Our Rating: 2.9
Rotten Tomatoes: 35%
Yahoo Movies Critics: C
Yahoo Movies Users: B
Director: Robert Luketic
Starring: Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Lawrence Fishburne.
Whoever said first impression is last impression, must not have seen this film. Whoever said a film inspired by the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team (that of the house breaker fame) has to be inspiring and smart, must not have seen this film. What this film actually is, is a pale shadow of the casino heist genre, the best example of which, according to me is the Ocean's series. Huh?! What is it that I hear? This isn't even supposed to be a casino heist flick, but a biopic of the MIT Blackjack team? Well then, tell me, why does it pretend to be casino flick? Why does it masquerade as something it is not? Why was the casino angle played up so much?
Don't get me wrong. I have little problem with most of the movie (the starting and middle are mind-blowing). Just that the ending is so goody-goody cliched, that I don't even feel like remembering the good parts. The whole third act is wrong, wrong, WRONG! In what world, other than the cliched world set up in the movie, would you find a hero so naively humble and down-to-earth? Oh of course, he can afford to be an idealistic bimbo because, after all, he is Ben Campbell, and the movie revolves around him, and so, in 21-land, he will eventually get the girl and the path to Harvard, but no money, because he has realized that there's more to life than the money. Humph...what a bore!
The acting, mercifully, is pretty decent. Kevin Spacey as the autocratic leader of the team, Micky Rosa, is brilliant. I would've loved to see him disposed off in a better way than has been presented in the film (again, the weak third act is to be blamed). Kate Bosworth as Jill Taylor, the love interest, is just that-pretty good eye candy. Jim Sturgess, as Ben Campbell, is nice. He appears lost in parts, but on the whole, his act is pretty effective. Lawrence Fishburne, as Cole Williams, the security in-charge of the casinoes, is wasted. Anyone could've done this role, and there was no apparent need to get someone of Fishburne's talent to essay, what was basically, a prop role.
All in all, I'd advise everyone to watch this one with zero expectations and absolute gullibilty. Though a lot of parts are spectacular (especially the veiled verbal confrontation that Campbell and Rosa have in the middle of Rosa's maths lecture), the third act takes a lot of steam out of the movie.
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