“21” busts, the house wins
The movie “21” is loosely based on the real-life experience of six MIT students that took Las Vegas, and various other casinos, for millions of dollars. The movie was spawned from the infinitely better and more interesting book “Bringing Down the House” (not to be confused with the Steve Martin movie of the same name).
It starts out by introducing us to Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess “Across the Universe”), who is extremely smart but lacking in the money department. He needs 300 grand to pay for Harvard medical school. His only chance to get the money lies in the hands of a Harvard board member approving one student out of forty, to receive a prestigious full-ride scholarship. Ben’s chances are slim, because as the board member puts it, Ben has had no life experiences.
But Ben’s life experiences soon start to pile up. When he is studying in an empty room, he is approached by another student, who tells Ben to follow him. When they arrive at their mysterious destination, Ben is surprised to see one of his professors there, Professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey “Seven”). Ben is also surprised to see a mock Blackjack table set up in the middle of the room with a few students surrounding it. One of those students just happens to be the hottest girl at MIT, and Ben’s crush, Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth “Superman Returns”).
Rosa informs Ben that they are part of a card-counting “business.” They have figured out an ingenious system to bring casinos to their knees. Ben is soon swept away to live the high roller life. He travels with the “team” to Vegas every weekend, where they count cards, use signals for other teammates, have their own code words and win tons of money.
What makes this story interesting is that it is true. It actually happened. What makes this movie so uninteresting is that Hollywood got a hold of it and royally messed it up. The only thing the movie and the real story have in common is some of the names, and that it’s about a bunch of MIT students counting cards at various casinos.
A silly subplot involving Laurence Fishburn (“The Matrix”) as head of a casino security company is thrown in so we can have an antagonist with a face. In the real story, most of the team was made up of Asian students, and in the movie there are only two Asian team members. One is there to look hot, and the other is there for comic relief. I’m not sure why they felt they had to change that aspect of the real story, but that’s Hollywood for you. Don’t even get me started on how they completely disregard actual Las Vegas geography, just for great skyline shots.
“21” is a movie that had so much potential to tell an interesting, thrilling, true story. But, instead they watered it down, added a love interest for poor Ben, bundled it up all nice and neat for the masses and sent it to theaters.
Let me just give you a taste of what kinds of scenes are in this movie. The end scene involves Spacey in a costume that looks like Ted Nugent and Bono had a baby together, all the while being chased through a casino by a bored looking Fishburn. Enough said.
Instead of paying the seven bucks to watch the movie, head on over to your local book store and pay seven bucks to pick up the book.
Grade: C-