'21' Brings Down the House

Every year, there are a few movies that try their hand at pulling off the perfect heist. I call these caper movies. A good caper movie pulls the wool over the eyes of not only the marked character in the film, but the audience as well, leading us to believe that one thing has taken place then rewinding and showing it to us all over again from a different perspective. When a caper movie is done well, it is the most possible fun you can have at the movies. When it is done poorly, it's still pretty darn fun. When it's done like '21', it falls somewhere in between.

'21' begins with the 21st birthday of genius MIT student, Ben Campbell, played by the adorable Brit Jim Sturgess of 'Across the Universe', here with a perfectly clean American accent. Ben has already been accepted into Harvard Medical School, but has no way to pay for it because the scholarship to which he has applied doesn't think that Ben "dazzles" or "jumps off the page" for them. And they're right. Aside from his glowing 4.0 GPA, 1590 SAT score, and list of other academic accolades, Jim doesn't have much life experience. He has given up everything for his education.

Enter Kevin Spacey, playing Ben's too-cool-for-school math professor, Micky. Micky has a proposition for Ben: join his small and elite card-counting team, and make all the money he needs for Harvard and then some. All of a sudden, Ben is getting plenty of life experience-in the form of trips to Vegas, complete with weekend stays in high-roller suites, limousines, room service, and all the best of everything that money can buy. But, it's not that easy of course. Everything comes with a catch.

The movie is based on the novel 'Bringing Down the House', by Ben Mezrich. That novel is apparently based on a true story, so it's extremely fun to think about how these kids took Las Vegas Casinos for millions of dollars by doing some simple arithmetic. Throw that together with a great performance given by Kevin Spacey, who is no stranger to a good caper: 'Usual Suspects' is probably one of the best examples in existence of filmmaking in this genre. You have a very fun film here. But, in the end it just doesn't sing like a good caper should. The twists are a little predictable, and actress Kate Bosworth in the role of the leading lady is just all but completely unlikable.

Overall, '21' is a good time at the movies, but it's not even in the same league with great caper films like 'The Sting', or even more recent movies like 'Ocean's Eleven'. For all of its good and entertaining moments, this one receives a 'B".