The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Features  |  Reviews
FIND MOVIES
Find a Movie
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies

21

A novel transformation
By BRETT MICHEL  |  March 25, 2008
2.0 2.0 Stars
21inside
21

In need of $300,000 for grad school at Harvard Med, Southie-bred MIT senior and former nerd Ben Campbell (Across the Universe’s Jim Sturgess) has left his robot-building pals to their virgin ways, finding his inner cardsharp during weekend trips to Vegas with a clandestine group of card-counting students led by smug math professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey, still playing American Beauty’s Lester Burnham, with an emphasis on ham). Director Robert (Legally Blonde) Luketic has transformed Ben Mezrich’s mostly non-fiction (and fairly non-readable) bestseller Bringing Down the House, adding mostly non-facts that include a villain (Spacey), lots of danger, a sexy dame (Kate Bosworth), another villain (Laurence Fishburne), and a new identity (including race) for Campbell (real name Jeff Ma). An Asian leading man is, it seems, too big a gamble for Hollywood’s myopic big players. 123 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Harvard Square + Somerville Theatre + Chestnut Hill + Embassy + suburbs
Related: Double down and Hollywood up, Reinventing the steel, Review: Shrink, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Celebrity News, Entertainment, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL  |  December 02, 2009
    Have you walked near a college campus lately? You might notice that the ’80s are creeping into fashion, the way the ’70s did a few years back, and with the same lack of irony. It’s happening in cinemas, too — something that’s not entirely unwelcome when it comes to the horror genre.
  •   REVIEW: RED CLIFF  |  November 25, 2009
    Hong Kong auteur John Woo hit commercial and artistic pay dirt in the US with Face/Off , his loopy Nicolas Cage/John Travolta neo-noir, but once he’d directed Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible II , was there anywhere left to go?
  •   INTERVIEW: GABOUREY SIDIBE  |  November 18, 2009
    "While reading the book, I realized that I knew this girl in so many different people. Not just girls but boys, and not just black people but white and Asian and Indian."
  •   REVIEW: MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT  |  November 12, 2009
    The Star Wars –style titles that begin Kenny Ortega’s hastily assembled Michael Jackson tribute documentary explain that the film has been whittled down from 100 hours of behind-the-scenes video shot between last April and June during rehearsals for the King of Pop’s planned 50-date “This Is It” London concert series.
  •   INTERVIEW: LONE SCHERFIG  |  November 16, 2009
    Born in Denmark in 1959, Lone Scherfig first gained international attention in 2000 with Italian for Beginners, a charming little film that won her the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. A couple of years later, she followed up with Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, her first English-language effort, filmed in Scotland and starring Adrian Rawlins and Shirley Henderson.

 See all articles by: BRETT MICHEL

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group