Movie Review: 21

By Daniel Dessinger

May 28, 2008

IMDB is one of my favorite things in the world. For those of you who are less movie trivia/knowledge inclined, IMDB stands for Internet Movie DataBase, and I, of course, have it bookmarked in every browser on every computer I use. And it provides me with tons of interesting and pertinent information. For instance, I did not know 21 was based on a true story until I looked it up on IMDB to check my facts for this blog. You really do learn something new everyday.

21 was one of those films that I didn’t even realize was still in theaters, and by the time this blog gets published it might not be, but if you can find it at a dollar theater, it’s worth the dollar. Especially considering that it’ll be $4.38 at Blockbuster if you wait until it’s out on DVD.

When I first saw the trailers, I thought it was interesting that the cutie, Jim Sturgess, with the great voice from Across the Universe was getting a shot at being the next “it” guy. This time around Sturgess plays Ben Campbell, a brilliant student at MIT. Ben’s been accepted to medical school at Harvard, but he, like so many others, can’t afford the $300,000 worth of tuition and fees. He’s applied for scholarships, and he’s got a promising resume and letters of recommendation, etc., but the scholarship advisor tells him that he’s just not quite extraordinary enough.

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure because MIT professor Micky Rosa, the always brilliant Kevin Spacey, thinks that Ben’s pretty freakin’ awesome. So awesome, in fact, that he invites Ben to be on his card-counting team. Rosa has assembled a team of 5 students who have learned to systematically beat the game of blackjack, also known as 21. Through a series of hand gestures, words that symbolism numbers and the use of brilliant mathematical minds, these students and Rosa clean up in Vegas every weekend.

Suddenly, Ben doesn’t have to worry about being super extraordinary to pay for Harvard. He’ll play the game just long enough to get his $300,000, and then he’s out. Of course, the audience and Kate Bosworth’s character, Jill Taylor – a fellow member of the card-counting team, know better than that. Ben will become addicted to the thrill, the glamour, the glitz, and then he’ll screw up and get the crap beat out of him, lose all his money, all his friends AND his acceptance into Harvard. He won’t even be able to graduate from MIT.

As with most of the intriguing films I’ve seen recently, this one has a nice little twist that I kind of expected, but not exactly the way it happened. Laurence Fishburne also has a small role as a disenchanted security man at the casino the team frequents. Even though it’s not real, his hard-knuckle approach will definitely keep me from trying to count cards when I’m in Vegas this summer.

View Comments for “Movie Review: 21”

Dr. Danger says:
May 28, 2008 at 5:50 pm

I was able to see this movie for free and it was soooo worth it. It was interesting to see the movie adaptation considering I had read the book some 3 or 4 years ago. This is one of those movies that stands alone as an enjoyable flick and it doesn’t really draw the “the book was better” comparisons. It’s totally worth the $4 at Blockbuster

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