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21 (***)

Movie Review by: Larry "Bocepheus" Evans
Directed by: Robert Luketic
Written by: Allan Loeb, Peter Steinfeld. Adapted from Ben Mezrich's book: "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions"
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth
Running time: 122 minutes Released: 03/28/08
Rated PG-13 for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity.

"As for the direction Luketic doesn’t do a bad job but he is better suited for comedies such as Legally Blonde."

Mezrich’s book was a huge hit and Kevin Spacey bought the rights a few years back. The non-fiction novel told of a team of MIT student who took weekend trips to Las Vegas and over the years made millions of dollars playing blackjack.

Why blackjack you say? Because even though poker gets the press if you are going to win at a card game in Vegas or anywhere else you have a better chance winning at blackjack than any other game due to the simplicity of the game. If the cards I am dealt add up to 21 then I win the game and if the dealer goes over 21 (because the dealer has to keep taking cards while you can stop) I win the game.

The book told of Kevin Lewis (who in the film is Ben Campbell and in real life is Jeff Ma) and his experiences while he was a student at MIT. Across the Universe’s Jim Sturgess plays Campbell, a brilliant but shy math-and-science whiz who wants to attend Harvard Medical School but can’t afford the $300,000 tuition. He is also working on a science project with his friends (Josh Gad and Sam Golzari) that involves them creating a car that moves without gas.
One day in the class of Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) he attracts his attention and is invited to join other students including the girl he has a crush on, Jill (Kate Bosworth) on regular weekend trips to Vegas to play blackjack. Ben initially decides not to join up but is talked into joining Fisher (Jacob Pitts), Jill, Choi (Aaron Yoo) and Kianna (Liza Lapira) on the team. The system is simple-Ben and Fisher are the hot players who come in and join a table after getting a signal from spotters Choi or Kianna while Jill looks out for trouble and signals them to leave if she sees it. The spotters count the cards that have been dealt and tell the hot players what the rest of the deck looks like.

After a dry run in Boston’s Chinatown the group head off to Vegas but before they get there we meet security consultant Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) beating a card counter into submission in the basement of a hotel. Williams is a remainder of Vegas’ past when you could do something like that and get away with it but now doing so creates bad press.

The team does well at the tables and Ben begins making the money he needs for Harvard while getting closer to Jill. They hit all the best places and become different people (which is the major selling point behind Vegas) depending on the hotel that they are in. We never learn how they get new identities and after the initial trip don’t see how they bring cash and chips in town even though it was made clear in the book that Mickey had partners.

The trouble begins when Fisher gets himself thrown off the team and Ben begins to ignore his regular life and friends before making a serious mistake at the tables to the tune of $200,000. His rash move causes the team to go off on its’ own and as time marches on Williams learns of their scheme. From there we go all dramatic and wind our way down to a series of endings that never happened in real life.

There are a few things in the book that we never see here. Fisher actually brought Ben in with another character that was cut from the film, Jill came in after Mickey was cut loose and the team added members, the Fishburne character never had an encounter with the team but did chase them, there were actually two teams and it is impossible to get in the back of Planet Hollywood and run around the kitchen areas. There are also some geographical issues since the team changes Vegas hotels but the views keep them in Planet Hollywood.

Did I enjoy the film? Yes, even with the changes because the story does keep you entertained. Sturgess is very good as the innocent who becomes corrupted and loses his way before finding it again. Bosworth isn’t bad as Jill but there is no sexual tension between her and Sturgess. The rest of the team is also well cast with Pitts coming off perfectly as Fisher while Yoo contributes comic relief and Lapira is cute and sexy. Fishburne and Jack McGee are great as old school Vegas types and Spacey chews the scenery with robust gusto. The real Ben, Jeff Ma, has a great cameo as a Planet Hollywood dealer (Ben’s brother from another mother).

As for the direction Luketic doesn’t do a bad job but he is better suited for comedies such as Legally Blonde. He does try to dazzle us with montages and cards but I think that producer Brett Ratner would have been better suited for the job. My suggestion, see the movie then go out and get the book to get the entire story.

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