What happened in Vegas should have stayed in Vegas.
21, a slick but shallow coming-of-age caper, tells the fact-based account of how a band of MIT math geeks morphed into card-counting high rollers during the 1990s.
But really, despite being inspired by Ben Mezrich's non-fiction best-seller Bringing Down The House, 21 is quite obviously fictionalized Hollywood gunk, comprising improbable characters, soap-opera romance, tacked-on jeopardy and a cornball plot that plays it strictly by the numbers. Director Robert Luketic might think he's Martin Scorsese wheeling his camera through the corridors of Casino but, really, he's the guy who made Legally Blonde.
And it shows.
Is 21 a total bust? Not quite. British newcomer Jim Sturgess, still basking in the after-burn of Across the Universe, makes for an effective everyman as Ben Campbell, a wide-eyed brainiac who wants to go to Harvard Medical School, but can't afford the tuition. Enter Kevin Spacey as Mickey Rosa, a sharp-tongued math professor who, when not lecturing students, is recruiting them for his covert crew of card counters.
Ben balks at first, but can't resist the chance to cozy up to Jill (Kate Bosworth), a brainy babe he always figured was out of his league. Once he signs on, though, there's no going back. The lure of fast cash, won on weekend treks to Vegas, is just too tempting. In addition to Ben and Jill, the team is rounded out by Fisher (Jacob Pitts), the prickly veteran who grows jealous of the new kid on the strip, as well as two "spotters" (Liza Lapira and Aaron Yoo) who sniff out the casino's hot decks.
Luketic slathers on the flash throughout, probably to protect multiplex-goers from too much dialogue or exposition. But he possesses neither the visual dexterity to cannily portray the mechanics of the team's operation, nor the dramatic insight to give the story much depth.
Matters go from bad to worse -- for us and Ben -- when Laurence Fishburne starts to loom around as Cole Williams, a casino henchman who swiftly sizes up Ben for what he is. Fishburne certainly provides a menacing presence, but his role is, frankly, a thankless one.
Some of the other cast members fare better.
As a snide blackjack Yoda with a mean streak, Spacey, for one, doesn't pretend the movie is anything more than a glossy lark. Sturgess anchors things nicely as the outsider who falls under the spell of sins both scholarly and sexual. Even Bosworth, who can easily be miscast, proves captivating as the femme fatale of this nerd neo-noir.
Ultimately, for all the risk-taking on screen, there's little evidence of it behind the camera. Instead, the filmmakers are content to dull us with this very safe bet.
(This film is rated 14-A)
TOP FIVE LAS VEGAS MOVIES
Bugsy (1991)
Barry Levinson's robust drama casts Warren Beatty as Benjamin Siegel, the mobster who made Las Vegas a landmark of sin and decadence. The pairing of Beatty and Annette Bening as Virginia Hill proved combustible both on-and-off screen.
Casino (1995)
Martin Scorsese's Vegas-based opus of crime and corruption was maligned for not being Goodfellas-great. But that doesn't mean it's still not explosive entertainment, with a career-best Sharon Stone as Robert De Niro's coke-addled wife and Joe Pesci as a prototypical desert rat.
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Glamorous it ain't, but this relentlessly bleak drama about a screenwriter (Nicolas Cage) bent on drinking himself to death seems somehow perfectly placed amid the tacky neon streets.
The Cooler (2003)
As a sap with such bad luck he can cool any winning streak just by brushing by you, William H. Macy comes up aces -- as does Alec Baldwin as an old-school casino dinosaur facing corporate extinction.
Showgirls (1995)
It's a howler and a staggering example of overripe taste, but then so is much of Vegas, isn't it?
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