j3thr0s

This film does nothing right. The plot is so tenuous and doesn't stand up to any scrutiny. The dialogue is garbage all the way through and the characters are tiresome attention seekers. Sloane in particular is absolutely insufferable - why would anyone want to put up with her? Almost every word out of her mouth is accompanied by an eye roll or sarcastic tone.

In a genre where the standards aren't exactly high, this movie still manages to limbo under the bar. It isn't funny and it isn't romantic. It is often quite painful to watch. The supporting cast are cartoonish and their contributions often cringeworthy.

It's not bad in a funny way either, it's mostly just very boring.

Did you know the protagonist is the smartest person in history? Of course you did, because the film makes sure to tell you every 5 minutes. It wants you to be in awe of every little thing he does, no matter how mundane.

This film is a rough watch - on a number of occasions the dialogue made me physically wince ("I scored the prettiest girl in school", yikes). The 'banter' is painful and the film is anchored by the least charismatic leading man performance I can ever remember seeing. Most of the characters are caricatures - the excessively nerdy friends, the comically spiteful and jealous colleague, the girl who exists just for him to have a forced romance with, Spacey's moustache-twirling villain. Also, none of the actors playing 21 year olds look plausibly 21.

I wanted to enjoy it because it has the makings of a fun story but it was a struggle and a lot of it did not make sense. Despite the success of card counting hinging on keeping a low profile, the characters did anything but and were practically begging to be caught.

Give this one a miss.

A film entirely about nasty, puddle-deep characters doing nasty things to one another. There's nobody to root for because they're all just awful. Bull was clearly a horrible bloke even in the flashbacks. There's no depth to the story and it's very predictable right up until the revelation at the end which is so silly, I actually wished it had been more predictable.

The acting is fine - Maskell plays a serviceable mobster hell-bent on revenge, but it's just very hard to care about any of it. It somehow manages to be consistently boring despite the action and extreme violence. I don't think it'll ever cross my mind again.