Supposedly based on a true story about some MIT students who employed a card-counting scheme in Las Vegas casinos to try and make a bundle of money. The real story probably has some interesting components, but somehow the life has been squeezed out of this mutt. Sadly, this movie is to worthwhile cinema as a paint-by-number is to Van Gogh--and they didn't even bother filling in all the numbered spaces.
So okay, I understand that movies have to use a certain narrative shorthand to get the story across, but the filmmaker's first duty is also to suspend the viewer's disbelief. So: If these MIT kids are so smart, how come they keep going to Las Vegas one weekend after another, and even to the same casinos? Why couldn't they have gone to Reno or Atlantic City once in awhile to avoid drawing attention to themselves? And if this kid is so smart, how come it never occurs to him to stash his six-figure winnings in a safe deposit box instead of hiding them above his dorm room ceiling tile? And why is Kevin Spacey's mastermind character so intent on going back again and again, rather than just making a bundle and walking away?
Grade: D.
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