Burn After Reading and 21 (Book and Movie)

September 15th, 2008 in Books

On our way back from Zach and Krista’s wedding, Kim wanted to pickup a book for the flight home. I didn’t feel like reading The Executioner books I had with me so I picked up Bringing Down the House which is what the recent Kevin Spacey movie 21 is very loosely based on.

The book itself was ok but nothing terribly great. I mentioned that it was a quick read but not worth the $15 price tag. It seemed like a bunch of horseshit and based on what I’ve read about the MIT Blackjack Team across various other sources, it definitely was. Still, it was something to kill a flight from DAY to ORD to MSP and two trips on the bus.

At the wedding, someone told me that 21 was an awesome movie and that they were surprised I hadn’t seen it. I’m a big Kevin Spacey fan with The Usual Suspects being my #1 favorite movie ever but from what I had heard, it was a pile of shit. I was in the mood for a movie yesterday and with a limited selection laid out before me I picked up 21.

Kim and I watched a little bit of it yesterday and finished it tonight. Unfortunately, the guy at the wedding was wrong and the movie did suck. If you were thinking about it, don’t bother, it’s not even worth a $1.00 rental at your local Redbox.

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On Friday I had received an SMS from Chuck which said something like, “if you liked Fargo, RUN to see Burn After Reading.” I liked Fargo just fine and nearly wore out the VHS copy of it that I had from when I was a kid. At the time I didn’t know who wrote the movie, just that I liked it. I didn’t even pay much attention to the accents or even care that it was in Minnesota/North Dakota. It was just a quirky movie for me. Anyway, knowing that I liked that one, I figured I would take Chuck’s advice and check out the movie that weekend.

Kim was going to hang out with her cousin in Eden Prairie, with the car, so I braved the drizzle and walked over to the theater and sat down at the 1:00 showing for the movie. I was surprised that not only wasn’t I the only person there, I wasn’t the only person alone there. Going to movies alone usually creeps me out pretty good but I felt a bit better knowing that there were other losers just like me :)

Without spoiling anything, the movie was just all right. Some of it was funny, some of it was fucked up, and some of it was just downright stupid. After the movie I sent Chuck a reply SMS that said something similar to this message posted to Twitter.

So, if you’re in the mood to see Burn After Reading, wait for DVD, it’s just not worth the $7+ ticket price and if you want to see 21, poke yourself in the eyes, you’ll get the same effect and save yourself the rental fee.