21 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

When I saw the blackjack drama 21 at South By Southwest, I was instantly struck by its major flaws: It's full of clichés, and its supposedly brilliant main characters do a lot of stupid things. I had no idea I was missing another flaw, too -- that most of the real-life people who pulled off the scheme were Asian-American, while almost everyone in the movie is white.

People commenting on my review of the film mentioned this fact, and some subsequent Internet browsing confirms that it's been a hot topic among some observers ever since the film was announced. (I confess not having paid the film any attention until the marketing campaign kicked into high gear around the first of the year.) The character played by Jim Sturgess in the movie was named Jeff Ma in real life, and he and most of his teammates were Asian. In the movie, only two minor characters are still Asian, played by Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira.

So the question is: Is the ethnicity-swapping the result of racism? Is it something else? Does it matter?

(Note: We're re-posting our 21 review from SXSW to coincide with the film's theatrical release this weekend.)

In 21, an M.I.T. math whiz joins a secret cabal of card-counters who fly to Vegas on the weekends to make a killing at the blackjack tables. That's the hook, the part you may not have seen in a thousand other films. But the rest is as generic as the title (21? Really? That's the best you could come up with?), a story about a nobody who becomes a somebody, forsakes his friends, and learns What's Really Important.

Yawn is right. This is a prime example of a movie that isn't bad, per se, just unnecessary, a competently made but wholly unremarkable trifle. It trades exclusively in clichés and stock characters -- and yet, strangely, director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde) seems to believe he has made something compelling and original. And I have to think, if I've seen lots of movies exactly like this one, then shouldn't Luketic have as well?

Yesterday, Eric D. Snider mentioned an interesting exercise by The New Republic's Christopher Orr. Annoyed at the recent glut of trailers that give away the entire film, he decided to write a review of 21 (which hits theaters today) based only on the trailer. Eric thought the "review" was actually pretty accurate, and I agree. I also agree that the trailer is egregiously inconsiderate of people who'd have liked to go into the movie unspoiled at least as to the third act. It's a shame.

But I'm sure you agree that it doesn't have to be that way. Trailers don't have to give away the game, and they don't have to be tacky and ham-fisted either. They're a marketing tool, of course, but trailers are also -- or can be -- an art form in their own right. Sometimes a trailer is such a skillful composition of images, sounds, words and music that it winds up having more of an effect on me than the movie I'm in the theater to see. (Often, too, the trailer turns out to be better than the movie it's advertising, which is always a disappointment.)

So while yesterday Eric asked you for examples of trailers that pissed you off because they revealed too much, I'd like to know which recent trailers you've loved. Not necessarily which ones you think advertised their movie in the optimal way, but which ones have been great in themselves -- scary, rousing, moving, beautiful. Take a look at some of my favorites and sound off after the jump.

"She really found me at a point when I needed to be found." -- Jim Sturgess on Julie Taymor:

In 21, which hits theaters tomorrow, Jim Sturgess plays Ben Campbell, an M.I.T. student who's recruited into a group of Vegas card counters by a fellow student. In fact, the entire group is made up of students and its leader, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), also happens to be a professor at the University. The fact-based film was inspired by the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, and most of what you will see in 21 really happened -- with certain faces, places, names and events changed to fit a more Hollywood-ized mold. Directed by Robert Luketic, 21 also stars Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira.

Sturgess is a relatively new face to Hollywood. His first major film role only came last year, when director Julie Taymor cast the soft-spoken Brit opposite Evan Rachel Wood in Across the Universe. From there, this musician-turned-actor appeared in the recent The Other Boleyn Girl before taking on his first lead role in a major Hollywood film, 21. Upon meeting him, one can immediately tell this boy has the looks and charm to carry him real far. He's already scheduled to appear in the star-studded Crossing Over and the flick Fifty Dead Men Walking. Cinematical sat down with Sturgess in New York recently to talk about 21, as well as his blossoming career.

The Seuss-abration continued as Horton Hears a Who held onto number one for the second consecutive week. Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns took second, but held the highest per screen average of the top five films ($10,011). The caveman spectacle 10,000 B.C. took fifth, clinging to the top five for the third week in a row. Here are the totals:

1. Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who: $24.5 million
2. Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns: $20 million
3. Shutter: $10.4 million
4. Drillbit Taylor: $10.3 million
5. 10,000 B.C.: $8.9 million

Four new flicks going into wide release, with the movies being divided equally between comedy and drama.

21
What's It All About: A young man in dire need of money to pay for his education at M.I.T. takes part in a well-organized card counting ring with a fool-proof method for winning at blackjack. Based on a true story.
Why It Might Do Well: The combined cool factor of having Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne in the same movie may make some people curious.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Rottentomatoes.com is giving this one a lackluster 54%, and personally watching people play cards bores me to tears.
Number of Theaters: 2,500
Prediction: $17 million

Just got back from the Sony offices here in New York, where Cinematical managed to sit down with Jim Sturgess (star of 21), as well as Ben Mezrich (author of Bringing Down the House, the book 21 is based on) and Jeff Ma (who Sturgess' character is based on). I have to say we all had a pretty damn cool conversation, which we'll post on the site at some point before the weekend, but in the meantime check out what Sturgess had to say about Spidey.

Now, remember back when we told you how Across the Universe director Julie Taymor was directing a Spider-Man: The Musical, with music and lyrics from U2's Bono and the Edge? Well, at the time, Taymor said she was interested in Sturgess playing Spider-Man, with Evan Rachel Wood playing Mary Jane. Not only is that true, but apparently Sturgess and Wood have already performed the roles. He says, "We actually have done a workshop for it, which is how this all kind of started. [Taymor] asked me and Evan to come down and do this workshop that she was doing, so it was a chance to work with Julie again and Evan again and, yeah, at that point I didn't know much more about it. We just did two weeks, and we kind of hung out with Bono and the Edge and sung songs about Spider-Man. As a young actor and musician, it was an incredible experience to be involved in that."

He continued, "We then sort of did a rough performance of the play -- like a read through where we sang through the songs and stuff. As ridiculous as it sounds, it's going to be an incredible piece of work." Cinematical asked Sturgess whether that meant he would be starring in the musical, to which he replied: "Um, I don't know. I haven't spoken to Julie since, and I don't know when she plans to do it. It's a timing thing, I guess. I don't know how long it's going to be before it comes to the surface."

More Spidey after the jump ...

I can't help but wonder if Kevin Spacey managed to score a 2 for 1 deal on the film rights to a Ben Mezrich book. 21 hasn't even hit theaters and Spacey has already picked up another property from the non-fiction writer. Variety reports that Spacey, in the form of Trigger Street Productions, has acquired to film rights to Mezrich's book, Rigged: The True Story of an Ivy League Kid Who Changed the World of Oil, From Wall Street to Dubai.

Rigged is the story of John D'Agostino, an Italian kid from Brooklyn who graduates from Harvard. After scoring a lucrative job on the Merc Exchange, he meets up with another ambitious young trader with shady connections to the Middle East. The two come up with a brilliant and dangerous scheme to revolutionize oil trading ... and of course make a butt-load of cash along the way. This is a common theme in Mezrich's books: the talented wunderkind led astray by corruption and greed. It also probably explains why Rigged is being touted as this generation's Wall Street.

Spacey's production house is already working on an adaptation of another of Mezrich's books, Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions. This might be a little off topic, but what is it with this guy and the long titles? In fact, all of his books are like this (21 was originally known as Busting Vegas: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees). Of course, this is probably why a name change will be in order for the big screen.

I want you to think all the way back to February of '07 when Sony first announced that they would be making a feature film out of the best-selling game, Metal Gear Solid. Everything seemed on track, then the writer's strike happened and it seemed Solid was going to fade away to obscurity ... or then again, maybe not. Coming Soon recently got the chance to speak with producer Michael De Luca during a press event for 21, when they scored a little tidbit about the future of the big-screen Metal Gear. According to De Luca, the project is not only back on, but they are already on the lookout for someone to write the script – namely, Kurt Wimmer.

Metal Gear Solid is a stealth game released by Konami back in 1998. The story, or what little there was in the beginning, focused on a genetically enhanced soldier named Snake taking down the evil FOXHOUND. As the franchise continued, more attention was paid to the story in the game. By the third installment there was a much richer mythology surrounding political conspiracies and state of the art warfare included in the game.

When it comes to the feature film, Wimmer's involvement is far from a done deal. According to De Luca, Columbia Pictures will be meeting with Wimmer over the next few weeks to see if he is interested in taking on the script. Wimmer was the writer and director behind Equilibrium and Ultraviolet, both of which might as well have been video games, so he seems like a good fit. CS also hinted that Wimmer could be taking over directing duties for MGS as well, so stay tuned to Cinematical for any news that comes our way.

Where was this scene in the movie?

This has been one looooong day, but the first two big films of the South by Southwest Film Fest are out of the way, and I have to say one was good and one, well, wasn't. After it took hours for the print to arrive at the theater, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (full review forthcoming) premiered to the press at the very awesome South Alamo Theater. Folks, if you haven't ever been to an Alamo theater (today I popped my Alamo cherry), it was quite possibly the greatest moviegoing experience EVAH! Picture a regular movie theater, but with long tables in front of each row of seats. Then you get a full menu, you get to chow down during the movie ... and all of it just completely rocks. Loving Alamo right now.

Harold and Kumar 2 was exactly what you'd expect it to be -- and though it's not as solid and well-defined as the first film, it's still chock-full of silly laughs, nudity (bottomless party was the best scene of the entire film) and tons of pot jokes. NPH is also back and badder than ever. 21, on the other hand, was a real disappointment. It was upsetting to see how they took a very cool story and completely Hollywood-ized it -- to the point where whatever awesomeness there was disappeared as soon as Kate Bosworth opened up her boring mouth. The Paramount theater was packed, though, and a majority of the crowd seemed into it. Our crowd, though, walked out angry, bitter and itching for some good (free) beer ... which we got at the opening night party.

There, we met up with tons of other bloggers, filmmakers and other random SXSW nuts. John Campea (God bless him) from The Movie Blog was there, attempting to pick up girls while taking everyone's picture. Had a great chat with Arin Crumley (of Four Eyed Monsters and From Here to Awesome fame), and watched Alex from First Showing get absolutely sloshed. Long day. Fun day. Look for our reviews to start pouring in tomorrow.

It's a little bit cold and a little bit country. Yes, the Cinematical team has officially landed in Austin and we're about to begin covering the hell out of this year's South by Southwest Festival. Today was check-in day; we headed over to the convention center to pick up our badges, chatted up a few friends, grabbed our pocket schedules and began to plan out our weeks. Right off the bat, an afternoon screening of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay was pushed back because the print never showed up, and so we're now killing time in Weinberg's hotel room watching SXSW screeners (Bi the Way, Cook County) until it's time to head on over to one of the Alamo theaters for HK2.

Following that screening, we'll jet it over to the Paramount (the theater where all the major premieres take place) for the premiere of 21. I'm most looking forward to my first trip to an Alamo theater after hearing so much about them from my fellow Cinematical writers. "You mean, you sit on benches and order food that's delivered while the movie is playing?" Weinberg replied, "Yup, it's awesome!" In the meantime we just finished watching a documentary on bi-sexuality in America. Can one exist as a bi-sexual? How is it different to be bi-sexual for a man and for a woman? And was that really a threesome thrown in at the end? Eh. The film didn't do much for me -- not because I'm against bi-sexuality, but because I'm against films that bore the hell out of me.

Tonight: Alamo. Paramount. Parties. SXSW is on! Keep it here all week for more updates from one of the cooler festivals this great country has to offer.