Starring: Kevin Spacey, Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne
Directed by Robert Luketic
Rating: *

21 is one of the most disappointing and dismaying blockbusters to emerge from the land of the dreams, a.k.a Bush Kingdom

It tells us, immorality is not just a modern motivating mantra, but used in the right doses it's also fine to be immoral no matter how many feelings and bones get crushed under your enterprising spirit.

The fact that all the debased characters using a pack of cards to make a jackass of the universe (and that includes us, watching their Casino Royale-meets-Quentin Tarantino antics from the audience) are based on real people, doesn't make the film and its characters more interesting.

It just makes them more annoying in their ambitions.

The central character of a young middleclass student struggling to make ends and friends meet is played by fairly wooden actor Jim Sturgess who just might become the latest teen sensation after this film.

He has the right attitude of of i-know-it-all-though-i-may-appear-stupid and dumb daredevilry.

When you're young you do stupid things, like take on a massive gambling organization in Las Vegas. But one presumes neither the film's director nor the professor -protagonist who trains his students into reckless and criminal gambling (what happened to the noble guru-shishya param-para?) are young and stupid.

So what makes the film's sassy premise (gambling your way to the doom) such a good idea?

There's no tangible explanation for why a noble profession like teaching should be turned into a blackjack game. 21 is the college-campus version of Oceans 11. Here the 'glamour' of gambling is much reduced since the protagonists with the cards are confused teenagers who should know better. There's a callow hero and a shallow mentor. And the twain never meet as individuals.

The other members of the blackjack team are woefully hazy in depiction. As though the director didn't want to invest too much time and energy getting into the fringe players' lives.

The're some expertly-done shots of the casino's compelling compulsions spilling into colourful chips in a splendid tumble.

But that's it. 21 is more about the hype and the hip than the plot and the script. There're no surprises in the way the maths team subverts its art into a zen of vice.

You really can't like these guys, let alone feel connected with them. Not when the young hero sells out his guru to the casino goons in return of his own shallow feeedom.

Jim walks free. So do we. But after two hours of wondering which side we are on.

21 is a lot like the IPL matches.