Review of 21 (2008) by Dc E — 07 Feb 2012
Reviewing My Movie Collection: #3.
"21" is based on the book "Bringing Down the House" by Ben Mezrich, which is very VERY loosely based on the real life exploits of the mid-90s MIT Blackjack Team. The team reportedly won millions in Vegas over the span of a few years by implementing a variety of card counting techniques.
When watching this movie, you have to keep in mind that both the novel and movie adaptations are heavily fictionalized. A lot of the drama, intrigue, and danger are complete fiction. Despite that, "21" ended up being a much better movie than I expected it to be.
Ben Campbell (played by Jim Sturgess) is a brilliant MIT student who has always wanted to go to Harvard Medical School, but simply cannot afford it despite stellar grades and test scores. One of his professors (Spacey) sees how smart and good with numbers he is and recruits him for his car counting Blackjack team. Apprehensive at first, Campbell is a natural who soon finds himself alienating his friends, lying to his mother, and losing sight of why he started this adventure in the first place.
Spacey is great as usual and Sturgess is impressive. Laurence Fishburne also stars in this film as a casino security chief who is clinging to his job while high tech improvements have been putting people like him out of work. His obsession with ending the MIT Blackjack Team's run is one of the highlights of the movie.
10 Scale Score: 8.0 ...
This review of 21 (2008) was written by Dc E on 07 Feb 2012.
21 has generally received positive reviews.
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