You Can't Always Get What You Want

The flashy new blackjack film:

21:

There isn't a lot of substance to this film. It has the basic plot that every movie has, with the minimum character development and the romantic subplot. But it's really all about flash and style. Just taking one look at the way the blackjack sequences are shot can tell you that. Instead of using natural drama to build tension, there's a bunch of effects heavy shots that are supposed to excite you. They didn't really work for me. The film as a whole didn't quite work for me either.

The scoring:

Writing:
The plot is fairly straightforward and conventional. It has a somewhat awkward framing device. The characters are fairly shallow, and the dialogue can be kind of ham fisted. 0.6/1

Directing:
The visual style is all about flash. The pacing is fairly brisk, which is nice. But it could be a little bit shorter. 0.7/1

Acting:
Jim Sturgess is decent in the lead role. I don't really care for Kate Bosworth. She always seems kind of wooden. Of all the other young actors the only one that stands out at all is Aaron Yoo. He was just decent. Ben's two geeky friends were just awful. Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Spacey were pretty good as the elder statesmen of the bunch. 0.65/1

Technical:
There were some interesting visuals. But really it's hard to make Las Vegas look bad. Otherwise just pretty standard stuff. 0.65/1

History:
Not much at all. Loosely based on a true story. 0.4/1

Entertainment:
There were some very entertaining sequences. But I found my mind wandering during the middle of the film. That's usually not good. 0.6/1

Misc.:
0.1 for the room service call. 0.1 for the location shooting.

Overall: 3.8/6.8

A fairly mediocre film. Nothing too special, but it's not really bad either.