21 Bridges
In the world of gambling, if winning were the main thing, there would hardly be any gamblers and therefore no billion-dollar gambling industry in Vegas. It is common knowledge that the odds are set in favor of the casino, and individuals only play to experience the thrill instead of receiving their winnings. The players who win are very few as compared to the number of bettors who lose. This explains why it remains a consistently profitable venture just like insurance policies whose premium for playing far exceeds what companies pay out to entice customers to keep on betting.
Now how exciting would it be if someone came up with a simple math system that allowed a blackjack player to have an edge over the dealer? ‘21’ has been ‘inspired’ by a true story about M.I.T kids winning millions from Las Vegas casinos but turned into another one formula film almost as exciting as watching an actuary consultant calculating premiums.
Robert Luketic directed “21,” where being called a gambler is considered as bad as anything else. In such moments, Micky Rosa tells his students not to let emotions run their game plan; they should play according to established rules. These recommendations could work well for card counting schemes but they won’t in real movies. That said, “21” will offer you firsthand exposure on how those lines between scenes look like when written on paper (you can almost count page numbers flipping past you even measure margins); it can be such an enlightening experience: How following every “law” leads you nowhere at all. Unwatchable maybe, but binding your eyes and still watch it.
Another good story gone completely generic with the help of Bob McKee’s screen writing seminar and text book.
Act I A brilliant white Boston nerd named Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), an M.I.T undergraduate works with other classmates (a fat guy and a Persian American guy) on a robot project. He desperately needs $300, 000 scholarship to get into Harvard Medical School, but he is just one out of the 72 promising students. Professor Rosa (Kevin Spacey) recruits him for an underground group of card counters who go to Las Vegas on weekends to fleece the casinos. He refuses. A Beautiful Girl (Kate Bosworth) tries to seduce him. He refuses. Well, he needs some money so he agrees only until it’s enough for four years tuition fee.
He learns how to count cards during a few montage scenes and passes his final test for it. The Beautiful Girl doesn’t give in as she insists on keeping their relationship strictly professional.
Act II We see the team in Vegas and they win all their games; then another montage scene? I’m not sure if I got that right; things are becoming unclear now. However, a security expert at the casino by name Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) is starting to suspect something, good thing since these days biometric software which uses photographs has taken away all his work customers away from him with its cheap technology! Oh no! Counting cards isn’t illegal but remember that if you’re caught doing it here in Las Vegas, you might end up being taken to the basement and beaten black and blue by security officers or staff members who run the place as a whole.
The pretty girl changes her mind. In return, Hard Rock Casino gives her a complimentary room where they have a short and sweet romantic scene. “It was too good to be true,” Ben’s voiceover says. “And it felt like it would never end.” But it does. Ben is not the person we used to know in Boston anymore. He loses; money, his friends, the Beautiful Girl, his mentor and everything else that he owned.
About Act III: This is going to be Ben’s last chance; he makes up with Rosa and the Girl so as to allow the team reunite for one final Big Score in Vegas. The screenwriters’ plan goes off without a hitch. It’s Done.
Meanwhile, Bristish actor Sturgess (“The Other Boleyn Girl”) gets to play an American who sounds like he has some accent (in this case based on Jeff Ma, a Chinese-American who was referred to as Kevin Lewis in the book); Spacey goes from smooth good-cop schtick (“L.A. Confidential”) to cold-blooded bad-cop schtick (“Swimming With Sharks”); Luketic (“Legally Blonde,” “Monster in Law”) directs another movie, while Bosworth wears some wigs.
A simple trick can give away this movie: Wait for a frame when somebody pretends not punch hard enough. If you had failed to recognize what happens next in that film then this moment will make you get it all together.
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