21 (2008)
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A brilliant MIT student joins a secret team of card counters to win big in Las Vegas.
The story
Ben Campbell, a mathematics major at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is accepted into Harvard Medical School but cannot afford the tuition. He is invited by Professor Micky Rosa to join the MIT Blackjack Team, a group of students who use card counting and covert signaling to win at casinos. As the team travels to Las Vegas, Ben begins to enjoy a luxurious life as a high roller. However, the high-stakes lifestyle begins to impact his personal life and his focus on his academic goals, while the team faces increasing scrutiny from casino security.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Ben Campbell, an MIT student, joins the MIT Blackjack Team to fund his medical school education. The team uses card counting to win at casinos in Las Vegas. Ben's lifestyle becomes luxurious, but he faces internal team friction and scrutiny from Cole Williams, the head of security at Planet Hollywood. After a series of setbacks and a fallout with Micky, Ben and his teammates attempt a final high-stakes run at Planet Hollywood. They are eventually caught, and a complex series of deals and double-crosses occurs between Ben, Micky, and Williams. Despite Williams stealing Ben's winnings at the end, Ben reconciles with his friends and ultimately tells his story to the scholarship director.
- First release year
- 2008
- Runtime (minutes)
- 122
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Robert Luketic
- Writers
- Peter Steinfeld · writer; Allan Loeb · writer
- Cast and characters
- Jim Sturgess · Ben Campbell; Kevin Spacey · Micky Rosa; Laurence Fishburne · Cole Williams; Kate Bosworth · not specified; Liza Lapira · not specified; Jacob Pitts · not specified; Aaron Yoo · not specified; Kieu Chinh · not specified
- Genres
- heist drama; crime drama
- Themes
- risk; greed; mathematics
- Tone and mood
- tense; dramatic
- Setting
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard Medical School, and Las Vegas, Nevada.
- Premise and plot tags
- gambling; card counting; underdog
- Source material / true-story basis
- Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich
- Reception
- The film received mixed reviews from critics but was a box office success, ranking first in the United States and Canada during its first two weekends.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 36% · scale: percentage · review count: 168; Metacritic · score: 48 · scale: 100 · review count: 29
- Production trivia
- The film was originally titled Breaking Vegas.; The film was based on a book where the main characters were primarily Asian American, leading to a casting controversy.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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