One from the road

"21" with Kevin Spacey could have been great. It is 'inspired' by (we'll get to that linguistic atrocity in a moment) the book "bringing down the house." Even from the trailer, you can tell that the greatness of the book was long-ago jettisonned. The thrill of seeing a smart, awkward geek walk the writer through his tranformation into a Vegas gigolo who strapped hundreds of thousands on dollars to his body for weekend gambling binges and then seeing it unravel as the casinos get wise doesn't fit with the slick Spacey persona, the sexy lady players, and the chase and fight scenes. When will they learn that the threat of violence can be more powerful that the act itself?

I encourage everyone to read the book. As for the movie? This is nothing more than the latest in casino movies with numbers in their titles.