Joe's Review: 21

I wish I had time to get to this review earlier, because I really enjoyed 21. I think part of the reason why the movie appealed so much to me is because it's something I wish I could've done. Not to mention, the story was based in the Boston area, where I'm from... and a majority of the scenes that take place at the school were filmed at my alma mater, Boston University! Go Terriers :-). I know that there's at least one person who will appreciate that comment, I won't mention any names though. ;-)

Anyway for some background on what this movie is about, you could check out the book it's based on, Bringing Down the House. I've heard that it's a pretty good read, and delves much more into detail as to what these kids did. Or... you could just read on...I hope you do both! I want to go and read that book myself now... just need to curb my spending habit for a bit so I can save up some dinero. Unless I could make money like these kids did.

The basic premise behind 21 is that Ben Campbell is a genius attending MIT, and is looking to attend Harvard Medical. He's already been accepted, and the only problem lies in money to pay for med school. He's applied for a prestigious scholarship, and when the movie begins, he is in his interview, trying to plead his case. Flash back to a little while earlier, and Ben is just a student at MIT working at a suit shop to make ends meet. He displays his excellent math skills in class one day, and finds himself recruited to join a select group of students who work together to count cards in Vegas... and earn an incredible amount of money.

Working with the group, Ben begins to roll in the money, leaving his close friends for the high life. However, technology is catching up to them, with new face recognition software.. as well as one persistent security guard, determined to catch anyone he sees counting cards, and make sure that they never do it again.

That's all I'll spoil about the movie, because I really think that you should see it. It's got a pretty good story, and it makes you think about whether or not this could really happen. Then you can check out the book and see that it really did! This movie really made me want to go to Vegas at some point, and I think that I will be whenever I can afford to.

This one gets a 8.5 out of 10 for me. If you've seen it.. what do you think?

Tomorrow.. the movies this weekend!