21: Bringing Down the House

It's been almost a year since this movie came out last summer. I heard it was an awful adaptation of the book. So, I held off watching it. And compared to the book '21' was an absolute disappointment. The book 'Bringing Down the House' by Ben Mezrich is a quick read. And it would probably be just as quick to read it than to struggle through this film with a chopped up plot. Instead of giving the movie that fast paced, let the good times roll feel the movie was a struggle except for the five minute blur they spend at the Palms. But even that is different from the book.

My two biggest problems with the movie are results of the same movie issue Hollywoodization. The movie makers take the plot and try to make it more edgy and dangerous. For example Lawrence Fishburn's character, an old school enforcer, beats on counters like the MIT students. But it's not that dangerous in the book. You get banned, detained, black listed. You do not get the shit beat out of you or buried in a sandy Vegas grave. The second thing they do is chop up the plot and take away important, interesting characters and add unnecessary characters. While the plot is not hard to follow, they give different driving motivation for each character. By doing all of this they change the feel of the book from a dark, smart story of tradition, greed, swagger and being young into a choppy film of old vs. young and lies. They did get one thing right. They illustrate the growing confidence of a young man as he matures.

There are too many things wrong with the movie to explain. It's just another case of Hollywood taking a very good book and turning it into a poor movie. My suggestion pick up the book before you see the movie because if you do it the other way around you will not want to read it..... They could have done so much better....