Last night I went to see 21, which is a very mediocre film based on a very good non-fiction book. It chronicles the card-counting journey of an MIT student named Ben. Some interesting visuals and a good soundtrack were the high points, though they could have went without the 37 slow-motion shots... A couple things struck me: 1) The last third makes such jumps in believability, it is clear to see why they did not market this movie as "based on a true story." Why the need to embellish an already thrilling story? and 2) the lead actors had such a lack of chemistry, it looked like they were siblings being forced to kiss. They were both good on their own, but together they were lukewarm at best. You think on a big budget movie like this, they'd be able to cast for that chemistry a little better...
Oh, and by the way, my favorite part of last night was the trailer before 21. It was promoting a little film coming out in May, one Indiana Jones and the Kingdon of the Crystal Skull.
I haven't read the book, but had read articles about the story way before this movie came out. The trailer makes it look like a "Vegas" movie directed by a slow-witted Michael Bay/Soderbergh protege. They unfortunately had no faith in the appeal of the true story, so they chopped it up and pan-fried it with some steadicam shots, slo-mo and the latest in dramatic lighting techniques. I'm going to wait for the network television premiere on this one. Ha, my mom said "It was ok. But all the actors were too good looking. Wouldn't a bunch of MIT kids be ugly nerds?" At least they had a token Asian.
ReplyDeleteFord