Review of 21 (2008) by Tonypolito — 13 Nov 2010

Ingredients: 2% facts, 98% Hollywood formula pulp. Mix and stuff into nearest turkey. Yet another true story transformed by Hollywood into a film far less engaging.

Still, the film spews Vegas glitz, perhaps enough to satisfy some viewers. It is Bosworth's delivery that is the best of the bunch - surprising, given both Spacey and Fishburne are on deck.

An MIT professor (Spacey) scripts a team of blackjack card counters and everyone rakes in the dough, until they are made by an persistent old-school casino security agent (Fishburne).

The preceding sentence is essentially the only commonality between the true (and far more fascinating) book/story and this film, upon which the film is supposedly based. The studio execs obviously opted to toss the balance of the facts into the shredder so the writers could "work up a winner" with the "usual sure-fire stuff.".

Accordingly the viewer ends up with a Vegas-sized buffet of stock script devices such as double double crosses, boy gets loses gets back girl / money / everything, a mommy serving up fresh-baked cookies for her prodigal son, and so forth.

Those "in the know" are not the only viewers who will be disappointed. There's no crystal clear up-front regarding card/team counting and spotting counters - ensuring neophytes will be fairly puzzled throughout.

ASIDE: BJ card counting's been understood for almost fifty years and, solo, it's easily spotted by the betting patterns it requires. The use of TEAMS to defeat being spotted was the real genius of the MIT system. Now that casinos understand how team counting works, it is also easily spotted.

Count teams these days are also defeated by the prevalent "no mid-deck entry" rule. No 'counting from afar' then rushing in with a big bet just when the time is ripe, the tactic shown in this film.

And counting is further defeated by the use of robotic shufflers (that deal totally random cards from a full "shoe" every hand). Every hand is essentially dealt from a fully shuffled shoe. There's just nothing to count.

RECOMMENDATION: For the Vegas glitz, see it. Hopefully the studios will do a better job when/if they script "The Eudaemonic Pie." For a far more factual telling, view the History Channel product "Breaking Vegas.".