21: Critic Reviews

21 is built around some standard-issue plot mechanics, but it's still a clever and novel card-sharp thriller.

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.

As ever with gambling films, it's difficult to convey the thrill of winning at second hand; the human-interest complications are unconvincing and Spacey himself, I'm afraid, is a lugubrious and deadening presence.

Repetitive, implausible and overlong.

It's a would-be parable about greed that emptily celebrates it, a drama about gifted people who are one-dimensional voids and, most laughable of all, a story about the giddiness of risk-taking that safely plays everything by the numbers.

By the time the end credits roll around, you realize nothing's actually been risked. It's the gambling equivalent of Go Fish.

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

There's enough action here to keep you awake, but don't expect to walk away a winner.

A none-too-winning blend of the unsettling and the unsurprising.

The film is about a group of MIT students who used a very smart card-counting system to milk the casinos. But the movie blows off the deeper thrills of its source material to make a tidier, less compelling amorality play.

Inspired by the real-life story of the M.I.T. students who took Las Vegas casinos for millions, 21 has been reshaped to fit a simple movie template -- and it's nearly as much fun as watching an insurance professional compute actuarial tables.

While you may stick with the film -- it's a slick time-waster -- you never believe it.

The students are so blandly written this never builds any suspense, though it probably has some value as an empowerment fantasy for debt-ridden collegians.

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

21 is penny-ante entertainment.

It's disposable, watchable and forgettable filmmaking for would-be easy millionaires.

It's funny how movies based on real stories can be the most formulaic and predictable.

shrewdly shuffles together attractive young leads, cagey screen vets and a fantasy-fulfillment scenario in a slickly polished package

The fascinating story of six college students who took Las Vegas for millions gets dealt a bad hand in 21, which turns their true-life saga into a slick, shallow and thoroughly generic caper flick.

The new blackjack dramedy 21 stands when it should hit, never doubles down and wimps out to the point that it turns a pretty compelling tale into a bust.

When Spacey and Fishburne really go at each other, 21 finally starts to add up to something.

Add it up and, in the game that pits your entertainment dollar against entertainment value, know this: The house wins again.

Numerous inane plot twists and a convenient villain whose behavior defies logic or meaning.

While I'm firm believer in the adage 'Never let the truth get in the way of a good story,' 21 doesn't spin a good enough yarn to justify all the changes.

Real-life rags-to-riches Vegas scheme makes for glossy if lightweight fun.