21

You may have heard the general story. A group of MIT students form a team to count cards and go to Vegas to win it big. Now that is all you should take into this movie. Although it is loosely based on the book "Bringing Down The House," that book was also loosely based on the true events. (For the comprehensive true story click here). So don't listen to everyone who is saying that the story is distorted beyond belief. It is... but that is not the point. Take this movie for what it is. It is not a documentary of the true events. It is not a word-for-word adaptation of the book. It is however an AWESOME movie that is inspired by true events.

21 follows MIT student Ben Campbell (Jim Strugess, Across the Universe) as he struggles to find a way to pay for Harvard Medical School. He is reluctantly recruited by a team formed by the manipulative, conniving, yet lovable MIT professor Mickey Rosa (Keven Spacy, Superman Returns among many other things). The team masters the art of card counting, forms a system of code words and gestures to avoid getting caught, and takes their "business" on the road.

The team flies to Vegas every weekend and makes a fortune. Their strategy however is slowly being caught onto by Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne, you know.. Morpheus) a casino security manager who's job is steadily being phased out by new face recognition technology.

21 is extremely fun to watch with a fast paced story and excellent performances. The cinematography aint to shabby either. Especially the Vegas scenes. The dialogue is smart and cool. Flawless editing. There is a pretty unneccessary love story between Ben and another team member... and the ending seems just a bit contrived (but in a good movie-way)... but overall I thought it was definitely the best movie to hit the theaters in 2008 so far. Worth a full price evening ticket.

4/5 stars