21

I went to the movies again last night, and saw 21. 21 was based on the true life story portrayed in the book "Bringing down the house." A book that I actually read years ago, when it first came out.

Spoilers included. Read at your own risk.

Anyone that knows Me, knows that I hate when people compare movies to the original concept book. So I will not compare them; nor will you see the words "The book was better" written with any meaning. I might however use examples from the book for illustrative purposes.

So, the movie was decent. I am an avid fan of beating anyone at their own game, and beeting the casino is especially appealing. So the base concept of a card counter's adventures in Las Vegas, is extremely appealing. However there was this forced plot that required Ben(the lead character) to HAVE to join the Blackjack team in order to try to pay for medical school. It all seemed rather contrived, in an attempt to make the protagonist seem more moral in the beginning, to be able to amplify his fall to the bottom, when he hits it. The truth is, people are greedy to begin with. By nature if given the option of having money, and not having money - all other motives aside - anyone with at least an 1/8 of a brain will choose having money.
With that in mind, you can begin to see why I think that aspect was forced.

Once you're into it though, it becomes a bit smoother of a ride. He studies, he counts cards, he wins money, he falls from grace and looses everything, he tries to get it back. Pretty formulaic, and unfortunately it ends on a happy note with him finding a way to pay for medical school anyway. Life is not like that. Further, I would have thought the casino industry would have a vested interest in him going out on the low note, as the real Ben did, in order to illustrate that card counters can't win in the long term. Which, while completely false, is what any good casino would want you to think, so as to not take them for everything they had.

The card counting system that was used in real life was represented fairly well, and I enjoyed reliving the experience of learning how it works, which I thought the director did a great job of conveying without getting bogged down in the details.

I especially liked the scene in the beginning with the numbers on the cards flashing like someone was taking a mental picture of them, and storing that information. Very nice touch. That being said however, the rest of the movies cinematography failed to wow. There was one particular fly-in over Vegas that was grainy and out of focus. I thought for a moment it might even had been stock footage from somewhere.

I'd say it's worth a matinée viewing which is about as high as I would go with a rating system, because seriously? how many movies are really worth 12 bucks for one viewing...