The problem with "21," a part-drama, part-thriller directed by Robert Luketic ("Legally Blonde"), is that it doesn't know when to cash out.
The movie uses as its starting point Ben Mezrich's book Bringing Down the House, about a group of MIT students who lived a double life as Vegas blackjack players and honed their card-counting skills into an elaborate system - complete with disguises and code words - to take the casinos for millions.
The movie follows poor-but-noble MIT student Ben Campbell ("Across the Universe's" Jim Sturgess), who reluctantly joins a group of students formed by a wily professor, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey). After a few profitable trips to Vegas, Ben starts enjoying the thrill of being a high roller and starts falling for his gorgeous teammate, Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth). But tensions with Micky and the intense pursuit of an old-school Vegas security expert (Laurence Fishburne) threaten the whole enterprise.
Luketic starts strong, explaining the rules of blackjack and the MIT card-counting system in quick, well-edited sequences - while screenwriters Peter Steinfeld ("Be Cool") and Allen Loeb ("Things We Lost in the Fire") flesh out Ben's character and the seduction of the card table. The interplay among the actors, as fresh faces Sturgess and Bosworth square off with cagey pros Spacey and Fishburne, shoots off a few sparks.
But "21" blows the endgame when a jarring shift to a con-game finale turns an intriguing drama into just another popcorn movie - the movie equivalent of saying "hit me" when you've got a 17 showing.
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* SEAN P. MEANS can be reached at movies@sltrib.com or 801-257-8602. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
21
WHERE: Theaters everywhere.
WHEN: Opens today.
RATING: PG-13 for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity.
RUNNING TIME: 123 minutes.
BOTTOM LINE: What starts as a solid drama about blackjack-playing college kids devolves into another genre flick.
