03.2821 Movie Review
Last night I went to a free screening of the movie 21. That movie opens today worldwide, and I got in free for an advance screening of the film. The movie was packed to the rafters, it had a lot of people in there, and I couldn’t gauge if people were there because the movie was free or because they were interested in the film.
Maybe a little bit from column A or a little bit from column B.
The movie follows a group of MIT students that form a gambling club, then visit casino’s and make a ton of cash.
I didn’t like this movie at all, and the people around me were clapping and cheering at the end.
I didn’t like the film on many levels, and I didn’t like the characters.
The characters are rich kids that go to MIT! There is no major character development, and after looking at some information online about the back story, I see how this film is taking some major liberties.
Regardless of the truthfulness of this film, it’s just a bad movie.
What threw me off was the following:
The characters are straight A students.
They don’t even try hard at school, and are the smartest kids in school.
They learn to count cards, but it comes easy.
They take the casino’s for a long run.
The supporting cast doesn’t get back stories at all.
If that all wasn’t enough, the soundtrack is really missing out on some good points; meaning that there are times when a soundtrack is definitely necessary, but there is none to be heard. Sometimes there is not even a score, or anything to accompany the sequences.
This film is poorly made, poorly executed, and something that makes me mad.
If you’re not a fan of the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer this film is not for you. These kids are not underdogs, they are not fighting for something, they are rich kids, smart kids, and they get away with massive riches for doing something that comes easy to them.
What kind of message is that?
Don’t see this movie. It sucks. The trailer made it look somewhat good, but sitting through the boredom movement that is 21 is just too much to recommend to anyone.
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i totally disagree with you, it’s true that it wasn’t the best movie ever made, but i still enjoyed watching it, the sountrack was amazing, a nice twist to the story and lots of fun involved… going to MIT doesnt mean ur rich, there’s tons of financial aids out there that supports middle class smart students to continue with their education…. obviously you don’t know what u’re talking about…. go see the movie boys and girls… tons of fun and excitment
March 29th, 2008 at 11:49 am
That’s fine to disagree.
But when you know the real story, you know that it’s not exactly all that great.
The creative freedom taken in this film is astronomical.
MIT for the kids in this film was easy, and paid for, as explained in the film. The characters backgrounds were all displayed as from wealthy backgrounds.
You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about.
You also don’t know what you’re talking about in regards to music, either.
By throwing a blanket statement like you did, you prove you’re not on top of your game.
Boys and Girls?
Maybe next time don’t hide behind anonymity on my blog.
Or maybe next time, write a review of the film yourself, and I’ll judge it.
March 29th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Let me ask you something… why are you continually sniping at our writers lately? I mean, you of all people should understand that reviews are personal opinions. Seriously, what exactly is your problem?
And your your off-hand comment on our comic review yesterday, what was that about?
Curious,
Dave3
Dave3’s last blog post..Movie Review: 21
March 29th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Dave3, thanks for your comment.
I have no problem.
It appears that I’ve bruised your ego by writing what I felt was a relevant comment on a site that calls itself “geeks of doom”.
maybe there should be a disclaimer that reads:
“only leave positive comments, and don’t share an off hand opinion, because we are delicate and can’t handle criticism of any kind”
At least that’s how your comment is coming across to me.
Plus, who am I that would dictate such a response from a “real” review site?
Surely you have bigger and badder things to worry about right?
March 30th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Am I in the middle of an argument here?
I have just seen the movie and didn’t really like it. I mean, it’s good for college boys but even at 25 years old I felt I couldn’t really relate.
Agreed with Sir Jorge as well for the lack of coherence in the movie…
Anyway, I’ve seen much worse but I think you have to be quite young to like the movie. It’s a teen/ college flick.
Zhu’s last blog post..Destruction
March 30th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I couldnt agree more with all the comments made about this movie
this is the review I wrote for IMDB some with resounding similarities to what has been written here so much so I am not sure if I was thinking the same stuff at the author of this review
review title: A few smart cats cant do anything many can change the world
rating 4/10
“Knowing people that attend MIT, and trying to confirm many of the facts presented in this movie I cannot agree with much of this “this movie is based on facts”.
This movie has a lot of resounding issues with me not to be impartial but a few of these are:
All Students are A students, All A Students are Geniuses, All Students that Attend MIT are Great Card Counters for Blackjack, MIT has a History of Card Counting back to when the actor Kevin Spacey playing Micky Rosa, hit the card counting at MIT long before “21″ unfolded as a
flashback.
For me genius has anything but to deal with education or
institutionalism and more to do with the nature/nurture issues perhaps environment and different approaches to solving problems. Of course there will always be cases in which higher learning enhance the gifts of some but most geniuses swing by the wayside of conventional metrics.
This segmenting society into the leaders and the followers or the gift of a degree often to find a job which this movie appears to suggest is the way of life is unfortunately in many cases reality and we furnish our fortune 500s with tic tacs. Tic tacs in the sense that they are hard coated almost perfect replicas of what industry requires, we throw
away tic tacs that are not shaped uniformly. A few of these throw aways are so disgusted with the system they start companies like “Microsoft” and “Apple” to name a few.
Telling someone they’re not good enough for something and that another person is a more suitable candidate is great as it was approached in this movie. The issue that resounded with me was this means to an end to make the cut by describing trials and tribulations with a casino
scheme as a means to attain acceptance which seems rather like a casino advertisement. “Hey get busted by the security at a casino and we consider you really smart and worthy of a scholarship”
I will admit we live in a complex almost impractical world everyone knows the saying “life is not fair” but for many of us we try to make the best of it. For me as someone in the 25-29 demographic I have some serious reservations with what this movie is telling people that are struggling with money and other pressures associated with life. This
casino option is the wrong message to send, Hollywood is a powerful message sender and these are the wrong messages; Gambling doesn’t solve anything. Even if Kevin Spaceys character states “you need to follow the system and not get emotional we arnt gambling here this is a
business we are in” the quote is a summary of what was said and not word for word from the movie.
Treat this movie with a grain of salt. I am still researching to see if the facts are even true for the baseline plot (or lack there of with no character development and no glue putting anything other then the money making scheme).
All in all this movie may appeal to some who just want to be dazzled by the mighty brilliance of the rich, straight A geniuses of MIT with 4.0s and perfect SAT scores or the romance of the “geek beauty and the bigger geek”.
For me this is not the case. I thought this was a cheap shot at the working middle class and struggling citizens who struggle on a day to day basis to make ends meet and get educated ( college, university). Being successful or great has little to do with MIT, if we look at research itself we find the top schools do not account for a disproportionate amount of good research or scholarly articles amongst all the other universities out there worldwide. Anyone is capable of great things from a bum on the street to research being done at any school with or without resources. These schools like MIT are for the
most part well funded and have the power through cash to scoup up talent from lesser known institutions, still most of the break through work is never done in their own institution.
All it takes is some hard work and a bit of drive and “sometimes” not always assets for higher learning where a university or some vessel capable of providing tools can help, I believe in the next 20 years Google and infrastructure like Google will become the next education or
institution dynamic of tomorrow and give these MIT class institutions a run for their money. I have a saying ” a few smart cats cant do anything many can change the world” and these education institutions are only producing a few smart cats every year.
My rating is as such.”
April 4th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
[quote]These kids are not underdogs, they are not fighting for something, they are rich kids, smart kids, and they get away with massive riches for doing something that comes easy to them[/quote]
EXACTLY!!!! That’s something I neglected to mention in my review, but it definitely annoyed me as well. It’s not as though Ben needed the money to fund a kidney operation for his dying kid sister or whatever… Harvard med? Like his life would be over if he went to, I don’t know, UMass instead???
J.E.’s last blog post..21 (2008)
April 4th, 2008 at 5:22 pm