Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[Alex]

Just saw 21.

It wasn't horrible but it wasn't great. Definitely suffered from too much familiarity with the geography of Vegas. It kind of ruined the moment of cool they were going for when I realized the slow escalator rise of the main character would, in reality, be bringing him out of the Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood.

Or when someone was asked up to the comped suite at Planet Hollywood and it was obvious that the room was in Paris. Or the Friday evening drive down the Strip with no traffic.

Plus, the blackjack wasn't well explained. They made it look like when you have a positive count you win every hand.

Plus, the way the kid gains Kevin Spacey's respect and attention was by knowing the answer to the Monty Hall problem, something I learned in the ninth grade (back before Marilyn vos Savant made it famous; and though a lot of kids never did quite grasp why the answer was correct, it is definitely not senior year MIT subject matter).

Plus, it telegraphed the ending to an unforgivable degree.


Wait, now I'm talking myself into it being horrible. Guess I'll see how I feel about it in the morning.