21

Venue: Hoyts Melbourne Central
Snacks: None (no cash at the time haha)

Ok, it's been awhile since i wrote my last review. After king shen decided to write both the reviews for Iron Man and then Speed Racer (it only comes out in Melbourne-land next month) so i'm left with this movie called 21. Sigh. This movie has been out in the states for awhile now but it just reached Aussie shores last week. While waiting for Indy Jones 4 that'll be out this Thursday (22nd), me and my mates decide to watch 21! How fun! A movie about blackjack! and there's Kate Bosworth too! Cant go wrong with that right? Think again...

Obviously, if you've heard abit about this movie you'll probably know that it's mainly about blackjack. If you dont even know what blackjack is then probably this movie is not for you. So yeah, the premise of the movie is simple - it's about a group of students from MIT who "counts" cards in blackjack tables all across Vegas. Apparently counting cards is not illegal, it's a beatable system in casinos although you need to be a super genius to pull it off. Heh.

The movie starts off pretty well i guess. It introduces the lead guy who's a MIT student trying to get into Harvard Med school. He's short of cash, and the only way he's gonna get in Harvard is via scholarship. So, being a geek that he is, he impresses his professor in math class and soon after, he gets an invite to become a member of the MIT "Secret Blackjack Society" team! Led by none other than Kevin "keyser soze" Spacey - he then goes off on a thrill ride to Vegas to win loads of cash on blackjack tables. Oh, and you also get to know stuff on how they count cards and how they 'work' tables which is quite interesting.

"mmm-hmmh you smell just like Lois Lane.."

Sadly, it all goes downhill from there. After about half and hour i'm pretty much bored of the movie. There's seriously nothing new going on. The scenes are repetitive throughout the movie and you can sort of tell what's going to happen next. Plus, this movie tries to steal alot of ideas from other movies (Ocean's 11 is a good example) but the execution just falls flat. Cliche after cliche's are apparent in the movie, and soon after you can't be bothered any more. My friend CK said "theyre counting cards in the movie, we're pretty much 'counting' the movie's plot" which is quite spot on since we were able to predict what's gonna happen next. Haha!

All in all, its a super average movie. I know some of you might kinda like this movie, but I didnt. This is the sort of movie you wouldn't mind catching it on TV when it comes out on HBO. Skip this, watch Indy Jones 4 instead.

Stars: 21+4 divided by 10 = 2.5 / 5 stars