I enjoy writing about all sorts really. I love travel and am pregnant at the moment so expect a lot ...
I enjoy writing about all sorts really. I love travel and am pregnant at the moment so expect a lot of baby reviews to come. I also post on Dooyoo under the name Whizz11
Member since:07.09.2007
Reviews:412
Members who trust:44
If you like Vegas and gambling and have always wondered how to beat the house then 21 is the movie for you. I found it really interesting and was glad it was not just another drinking/gambling/heist movie with Vegas as the back drop. This movie was intelligent and interesting and also had a plot that was sinister at times and very clever.
I suppose the reason why this movie was so intelligent is that it's based on a true story of the MIT Blackjack Team as told in Bringing Down the House, the best-selling book by Ben Mezrich. For those of you who are not familiar with MIT it is a university, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where truly intelligent students attend.
The basic plot of the story goes like this. Ben Campbell, a student at MIT has been accepted into Harvard Medical School but cannot afford the fees. Ben is a brilliant student and a whizz at Maths and he is eventually approached by a secret team, the Blackjack team, to become a member. They are a group consisting of very intelligent guys and girls who has devised an elaborate card counting system which helps them to beat the house at Black Jack. every weekend they try their skills out in Vegas and make tons of money. Card Counting is basically a way of remembering all the cards in a deck so you know what cards have already come out and which are still left so you know how to bet in order to win each hand. It's not illegal but the casinos do not tolerate it at all and you will get a sever beating if caught. The rest of the film basically shows them practising and their adventures, good and bad in Vegas. There's some crossing and double crossing as well which makes the action even more exciting.
I found the card counting information and how they go about it very interesting. I really think you have to have a great memory and be very intelligent to be able to achieve something like this but for these whizz kids it looked easy. Their group is lead by their Professor, Mickey Rosa. He is played by the brilliant Kevin Spacey. I find Kevin quite creepy and weird and he brings this over into this role really well as the somewhat mysterious professor. He seems to be doing none of the risky stuff but raking in the cash, what is his story and what has he got to hide.
The rest of the blackjack team are made up of fairly unknown actors, apart from Kate Bosworth who plays one of the girls on the team. She has been in Superman Returns most recently. She plays the part of a university student well I think because she is really little and only looks just out of high school herself.
Lawrence Fishburne plays a casino employee who spots the group and becomes suspicious of them and aims to take them down one way or another. It's interesting to see him in a bad guyish type of role because I am now used to him being the good guy in CSI Las Vegas.
All in all, I really liked this movie. It was intelligent and different from most Vegas movies, a little bit slow in parts and not everyone's cup of tea but good nonetheless.
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Production Year: 1998 - Drama - Director: Carl Franklyn, Carl Franklin - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Meryl Streep, William Hurt, Renee Zellweger, Tom Everett Scott, Nicky Katt, Lauren Graham
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Jun 22nd, 2009
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