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Created May 02, 2009 11:14AM PST • Edited May 02, 2009 01:37PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   OK 2.5

   Modestly entertaining, this fictionalized depiction of the real life collegiate geeks who card count their way to blackjack millions fails to establish more than a smidgen of dread, drama or depravity. It’s like drawing an 11 against an ace: Excitement dims pretty quickly when a quality set-up ends in disappointment.

   Apparently the movie did strong business at the box office, meaning that producer and star Kevin Spacey can mark it as a commercial if not an artistic success.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   More smug than brilliant or threatening, Kevin Spacey disappoints as an MIT professor who moonlights as the Godfather of a blackjack-playing geek squad.

   Jim Sturgess also disappoints as the alpha geek who learns to score at the tables and with Kate Bosworth.

   Kate Bosworth smolders as the geek girl next door, while Laurence Fishburne delivers a compact and convincing portrayal of a studio security heavy.

5. Male Stars OK 2.5

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars OK 2.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    OK 2.5

    Second rate comedy director Robert Luketic (Monster-in-Law and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!) delivers a flat film despite taking ample liberties with the real life story. Boo.

11. Direction OK 2.5

12. Play OK 2.5

13. Music Bad 1.0

    Terrible remix on the Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”. Why mess with perfection?

14. Visuals Great 4.0

    Nifty depictions of the Harvard Bridge and MIT’s Great Dome bookend typically glitzy shots of Las Vegas, primarily at Planet Hollywood.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.7

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Fierce 1.8

19. Rudeness Salty 1.8

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

    Don’t try this at home kids. While not nearly as dangerous as the movie suggests, neither is card counting as easy or sure fire. Want proof? Apparently the book on which it’s based is more fictional than not.

    That said, the team method they employed certainly is a clever means of evading detection.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.9

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0