21

An MIT student joins a card-counting team lead by a professor (Kevin Spacey) only to run up against a casino security manager (Laurence Fishburne).

21 is basically a heist film buried in useless sub-plots. There’s about 90 minutes of movie here but, unfortunately, the film runs a little over two hours.

Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb’s script is riddled with lazy writing. The first post-credits scene introduces one of the aforementioned useless sub-plots regarding a scholarship to Harvard Medical School, and tells us that lead Jim Sturgess’ character hasn’t lead much of a life up to this point. Okay, we get it. But Steinfeld and Loeb tack on two more scenes that only serve to re-iterate this point, the worst of which has Sturgess actually saying it aloud. It actually takes almost twenty minutes to get to the card counting team, and over half an hour before Sturgess’ character gets to Vegas. Along the way Steinfeld and Loeb introduce a slew of other sub-plots including a love interest, a rival protégé, and a widowed mother, all vintage Hollywood melodrama and all dead weight. Granted, 21 does pick up considerably once it shifts to Vegas, but it’s short-lived. Soon it’s back to snowy Massachusetts, and another sub-plot involving a robotics competition.

The kicker here is that all this extra baggage ends up shortchanging the actual heist. What should have been an elaborate coordinated attack on blackjack games worldwide, is instead reduced to a few scenes inside the same three Vegas casinos. Not only does this rob the story of any sense of realism, but it also reeks of product placement.

Director Robert Luketic doesn’t help matters, as he seems totally oblivious to the film’s length problems. The credits consist of five minutes of Sturgess riding his bike into campus; time that could have been better spent establishing his character. The scenes between Vegas trips drag considerably, and some of the dialog is really cringe-worthy, especially at the beginning of the third act. While much of the blame here falls on the script, it’s up to Luketic to cut the fat and deliver a lean film, something he just doesn’t do.

Fortunately, it’s not all bad. The cast is universally engaging, with Aaron Yoo stealing all of his scenes a kleptomaniac, and the soundtrack is top notch. Also, Luketic delivers a well put-together ending almost makes this one passable, but ultimately, though 21 is loosely based on a book entitled Bringing Down the House, 21 is the house. It lures you in with the promise of something great, strings you along for as long as it can, then ultimately sends you home feeling a bit taken yet wanting more.