The quiz show "21" is one of the highest-rated shows on television. What the people who watch it don't know is they give one of the contestants the answers in advance. Charles is a university professor who goes on the show, and ends up becoming the returning champion, when he beats the previous champion, Herbie, at an easy question. Herbie is horrified and tells the government the quiz show's scheme. They send someone over to find out how they do it. Meanwhile, Charles is a nation-wide sensation. This film will boggle your senses, and make you wonder if "Jeopardy" and "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" do the same thing. Anyway, Robert Redford runs a smooth direction and John Tonturro is incredible as the stuttering Jew, Herbie.
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The review of this Movie prepared by Estefan Ellison
Herbie Stempel, a brash working-class Jew from Queens, starts winning big on the early television quiz/game show "Twenty-One" in the early 1950s. At the same time, young attorney Dick Goodwin (Morrow), employed by a Congressional subcommittee, uncovers the truth -- that the shows are fixed. He leads the investigation at about the same time as the producers of the show decide to rig the results against Stempel and in favor of Charles Van Doren (Fiennes), the son of an elite American literary family. So Stempel and Goodwin have some interests in common, but the resulting investigations destroy almost everyone. This 1994 movie, respectfully directed by Robert Redford and based on Goodwin's book about true events, has a stately, authentic docudrama feel, though some moviegoers may find it slow and lacking in excitement. The supporting cast includes Hank Azaria, Mira Sorvino, and directors Martin Scorsese and Barry Levinson.
The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
