REVIEW: 21

Next up was the film 21. Our feelings entering this movie date? Great. Another casino slash gambling movie where someone makes a ton of money only to lose it all and learn some valuable lessons in the end.

Unfortunately, our pre-date analysis was spot on and that made for some REALLY boring movie-watching on this particular night.

Here's the trailer:



WIFEY'S REVIEW

Ok, my thinking about this moive was I was really going to enjoy it. the previews made it look so good and it was even promoted on Big Brother! Wow, was I totally wrong! I think the only way you would enjoy this movie is if you know your stuff about blackjack, poker, and card counting.

Hubby and I were kind of just sitting there wondering what the hell this all meant in the world of cards! Letters were numbers and numbers were letters in their little universe.

So anyways, this really smart kid goes and becomes a part of this card counting team to pay his way through Harvard Med School, and he is so good with numbers his professor needs him on his team. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda!

He makes a lot of money and then looses it all, and you would think he would stop after he loses $350,000 dollars but you're wrong! He continues ruining his life and everyone around him (see that’s what money does to people)!

I never understood the whole signal thing going on in this movie it was so obvious to us viewers, like putting their hands behind their backs = HOT TABLE (bad one) and running your fingers through your hair = GET OUT FAST (that one was ok), and then other ones - no wonder how they got caught!

Ok, and we're also supposed to think that every time that this kid would win money he would take all his winnings that he was saving for his way through college and just stash it away in the ceiling of his dorm room? Come on now! Get a bank account or even a safe deposit box!

I would have to rate this movie a 1.5 Ben & Jerry’s.

HUBBY'S REVIEW

What she said. Seriously, this movie was awful and exactly the same as all the other casino and/or gambling films that came before it.

I could see how you might like this if you're into playing cards and hitting the shining city on the hill each week, but if you're like me and you rarely play cards let alone feel as if the best thing about casinos are the awesome buffets then do yourself a favor and skip this one.

Heck, Rounders is probably a much better movie to watch from this genre than 21! Ok, I get that this is based on a "true story" and that's supposed to make everything seem that much more intriguing and dramatic, but I didn't feel that at all.

A quick comment on Wifey's comments about the hand signals...She's absolutely right. If this is, in fact, a true story then they deserved to get caught and lose everything because they were some of the most obvious tells ever! How could you not see them and think that something strange was going on if you worked casino security?

Personally, I hate it when TV shows and movies these days treat the viewers like we're really that stupid and when they ask us to suspend too much belief at the door because after this little sequence I had a hand gesture of my own that I wanted to flash. Here's a hint: it involves only one finger.

I'm with Wifey all the way on this one. I give it 1 Ben & Jerry's making the OMD Rating 1.25 Ben & Jerry's.