LOVE IT

It's been my personal experience that talking about Las Vegas is a lot like talking about Disneyland. People either hate the places' capitalist excesses or love the "American ingenuity" of building a fake city countless miles away from a water source.

I, for one, really like Las Vegas. I'd just gotten back from my first trip when "21" came out, so I was especially attuned to the film's glitz, glamour and adrenaline. But I remember sitting next to a buzzkill who said, self-righteously, as the characters card-counted and partied their way into my heart, "You know, that doesn't look like any fun to me at all." And I rolled my eyes, because I could see that I was dealing with one of those "other people," a snobby jerk who would bring homemade snacks into the Magic Kingdom and act like he hated Mickey the whole time he was there.

But, tellingly, thinking fun "doesn't look like any fun" didn't stop him from wanting hands of blackjack dealt to him over coffee later that evening. Even though some refuse to admit it, longing to take down the house is universal. A lot of card-craze movies, in a kind of "stick it to the man" mentality, center on exactly this. "Rounders," "Lucky You" and "21" are all about young guys who get taken in by the high-roller lifestyle. "21" differs from its precedents in that the protagonist eventually gives up cards and is morally redeemed, perhaps by following the more honorable trajectory of (yawn) going to Harvard Med.

This is the only thing I didn't love about "21." The facade and the fantasy are why Walt and Bugsy built their oases in the first place; I didn't need Jim Sturgess to drag me back to the lock-step of the Ivy League. If I'd wanted lock-step, I wouldn't have gone to Vegas in the first place.

-Melissa Fall

HATE IT

It's not going to win any Oscars, but it's still a fun ride!"

This is the kind of thing people often say when defending movies like "21." If a movie isn't attempting to be a work of art, it's okay if it's shoddily constructed, right? Wrong. Popcorn films still have standards, and the only way one can applaud "21" is if they apply no standard at all.

The film is unremarkable on every level, the first being its approach to the subject matter. Card-counting is a fascinating practice; however, since it's a mental act, watching people do it is quite boring. "21" tries to make these scenes dazzling, using high-octane music and fancy camerawork, but the result is overbearingly cheesy, coming off more like a low-class music video than an actual movie.

"21" is also aggressively predictable. Will the beautiful card-counting vixen seduce the unassuming protagonist? Will this cause tensions within the team? Will Las Vegas, while at first alluring, later show a violent, darker side? Everything is setup with staggering transparency, and the film just becomes a bore to watch.

Lastly, and perhaps most unforgivably, the film is completely uninspired. Every scene is executed with the absolute minimum amount of effort required to get the job done. It lacks any and all passion on the filmmakers' parts, and on that level, it's shameful. Look, I enjoy cheesy, easy-to-digest films just as much as anyone. I'm not ashamed to admit that I loved every minute of "National Treasure 2." But even those kinds of films need something entertaining, something to hold the moviegoer's interest, or at least an interesting scene or two. "21" does not. It's an empty vessel, devoid of craft and thought. For what it tries to be, "21" fails completely.

-Seth Millstein

Tags: THUMB WARS