'21' stumbles through good idea with mixed results
MOVIE REVIEW
by TIMOTHY CHIPP Reporter

"Winner, winner, chicken dinner" is the catch-phrase in blackjack, something said in Vegas when a player hits the big win. The movie "21" gambles with a full deck, but the result is a mixed bag of tricks, more fitting for the smaller stakes than the high-roller table.

The movie is good. It entertains for the two hours it takes to run its course. But it is lacking in a few areas that make a good movie great.

In other words, it's more like a chicken lunch than a dinner.

The film is loosely based on the true story of Jeff Ma, which was turned into the book "Bringing Down the House."

Jim Sturgess ("Across the Universe") plays the fly-on-the-wall Ben Campbell, a mathematical genius at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who just coasts through school with his two nerdy best friends.

When he tries to get into Harvard Medical School, he finds out that he can't afford it. So he applies for the Robinson Scholarship, a full ride awarded to one of hundreds of applicants, and the winner must "jump off the page."

But Ben just isn't that person. However, when he answers a question in a class taught by former blackjack player Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), it opens the door to everything his character is missing in his boring life.

Joining a team of card counters, including love interest Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), Ben shirks his schoolwork, his friends and their robot invention for weekends in Vegas, loads of money and the girl of his dreams.

That is, until he gets a conscience.

One night it all goes wrong after a firm dose of reality is dealt to Ben by his friends, and he is looking at a $200,000 loss and the absence of Micky's help.

He hatches a scheme, like all geniuses in the movies, and leads the team in an attempt to win the money back without the help of their leader.

The plan backfires, leaving Ben in the clutches of Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne), an old-school, card-counting detection specialist who is losing his job to face-reading software.

That's when the movie gets predictably unpredictable, as true agendas are revealed and unlikely heroes are made.

If you think you've heard this before, you probably have. It's the same with everything being made in Hollywood these days.

The script is also laughable and not because there are great one-liners. Some conversations and situations the twenty-something's find themselves in just bring a chuckle to the surface instead of deep thought.

Sturgess was delightful in "Across the Universe" and is the perfect fit for Campbell's origins, but his ability to portray a superstar-wannabe, big-shot blackjack hustler isn't among his talents. He looks out of place on screen.

One thing "21" does well, though, is explain the culture surrounding card counting. It describes the language counters use, the system they employ and the trouble they find themselves in once they get discovered.

Just as "The Fast and the Furious" made people think they could race cars on the street with no training, the on-screen exploits in "21" almost make it seem like anyone can do it, not just mathematical geniuses and the actors who play them.

The problem is the story needed to go beyond the card counting. It lacks a powerful punch to separate it from the pack of movies now in theaters.

And it needed some actors that could draw the best out of the film, something even Kevin Spacey couldn't do on a regular basis.

It had promise, but it didn't deliver the chicken dinner.