2008 Woodie Awards
'21' and 'Prom Night' Receive Rocky Reviews
George Ackley
Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: Entertainment
"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". That line has become so engrained into our culture that a person would be hard-pressed to find someone who wasn't exposed to the saying at some point. That same slogan is also applicable to Kevin Spacey's and Laurence Fishburne's latest film "21".
"21" features a young MIT student, Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), whose only dream is to attend Harvard's medical school. Campbell has the grades and the ambition to get accepted to the school, the one thing that he is lacking is the $300,000 tuition.
The story really gets going after the viewer is brought into the world of Campbell's Non-Linear Equations professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey). Rosa notices Campbell's ease at complex math equations, and introduces Campbell to Rosa's group of card counters.
Campbell reluctantly joins the group and goes with them to Las Vegas to make a killing playing Blackjack. After promising himself that he would get out once he raises his tuition money, Campbell soon becomes entangled in Rosa's web of deceit.
What happens next is quite inconsequential, and quite honestly, cliché. Everything that happens from that point forward, the viewer has probably seen in some other movie at some point in time.
The dialogue seems canned, and you never become attached to the characters enough, even Fishburne's "Vegas Thug" character. The movie does have some humor spliced into several scenes, but definitely not worth the price of admission.
Fans of Spacey might get more out of the movie than the casual viewer; however, I recommend that you skip this unless you happen to have an extra space in your Netflix cue, or a free rental from Blockbuster.
Also hitting the boxoffice is tween slasher movie. "Prom Night" features every single cliché that a teen horror movie has to offer: the shallow characters, the canned dialogue, and the predictable "twists".
A group of teenagers go to their senior prom at a glamorous hotel. They all enjoy the dancing (and the promise of what's to follow), and right before the Prom King and Queen are revealed, the lights go out sending the gala into disarray. The masses then scramble, until they realized that they are locked in the hotel, with a serial killer.
The movie ends up being exactly the way that my prom did: over-dramatized and disappointing. Movie-goers should stay away from this film like it was contagious, and spend their hard earned money, and valuable time doing something else.
"21" features a young MIT student, Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), whose only dream is to attend Harvard's medical school. Campbell has the grades and the ambition to get accepted to the school, the one thing that he is lacking is the $300,000 tuition.
The story really gets going after the viewer is brought into the world of Campbell's Non-Linear Equations professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey). Rosa notices Campbell's ease at complex math equations, and introduces Campbell to Rosa's group of card counters.
Campbell reluctantly joins the group and goes with them to Las Vegas to make a killing playing Blackjack. After promising himself that he would get out once he raises his tuition money, Campbell soon becomes entangled in Rosa's web of deceit.
What happens next is quite inconsequential, and quite honestly, cliché. Everything that happens from that point forward, the viewer has probably seen in some other movie at some point in time.
The dialogue seems canned, and you never become attached to the characters enough, even Fishburne's "Vegas Thug" character. The movie does have some humor spliced into several scenes, but definitely not worth the price of admission.
Fans of Spacey might get more out of the movie than the casual viewer; however, I recommend that you skip this unless you happen to have an extra space in your Netflix cue, or a free rental from Blockbuster.
Also hitting the boxoffice is tween slasher movie. "Prom Night" features every single cliché that a teen horror movie has to offer: the shallow characters, the canned dialogue, and the predictable "twists".
A group of teenagers go to their senior prom at a glamorous hotel. They all enjoy the dancing (and the promise of what's to follow), and right before the Prom King and Queen are revealed, the lights go out sending the gala into disarray. The masses then scramble, until they realized that they are locked in the hotel, with a serial killer.
The movie ends up being exactly the way that my prom did: over-dramatized and disappointing. Movie-goers should stay away from this film like it was contagious, and spend their hard earned money, and valuable time doing something else.
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