21 (Single-Disc Edition)
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.67 You Save: $11.32 (76%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.63 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of 21 (Single-Disc Edition)
Movie Review: HIT ME
Summary: 4 Stars
Films about gambling and Las Vegas in particular have always held a certain fascination with the public, culminating with perhaps the ultimate Vegas movie OCEAN'S ELEVEN. But this week we have a release of a film that takes the Vegas movie a whole new direction. Most stunning of all is that it is in part based on a true story.
TWENTY ONE is the story of Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), a struggling student at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) who has hopes of attending Harvard Med School. A grade A student with a 4.0 average, Ben is interviewed for a full ride scholarship. All he has to do is present an essay describing a life experience that sets him out above the other several hundred students applying. The problem is he has nearly no life experience.
That all changes when he starts a class taught by Prof. Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey). During the class, Rosa notices Ben's aptitude with numbers and mathematical equations. In turn, he invites him to join a select group of students Rosa has put together. The reason? Using the technique of counting cards, they plan to make a mint in Vegas at the blackjack tables.
At first hesitant to do so, Ben finally comes around and joins the group which consists of Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), Choi (Aaron Yoo), Kianna (Liza Lapira) and Fisher (Jacob Pitts). The group learns to not only count cards, they put together a set of signals to let the lead player know which tables are hot and when to move on. When they have it down, they become Vegas bound.
It runs like clockwork. The tables return them all a tidy profit and back to school they go, only to return weekend after weekend. Along the way a romance develops between Ben and Jill, Choi continues to pilfer tiny items everywhere he goes and Fisher places the entire project in jeopardy with a drunken night at the tables. The result is Fisher gets booted and Ben becomes the big cheese.
With money coming in like never before, the rush of taking on the tables in Vegas and finding love at last, Ben's life changes but not for the better. Grades become a thing of the past as do his friends. His focus becomes making more and more money until he takes a chance he can't come back from.
A bad night at the tables results in Micky cutting Ben lose and leaving the team in their hotel room alone. Making the decision to go it alone, Ben gets caught by Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne), the head of security for the hotel casino. Not only does he get caught, Cole has a grudge against an old gambler he lost years ago...named Micky Rosa.
The twists and turns at the end of the film along with the build up from the start make this a compelling movie that holds your attention from the starting gate. Ben's life riding a roller coaster of lows, highs and a return to the lows makes for an interesting tale that turned out much better than I expected.
All performances seen in this flick are totally believable from the leads to the secondary characters. While Spacey may have been the "name above the title" in getting this movie made, he doesn't take center stage here, instead opting to work with the ensemble and that is to the benefit of the film.
Based on the true story of a group of MIT students who actually did take Vegas for a ton of money, though not nearly in the same way shown here for dramatic effect, the film is certain to get the hopes up of gamblers seeking a way to beat the bank. Don't get caught up in that notion as the house is always the favorite. Instead, get caught up in the tale of a group of students led by a charismatic teacher who take a gamble and end up getting more than they bargained for.
Movie Review: The morality of the story is immoral
Summary: 4 Stars
Be it true or not, the story is funny. A rather impoverished student at MIT decides to accept a proposal to make some easy money, since he is good at numbers, by playing Black Jack in Las Vegas. That student will get the scholarship he needs to go to Harvard medical school that costs 300,000 US dollars. He is dragged into the black jack business by some math teacher who is using a group of students to make easy money (he gets 50% of the winnings) without being seen because he is persona non grata at all and forever in Las Vegas, though they do not know his face. That professor is of course a crook and when one night, unsettled by some riff raff with his best friends, our student, Ben, loses a lot, the professor destroys everything: he blocks him at MIT, he visits his room and steals his money that was hidden in the false ceiling, ruining at the same time his dream of Harvard, he even tells the security people that the student is back at the black jack table. But the student gets his revenge on the professor, the hard way, but he had to deal with the security boss in the casino who cheats him in his turn and he is still without any money left. But that really dazzles the Dean of Harvard Medical School who interviews him a second time: he went to Las Vegas 17 times, won the 300,000 dollars twice and they were stolen from him twice too. Apparently that is a dazzling life experience that deserves a scholarship. That film is immoral, wicked, perverted, and that student is going to be a doctor. I just hope he does not gamble with the life of his patients the same way. And yet it is fascinating because it demonstrates some people are ready to do absolutely anything to satisfy their desires, to reach their goals, to succeed, no matter what it may be. At the same time some are ready to betray anyone to get even or get revenge or just to get a profit out of these others. But are you sure you would not do that too? You can't imagine what some very decent people were able and ready to do in Nazi concentration camps just to be a Kapo, which meant they had a chance to survive longer. In some situation you cannot know what you would do. Anyway, to defeat casinos on their own ground is absolutely funny for us the spectators and must be absolutely funny for the "gambler" even if he has to be good with figures, which means slightly autistic, which means slightly retarded. But a rich retarded person has a lot of fun in life, provided he has a real good brother and he is "an excellent driver".
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
Movie Review: A candy-coated look into the world of card counting
Summary: 4 Stars
The world of Vegas often has the tendencies to become highly stylized once it is put to film and of course the town itself can walk the walk and talk the talk. But it is up to the writer(s) and director whether or not the story will have the preverbial stones to be paired up with the "City of Sin". And fortuneatly for the team that has brought us 21, they seemed to know when to hit the gas on the glitz and glamour that is the Vegas lifestyle, but also knew when to pull the throttle back when it was time to bring the viewer and the players back to reality. The formula for the film is quite simple and a story is one that could be recognized quite quickly if one had heard or read the book Bringing Down the House. Certaintly details had been modified to fit the rags to riches three act structure, but the song and dance remains nearly identical.
Ben(Jim Sturgess), portrays the painfully shy MIT senior that is scrambling for a way to afford Harvard Medical School after he graduates. His near minimum wage job isn't cutting it, but his grades and standout performances in class do so enough to catch the attention of his cunning statistics professor(Kevin Spacey). Soon Ben is offered a spot on a team of MIT students led by the Professor Spacey who spend their weekends counting cards in Las Vegas and walking home with enough money to pay the average four-year student loan. Ben reluctantly accepts the position as a "means to an end" to pay his way through medical school. Of course, business starts off well, but soon after Ben becomes subject to the lifestyle that Sin City has to offer and begins to lose track of his home life. And with an "eye in the sky"( played by an indimidating Laurence Fishbourne) onto the team's scheme, Ben's world quickly falls apart as quickly as the house of cards it was built upon. The standard formula of loose ends are tied up by the end but that should not deter the viewer from becoming wrapped up in the life of Ben and his cohorts.
The supporting cast play their parts respectively, however furthering some character quirks may of been able to take some of the load off of newcomer Sturgess. But these few flaws are not nearly enough to take away the fun and excitement that 21 was able to provide for me, and easily left me longing for a trip to the Strip for some "heavy action". And for that reason alone, the film should hit it's mark for the popcorn-loving viewer.
Movie Review: Feeling Lucky?
Summary: 4 Stars
Thank goodness gambling doesn't instill much of a thrill in me; with my fondness for vices had gambling given me a rush I would have been homeless eons ago. But I darn sure like a rowdy tale about counting cards and beating Vegas, which is why I so enjoyed 21, a fun trip of a flick about a group of M.I.T. students--led by a most unscrupulous math professor--wreaking havoc at the Vegas casinos.
The story centers around math whiz Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), a nondescript nobody with aspirations of getting accepted into Harvard Medical School. When his mathematical prowess is discovered by the fiery professor named Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey is such a hoot) Ben's invited to join a special handful of students being trained to count cards and win some serious coin at the blackjack table. Ben is hesitant at first, as he doesn't appreciate the moral/ethical tinge of it, but once he scores his first 21 he's like a shark smelling blood in the water. Thus the good times roll, as the card counting team goes to class at stuffy old M.I.T. during the week, then spends weekends in Vegas winning bags of money, staying in penthouse suites, and clubbing 'til the cows come home. Ben starts to feel invulnerable--which is exactly when the floor drops out from under him, Rosa turns on him, and he incurs the wrath of a very revenge-minded casino security boss (Laurence Fishburne).
The pacing and plot get up and go once the characters begin gaming, and it's grand entertainment to watch all the negative consequences once the fudge hits the fan. Sturgess is fine, as is romantic interest Kate Bosworth, yet the true fun is watching Spacey and Fishburne gobble up every scene they're in. There's a grand comeuppance to cap off this mad dash--and it's a tad over the top--yet 21 is solid Vegas gold.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
Movie Review: Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner....
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie started off slow but then started to get more and more interesting.
We begin with young, barely-21 Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) - he's brilliant, can do complex math in his head, and has just been accepted early decision to Harvard Law pending his graduation from MIT. Too bad there's a huge roadblock standing in his way - the $300,000 tuition that he can't afford to pay. He's working a tiny corner clothing store making 8 dollars an hour, and apparently his albeit impressive resume is not enough to grab him a full ride.
Then he makes a mark on one of his professors (Kevin Spacey) and gets invited to join an elite club - one that can make over a hundred grand in a weekend by counting cards in Vegas.
The scheme seems foolproof until they attract the attention of a paranoid, crafty casino guard (Laurence Fishburne) who is just looking for an excuse to beat them up and run them out of town.
This movie becomes compelling and it's definitely an interesting idea based on a true story of a group of MIT students counting cards in Vegas.