Movie Review: 21

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity.

Rating: Not even watchable or recommended

When I saw the preview to this movie I thought it looked interesting. The true story of the very brightest young minds in the country - and how they took Vegas for millions. Ben Campbell is a shy, brilliant M.I.T. student who -- needing to pay school tuition -- finds the answers in the cards. He is recruited to join a group of the school's most gifted students that heads to Vegas every weekend armed with fake identities and the know-how to turn the odds at blackjack in their favor. With unorthodox math professor and stats genius Micky Rosa leading the way, they've cracked the code. By counting cards and employing an intricate system of signals, the team can beat the casinos big time. Seduced by the money, the Vegas lifestyle, and by his smart and sexy teammate, Jill Taylor, Ben begins to push the limits. Though counting cards isn't illegal, the stakes are high, and the challenge becomes not only keeping the numbers straight, but staying one step ahead of the casinos' menacing enforcer: Cole Williams. (Source: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809834187/details)

However, I was wrong. The movie held my attention until about half way through when I started wondering if it was ever going to end. The film is 2 hours long, but it felt more like 21...The story was really slow and it seemed that it didn't really take off until about half way through. The critics average rating on Yahoo! was a C (Mediocre). I thought it was worse than that. I have to agree with Manohla Dargis from the New York Times when she said it was "a feature length bore" (Source: http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/movies/28twen.html?ref=movies) and with Claudia Puig from the USA Today, "21 does not offer audiences a winning hand" (Source: http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2008-03-27-21_N.htm).

The movie was lacking and the plot twist was predictable. I was literally bored in this movie. it only did semi-well in the box office because it was the only movie that did not appear stupid. The advertising people did a good job with the preview. They sold the movie, made it look interesting. I thought is was awful.