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21
Columbia Pictures (Sony)


6.2

based on 29 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 56 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity

Starring Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Spacey, Liza Lapira, Josh Gad, Aaron Yoo, and Sam Golzari

Ben Campbell is a shy, brilliant MIT 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 crack 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 his smart and sexy teammate, Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), 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. (Columbia Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Ben Mezrich (book "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions") Allan Loeb Peter Steinfeld
DIRECTED BY:	Robert Luketic
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 22, 2008 Theatrical: March 28, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	123 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

21 drags itself to a climax that puts credulity in splints. So what? In a multiplex of dumb-luck hits, it's a kick to watch Spacey and a gifted young cast use smarts to deal audiences a winning hand.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The fun of 21 is the way that this sharp, hyperaware star in the making, his face as readable as a mood ring, pours us into an adrenalized cocktail of fear, desire, and mental buzz.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

21 makes for some slick escapist fantasy. Even if, and because, the fantasy has its roots in something real.

The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore

Escapist moviegoers happy to live out a flashy fantasy get a brief comeuppance and still walk away from the table with a little something in their pockets.

Variety Joe Leydon

Picture shrewdly shuffles together attractive young leads, cagey screen vets and a fantasy-fulfillment scenario in a slickly polished package that should appeal to anyone who's ever dreamed of beating the odds.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

A predictable moral tale enacted by blandly pretty young things who bear little resemblance to the average brainiac.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Spacey's engaging for a while in one of his patented double-edged, sharky roles.

Empire Olly Richards

The Ocean’s Eleven: The College Years mood makes for a breezy good time, even if there is, like Vegas, precious little substance beneath the glitz.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

21 isn't insultingly stupid. But there's a gap between what we're told about its characters and what we can see for ourselves, a gap that gets larger and more frustrating as the film goes on.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A movie with an irresistible premise that ultimately collapses around the whole issue of motivation. Until it does, this is a thoroughly entertaining picture.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The more moralistic 21 gets, the less enjoyable it is.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

What might have been a complex story dealing with greed and high-stakes betrayal among the young intellectual elite in America's gaming playground is instead treated as a slick, glossy romp.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Except for Spacey's talent, elements don't add up.

Premiere Ryan Stewart

There are moments where Spacey and Bosworth have their fun in spite of the film -- they both adopt Southern "characters" as disguises at one point, which is a hoot -- but overall, 21 is a busted hand.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

No movie with Kevin Spacey as a heartless prick can be all bad, but this gambling thriller, based on Ben Mezrich's nonfiction book "Bringing Down the House," hasn't got much else going for it.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

21 doesn't spin a good enough yarn.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

21 isn’t pretentious, exactly, but it’s damn close, and in trying to whip up a melodramatic morality tale the film becomes an increasingly flabby slog.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

A thoroughly ordinary drama of temptation, dubious redemption and easy revenge.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

What a big cheat of a movie. Wanting to be everything to everybody – a tough gambling picture, a revenge-of-the-nerds fantasy, a Vegas caper flick, a sweet little romance, a simple morality tale – 21 is just a bet-hedger dealing from multiple decks, designed to leave you with an occasional tidbit to like but nothing at all to love.

USA Today Claudia Puig

While not exactly a zero, 21 lags and fails to measure up dramatically.

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

Very little adds up in 21.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

The early scenes are flashy fun, and Sturgess (handsome Jude in "Across the Universe") makes a convincing math geek. But the requisite romance and Hollywood-style ending feel as fake as the air allegedly pumped into casinos to revive flagging players

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A slick, shallow and thoroughly generic caper flick.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Short of counting the cards out loud, these geniuses seem to do everything they can to get caught.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The story may be based on real events, but most of it feels patently false.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Greed is good and comes without a hint of conscience in 21, a feature-length bore about some smarty-pants who take Vegas for a ride.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Spacey, whose Trigger Street Productions is one of the film's producers, digs into his role as the story's snarky mastermind and lure, yet it's all the kind of stuff we've seen him deliver in so many movies before.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The movie's chief audience, consequently, will probably be gullible and young, responding to the cliches only because they haven't seen them before. They have a word in Vegas for these people: Suckers.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

A movie that wastes a lot of time and money and really, REALLY shoulda stayed in Vegas.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 56 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

George M gave it a5:
The style is definately there in this film....its glitzy and well polished, but thats about it for this movie....looks good but leaves a bad taste in my mouth. watching these characters work the system and win boat-loads of money is what fantasies are made of, who wouldn't want to do something like this and get away with it all the while living it up and having the time of your life??? unfortunately its the last half of the film that made me lose interest and how the story and ALL characters seemed to get dumber and dumber which in turn made the movie DUMB. i haven't felt so hollow and uninterested by the end of a movie in a while.

Tyler D. gave it an8:
A very entertaining movie. The ending was extremely clever and presented in a great way. 21 entertained throughout with its multiple twists and turns, great acting, and interesting plot. Highly recommended!

Battle Glue gave it a3:
Utter crap. Supposedly intelligent characters are ruined by the army of hacks that wrote or directed this. Imagine watching a documentary about Einstein, no picture the director making him struggle to open a milk carton. That is how simple the movie makers made this movie.

Canaan B gave it a4:
This movie certainly had some potential, and I didn't think it was a complete waste of time. But really, there is little substance here, and I cannot shake the anti-gender / race thing going on in terms of being the BIG player. The 'romance' in the film is lukewarm at best. Also, I wish I knew more about counting before going in, since you feel like an outsider desperately trying to figure out how they are doing it during the film.

Lyle S gave it a6:
It wasn't a complete waste of time or a waste of my red box dollar.

Dylan D. gave it a10:
Excellent, excellent movie. A good showing from the young cast. Sure, it didn't stay to the book, although I really don't care because I don't sit and endlessly nit pick at stuff no one really cares about. And why am I not surprised that the race card was thrown in? I'm going to assume that there were more high caliber Caucasian actors than Asian actors. You would be a terrible director if you decided to take mediocrity over continuity. People grow up and learn to enjoy films for what they are. And this, was a good flick.

Justin C gave it a4:
A poor movie. The camera work was...questionable at best. They tried to make something boring exciting, and it ended up giving me a headache. (I loved the Bourne movies camera work because the style suited that genre) The acting was bland, they should have gotten someone better to play Campbell. I think Jake Gyllenhaal would have been great as Ben. Spacey's performance was one of his worst, perhaps because his character was boring. He just felt censored, as if he was holding back. Kate did fine. Overall a movie I'm disappointed I paid money to see. Watch only if you have nothing better to do.

21 Columbia Pictures (Sony)

21
Columbia Pictures (Sony)