21 – Blu-ray Disc Review

July 17, 2008 – 3:09 AM - Posted by: Brendan Surpless

Tags: BD-J, BD-Live, Jim Stugress, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne, Robert Luketic, Sony

has an average rating of 6.8 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
Dolby TrueHD 5.1
are in HD with a Virtual Blackjack Game!
–
– 2008
– 123 minutes
– Sony
–

Overall Verdict – Definitely “A Good Hand”

Buy it for $14.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Brendan Surpless —

Trailer:



The Movie Itself is directed by Robert Luketic (known for “Legally Blonde“). Ben (Jim Sturgess) has wanted to go to Harvard Medical School ever since he can remember. Now that he’s finally been accepted to this prestigious school it seems like nothing might stop him from living his dream right? Well the fact that living and tuition costs right around $300,000 stops him in his tracks. After impressing Professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) with his mind, Ben is brought into the secret world of card counting. Training a selective group of students that include Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), Choi (Aaron Yoo), Kianna (Liza Lapira) and Jimmy (Jacob Pitts), the group flies to lovely Las Vegas every weekend and cleans up. Realizing this is the only way to live his dream, Ben decides to try this out. But is card counting as easy as it seems or is someone watching behind the scenes? What results is a film that is entertaining throughout.

One can’t help but think of the 1998 film “Rounders” when watching “21“. The comparisons are easily there in that both deal with the underdogs coming out on top in the end. Both have elements in which the skills of gambling are shown. Granted “Rounders” goes more into the physical game of cards (which is one of the main complaints in most negatives reviews of this movie), but I view “21” as sort of the younger sibling of “Rounders“, which shows the dangerous side to the actual game. “21” shows the lighter side to the game but perhaps that is why the film is enjoyable at the level it is.

There is just something so appealing about “21” and I believe a majority of it to be these smart M.I.T. students that originally pulled this “scheme” (of sorts even though it’s not illegal) and beat the system which this true story is based on. Hence the original novel title of “Bringing Down the House” which certainly describes that idea perfectly. The acting on behalf of Jim Sturgess in our lead role especially is very convincing and that goes for co-star Kevin Spacey as well. The lovely Kate Bosworth is great here and the same for Laurence Fishburne in a pretty scary dark role for once. This film certainly came as a treat having just recently visited Las Vegas for the first time last month and I’d easily recommend it to anyone for viewing.

Video Quality on this release is 1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc). This was shot on the Panavision Genesis HD camera primarily with some shots being done on standard Super 35mm Panavision as well. The blend of the two at times does leave a tiny bit of change-up visually with film grain (on the Super 35mm material) but it doesn’t prove to be much of a problem that I’d actually complain about. The black level overall here (regardless source of digital or film) is solid, the color palette stands out as very vibrant; especially in scenes with exterior shots of Las Vegas Casino lights. The flesh tones are great throughout the film which makes the lovely Kate Bosworth‘s beauty shine true. No signs of any video filters used such as EE or DNR or signs of any compression problems as this benefits from the BD-50 disc and 2 hour (roughly) runtime. This earns a very respectable “4.5 Star Rating” for a pleasant Hi-Def visual presentation.

Audio Quality on this release is in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround sound. The film’s Music by David Sardy comes across pretty nice in the 5.1 surround soundscape and the few songs from the film’s Soundtrack do as well. Dialogue starts out in the opening narration very distinct and clarity remains throughout the entire film. There’s a good amount of rear channel and bass presence but never anything overwhelming or such. This does a good job of delivering an appropriate surround sound presentation to the film and earns a decent “4 Star Rating” for the overall audio quality on this release.

Bonus Materials are presented in High Definition using MPEG-2 for video and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound.

• Filmmaker Commentary with Director Robert Luketic and Producers Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca
• “Virtual Blackjack” Game using BD-Java is an EXCLUSIVE to the Blu-ray Disc release.
• “21: The Advantage Player” (6 minutes) has the cast of the film explaining this history of the game of Blackjack and even card counting. Fans of the film, blackjack and/or compulsive gamblers should love this featurette.
• “Basic Strategy: A Complete Film Journal” (25 minutes) is NOT your basic “making of” style featurette in the sense it actually manages to an amazing job of delivering a behind-the-scenes look at this film, it’s crew and cast. This obviously includes interviews with the Director Robert Luketic, Actor / Producer Kevin Spacey, other cast members Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne and Aaron Yoo. They even mention that this was filmed on the Panavision Genesis HD camera and include about 2 minutes worth of focus and interview with Director of Photography Russell Carpenter. This proves to be highly entertaining, informative and presented especially well in full glorious High Definition video. Easily one of the best “making of” featurettes I’ve seen in a long time.
• “Money Plays: A Tour of the Good Life” (7 minutes) explores all the luxurious clothes, jewelry and so forth shown in the film. No appearances from Paris Hilton and Robin Leach here like you’d expect but it still gets the point across — that point is… GREED!
• BD-Live is featured on this Sony Blu-ray Disc release allowing you to download content to your Profile 2.0 (BD-Live internet) capable Blu-ray Disc Player. This feature has not yet been enabled. Sony claims it will be enabled on July 22nd (street date) so check back then for this to be updated with details.

Overall, the bonus materials we get here are pretty damn impressive with every featurette in Hi-Def, Audio Commentary track, “Virtual Blackjack” BD-Java Game and BD-Live enabled content (to be available on street date, July 22nd). This title definitely is taking use of all the Blu-ray Disc technologies and benefits of the format. Good job here on behalf of Sony!

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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