21 is a decent movie, worth a $5 ticket on the weekends before noon at AMC Theaters, but probably not worth much more than that. You should definitely check out the new theaters at 144th and Huron though, the screens are HUGE! I sat in the first row of the second section and that really is too close. My neck still has a crick in it. Another interesting bonus is that the seats recline. Or as I would say, they lean back a little. I’m not that excited about true reclining seats though because they work so much better for bigger people. (I was at AFW trying them out once and I got stuck in one because I wasn’t tall/heavy enough to put it straight again and I had to crawl out of it. So that’s my issue with reclining chairs!)
The movie is about 6 MIT students who can count cards and they get sucked in by the evil Professor Rosa, played by Kevin Spacey, and while the writers apparently try to make Rosa funny and cool (a class you wish you could take!) it seems rather fake right off the bat. It’s pretty obvious the guy is a scumbag early on in the movie.
Rosa takes the kids to Vegas on the weekends, allows them to play Blackjack and make money, and then he generously takes half the cut. The best part of the movie might be the frequent shots of Vegas which are kind of fun to watch.
And yes, it’s one of those “obvious” movies where the whole time you’re thinking, “Don’t do it!!! Don’t do it!!” And even though it’s just a movie, you REALLY want Ben (Jim Sturgess) to just say no when you KNOW he’s supposed to, even though if he had said no the 5 zillion different times he should have, there would be no movie.
The movie definitely drags in the middle, when you know big trouble is coming and you want it to come already, because you know it has to before you get to the conclusion.
Overall I’d say it isn’t quite as bad as some of the critics are saying but it isn’t a great movie either. Definitely worth putting on your Netflix queue though.
