|
|
Photo © Columbia Pictures Distribution
|
|
21
Autobiographical Drama.
2hrs.03 mins
March 28th, 2008
MPAA:PG-13 for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity
Columbia Pictures Distribution
|
|
|
Starring: Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne
Directed By: Robert Luketic
Produced By: Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Kevin Spacey
Screenplay By: Allan Loeb, Peter Steinfeld
|
|
|
Reviewed
By: Wellington Lee
Rated 2.86/5
Review uploading Friday a.m.3/28.Thank you for your emails!
In a Nutshell:True story of a professor who recruited and organized a group Mass.Instit. of Technology students, to figure out how to beat the House at Black Jack. The gang's 'card watchers'bet their table's minium,and use mnemonic words and brazen hand signals, to signal a hot table to the 'Big' players.
The Star player and real life protagonist/author,is 4.0 student Ben Campbell(Jim Sturgess). Ben succombs from his $8/hr.retail job,to pay for Harvard Med. The group's 'table watchers' use mneumonic words and basic hand signals, to tip nonchalant Ben and the other 'Big ' student Player, when a table is hot.
Dir. Luketic and Producer/star Spacey, use an ethnically mixed gang, though hot Bosworth is too old for her part. Sturgess is pretty good as the self effacing, boy wonder.Spacey stands out, excersizing the manipulating/bullying control over his gang and class,with an icy power.Great close ups
with strong editing/visual effects/photography of table action, that elicit tension, even after the strategy is explained.
If table games are your thing, the mediocre drama shouldn't get in the way. |
|
|
Questions & Feedback |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
(Click
here for more movie reviews)
|
|
|
