bluejives
Apr 18th, 2008, 02:13 PM
http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/stoploss21.htm
At least it has something on its mind, unlike idiot Robert Luketic's idiot 21, which, despite detailing the true story of a band of industrious MIT students who learned how to count cards in teams and take Las Vegas casinos for a bajillion clams in turn, doesn't have one single cogent thought anywhere near its brainpan. Another launchpad for British menschkin Jim Sturgess as lead-geek Ben (Asian in real-life, but John Cho was busy being Japanese in outer space), the picture follows Ben's rise as a Vegas big-shot, banging impossible crush Jill (Kate Bosworth) in a complimentary suite and becoming a magnificent prick in every other respect before suffering his fall (at the hands, sort of, of casino boss Laurence Fishburne) and discovering what truly matters in life. Find also Kevin Spacey reprising his role as Lex Luthor (and Bosworth the Lois to Ben's Supe/Clark), the evil MIT prof who recruits Ben and his coterie of alleged brainiacs to test his theories on the mean streets of Sin City.
A film that makes Rounders seem like a work of great seriousness and import, 21 is this generation's The Sting--and I mean that with as much ire as I can muster: it's a giant, sloppy, masturbatory mess spurred on by the same rage for filthy lucre as the characters it commodifies into stock types and flattened narrative arcs. The characters are smart because the script mentions it over and over again; their system works because the plot demands that it does; and once the filmmakers' imagination runs out, long about the five-minute mark (around the time our love interest makes her entrance hitting a punching bag), hurry and introduce a scary black guy with brass knuckles. If there was anything of value to the story, asking Luketic (he of Monster-In-Law and Legally Blonde) to take the reins guaranteed a thin, easily-digested slurry sure to rake it in during the winter release dead zone. MTV's scary legacy? Entitlement without real consequence: sex, fast fashion, and piles of cash traded in for spiritual and moral enlightenment.-Walter Chaw
At least it has something on its mind, unlike idiot Robert Luketic's idiot 21, which, despite detailing the true story of a band of industrious MIT students who learned how to count cards in teams and take Las Vegas casinos for a bajillion clams in turn, doesn't have one single cogent thought anywhere near its brainpan. Another launchpad for British menschkin Jim Sturgess as lead-geek Ben (Asian in real-life, but John Cho was busy being Japanese in outer space), the picture follows Ben's rise as a Vegas big-shot, banging impossible crush Jill (Kate Bosworth) in a complimentary suite and becoming a magnificent prick in every other respect before suffering his fall (at the hands, sort of, of casino boss Laurence Fishburne) and discovering what truly matters in life. Find also Kevin Spacey reprising his role as Lex Luthor (and Bosworth the Lois to Ben's Supe/Clark), the evil MIT prof who recruits Ben and his coterie of alleged brainiacs to test his theories on the mean streets of Sin City.
A film that makes Rounders seem like a work of great seriousness and import, 21 is this generation's The Sting--and I mean that with as much ire as I can muster: it's a giant, sloppy, masturbatory mess spurred on by the same rage for filthy lucre as the characters it commodifies into stock types and flattened narrative arcs. The characters are smart because the script mentions it over and over again; their system works because the plot demands that it does; and once the filmmakers' imagination runs out, long about the five-minute mark (around the time our love interest makes her entrance hitting a punching bag), hurry and introduce a scary black guy with brass knuckles. If there was anything of value to the story, asking Luketic (he of Monster-In-Law and Legally Blonde) to take the reins guaranteed a thin, easily-digested slurry sure to rake it in during the winter release dead zone. MTV's scary legacy? Entitlement without real consequence: sex, fast fashion, and piles of cash traded in for spiritual and moral enlightenment.-Walter Chaw