And I wouldn't have been so touched by his mom offering him $68,000.00 dollars to pay for college if it hadn't been painfully obvious she was about to do so. And of course who would want to not know without even having to think that he was going to refuse the money and make up a lie about why he was because he was ashamed of himself? Because of course no one likes original work, we need more clichés damn it! More story arcs and more recycled characters we all have seen god knows how many times!! I will cease this ragging after I bring up one more point. At the end, surprise surprise, there is a case scene of the main characters running away from the casino security. *SPOILERS* the main character Ben gives the bag of chips to Spacey's character and split up to ditch the guards. Later Spacey opens the bag and its all fake chips and they justify this by showing Ben and his girlfriend Jill switching bags but the problem with that is simple, there was no time. From the moment that Ben had the bag to the point he gave it to Kevin he was with Kevin every step of the way and the shot of the switch they're in a bathroom or some kind of hall, calm and taking their time. It again just doesn't work. I'll admit I didn't have the highest hopes ever for the movie but I had expected it to be better then this. Just keep this in mind if you're thinking about seeing 21, you have seen this movie. You have seen it many times with many different names. But you have in fact seen it. I promise you.

"21" was the official Opening Night Film of the 2008 SXSW Film Festival. The film is based on the true story of a group of MIT students who use their math skills to "beat the house" at blackjack in the Las Vegas casinos. Robert Luketic ("Legally Blonde") directed the Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb adaptation of Ben Mezrich's bestselling book "Bringing Down the House." "21" is pure Hollywood all the way -- slick and polished, like the wardrobes and personalities inhabited by the kids in their transformation to high rollers. The tight ensemble cast includes Kate Bosworth and Jacob Pitts as team players and Laurence Fishburne as a security chief with a massive dilemma on his hands. But the show belongs to Kevin Spacey as professor Mickey Rosa, mastermind behind the escapade, and Jim Sturgess as Ben Campbell, the reluctant recruit who drives the film as it barrels headlong to a breathless climax. The script is clever, funny, and worthy of math geeks everywhere, and the widescreen action is as nonstop as that on the casino floor. Spacey is Spacey at his best -- just the Kevin we know, nothing more, nothing less -- and that's good enough. Sturgess, a Brit playing an American here (quite well, by the way), proves that he is destined for stardom in the States. In the intro to the screening, Luketic explained how Spacey had bought the rights to Mezrich's book, leading to his having to fight to win the actor over and let him direct the film. Memo to Kevin: thank you. And, whatever you do, wait for the end credits. The stunning remix of the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is almost worth the price of admission.

Yes, it is very, very loosely based on the book (which I loved). Yes, there are weak spots in the script. Yes, it could've been 10 minutes shorter. But overall, it was awesome. I didn't really expect to love this movie, I was really thinking it would be one of those movies I liked but had to admit just wasn't that good, but my initial doubts were blown further and further away as the movie progressed. The plot is great, Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne all deliver stellar performances, and unlike many movies of this genre it has not been dumbed down beyond all recognition. In short, the story has been Hollywood-ized, and large elements of the plot have been changed, but as a fictional movie, it rocked.