When the makers of the blackjack drama 21 stepped up to the table to place their bets, they opted to play it safe.
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03/28/08
21 (2008)
35
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:160
Fresh:56
Rotten:104
Average Rating:5.2/10
Consensus: 21 could have been a fascinating study had it not supplanted the true story on which it is based with mundane melodrama.
Theatrical Release:11-04-2008
Synopsis: Inspired by a true story, 21 mixes Las Vegas casino wheeling and dealing with college-kid angst: think OCEAN'S ELEVEN via THE PAPER CHASE. Kevin Spacey is crafty MIT professor Micky Rosa, who... [More]
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne
Director: Robert Luketic
Reviews for 21
Top CriticIt’s glitzy. It’s suspenseful. It’s a wallow in get-rich-quick ambition. Of course, it’s also largely uninhabited. But at least the empty vessels are attractive.
03/28/08
What happened in Vegas should have stayed in Vegas.
03/28/08
Add it up and, in the game that pits your entertainment dollar against entertainment value, know this: The house wins again.
03/28/08
As an adaptation, it's a disappointment. As Hollywood fare, it's a bust.
03/28/08
It's disposable, watchable and forgettable filmmaking for would-be easy millionaires.
03/28/08
The film is about a group of MIT students who used a very smart card-counting system to milk the casinos. But the movie blows off the deeper thrills of its source material to make a tidier, less compelling amorality play.
03/28/08
While you may stick with the film -- it's a slick time-waster -- you never believe it.
03/28/08
By the time the end credits roll around, you realize nothing's actually been risked. It's the gambling equivalent of Go Fish.
03/28/08
Part of "21's" problem as it ups its stakes is that it's about as dangerous and sexy as a $1-minimum keno game. But it's still a mildly tantalizing timewaster about wish fulfillment told with casual confidence before a dragging finale.
03/28/08
21 should have followed Sin City's cardinal rule: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
03/28/08
21 is based on a true story. So why does so little of this blackjack drama ring true?
03/28/08
Even gambling novices won't be counting the minutes as this fast-paced, slickly entertaining tale of technically legal collegiate misadventures unspools.
03/28/08
Before you know it, your pockets are empty, your head hurts, and you're really tired of the bright lights and the incessant beeping of the slot machines.
03/28/08
As Ben must learn a lesson, the movie must demonize Micky, whose slick meanness becomes increasingly visible.
03/28/08
[A]lmost entirely preposterous -- never mind that it's apparently based on a true story -- and yet somehow wonderfully entertaining at the same time...
03/28/08
...an oddly unsatisfying shaggy dog story.
03/27/08
has a flashy, exciting vibe early on to make the audience feel like they are in the middle of that blackjack table and casino (I almost went All In with my popcorn and peanut M&M's)
03/27/08
You have a director so inept that he doesn't even understand what genre he's working within and he's helped destroy potentially one of the most riveting and important social statements about Las Vegas the movies could have seen.
03/27/08
a genial, generic effort attached to an intrinsically interesting premise.
03/27/08
Latest News for 21
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