21

Synopsis: Inspired by the true story of MIT students who mastered the art of card counting and took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings. Looking for a way to pay for tuition, Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) finds himself quietly recruited by MIT's most figted students in a daring plot to break Vegas. With the help of a brilliant statistics professor (Kevin Spacey) and armed with fake IDs, intelligence and a complicated system of counting cards, Ben and his friends succeed in breaking the impenetrable casinos. Now, his challenge is keeping the numbers straight and staying one step ahead of the casinos before it all spirals out of control.

Rating: PG-13 for some violence and sexual content including partial nudity.

Run Time: 123 Minutes

Director: Robert Luketic

Dvd Extra's: 21: The Advantage Paly, Basic Strategy: A Complete Film Journal, Money Palys: A Tour of the Good Life, Filmmaker Commentary, Languages: English, French, Spanish, Subtitles: English, French, Spanish.

Nudity Factor: Several scenes take place in a strip clube though the dancers are scantly clad they do not show nudity.

Of Note: The problem Prof. Rosa mentions in class with the three doors is known as the Monty Hall problem.

Trailers: 21 Trailer

Review by: Jason James Rating:

The movie is based on a true story. One were a group of smart students decides that they can use there brains to beat the system. The system they are going to beat is the casinos in Las Vegas. Behind the whole thing is an equally smart professor that brings the team together and teaches them how to beat the system. Enter Ben played by Jim Sturgess who is about $300,000 short of being able to get into Harvard Medical School. This seems like a great way to make that happen. the acting is pretty good in this movie. I liked Jim Sturgess as Ben. Kevin Spacey as the professor and Kate Bosworth as the female interest in the movie also work well. The story is pretty good. Though I do think that it could have been cut down a bit. There are parts that seem to drag on a bit to long. The movie clocks in at over 2 hours long but there are parts of it that make the movie feel longer than that. To be honest the first time I had watched this film it seemed to be slower paced than the second time. That could be because the first time I watched it I have never been to Vegas and the second time I watched it I had. That made it kind of fun to pick out the different locations and realize that I had stood in many of the same locations and casinos. Overall my only real complaint was that this should have been a 90 minute movie instead of a 120 minute movie. A few of the scenes drag on to long and start to lose my interest. Despite that for the most part this is a pretty fun movie to watch though after watching it twice I am not sure that I will ever watch it again.