SXSW Review: 21

A special screening of the new film 21 took place at the Paramount Theater in Austin, TX as part of the SXSW Film Festival. The film is about a group of MIT students who travel to Las Vegas on weekends to count cards and win big. The team is schooled in card counting by their professor, played by Kevin Spacey, and under his guidance they set out to take down the Las Vegas casinos. This story is based on actual events and the screenplay is adapted from the bestselling book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich. The main character, Ben Campbell, is based on the original MIT card counter Jeff Ma, who has a cameo in the film as a dealer.The story revolves around Campbell, played by Jim Strugess of Across the Universe fame, and his financial struggle as a bright student who has to pay for Harvard Medical school. His professor Mickey Rosa (Spacey) leads a private group of blackjack players (Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapirra, Jacob Pitts, and Kate Bosworth) and attempts to add Campbell to his roster.

This movie is definitely targeted towards a younger audience and didn’t always deliver because it was very predictable. The punchlines were well delivered, but not well written and, at times, it felt like there was one cheesy joke too many. The only somewhat surprising moment was the the big twist in the movie.
It seemed like the major tactic to get the young audience in the door was definitely enhanced audio and sound effects. A dealer flipping a card sounds more like an engine revving up and exploding than the actual sound of flipping a card. It felt like taking audio effects from the Fast and the Furious and combining them with the CSI camera effects to try to make every moment of the card game a major event.

The movie as a whole was just a fun ride. Nothing really bad can be said except that Sturgess’ attempt to minimize his accent didn’t really work. Also, Spacey still speaks in a monotone voice, something that apparently makes him a bad guy. Still, he showed a range in character during the beginning of the movie.

The story from Bringing Down the House was re-created as a Hollywood date movie, but it turned out to be pretty decent.

On a scale of 1-10…7

After the screening, Sturgess, Mezrich and Ma did a Q&A with the audience and here are some highlights:
Question: How did you prepare to play Ben/Jeff Ma?
Ma: I think he wants to ask how did you get ready to play me. We wanna know, we really wanna know how did you get ready.(Laughs) Tell them the cigar story, that’s a great story.
Sturgess: Yeah I just came back from Cuba and I brought a little bit of cigars with me.
Ma: Little does he knows it is illegal.
Mezrich: I happen to find out is highly illegal…I thought it would be pretty cool if I bought these Cuban cigars for the first time I met him. I had a million questions and Jeff had a million stories. We had dinner with friends and then we went out drinking, gambling, indulging ourselves. Jeff comes over to ask lets go smoke these cigars. I was trying to play it cool, look like I was the real deal.
Ma: We both pretended they were lit for 25 minutes.

Question: Who is the best blackjack player in the cast?
Ma: I don’t thinks it’s Sturgess.
Sturgess: I was one of the only people out of the cast and crew that left Vegas with money up and I am very proud of that.
Ma: What do you do when you get a 15 against an 8? Huh. This is a chance to redeem yourself.
Sturgess: Someone asked me this at a red carpet and I got it wrong and I was so embarrassed. I let Jeff down.
Ma: Because he got that wrong I made him sing in a hotel.

Question: Where you intimidated to act with Kevin Spacey?
Mezrich: Oh yes. I remember when I first got the part and Kevin knew I got the part my phone kinda rang and it was a number I didn’t recognize. I picked it up and I said hello. “Hello.” I said, “Who is this?” and he said, “It’s Kevin Spacey.” I just picked up and I said, “Oh hey, Kev!” He invited me to his play in London and we got to know each other before the movie. But I thought he hated me.