The Kids Who Broke The Bank At Las Vegas

Rating: 8/10 (6 April 2008)

Straight A student Jim Sturgess at MIT is having a real problem, he's one of many geniuses trying to get into Harvard Medical School, the cost is going to be over $300.000.00 if he does not get a prized scholarship that several other geniuses are competing for.
So it seems too good to be true when his advanced calculus professor, Kevin Spacey, let's Sturgess in on a little sideline he has going for him. Seems that Spacey has recruited an elite team of his most promising students to work the blackjack tables in Las Vegas, something he used to do himself, but now he's too well known there. Blackjack or 21 he says is the most popular game at the casinos and the one it's easiest to beat if you know how to count the cards.
Counting cards isn't exactly illegal, but something the casino owners do discourage. The discourager is Lawrence Fishburne and he's pretty good at his job, at both spotting and discouraging counters.
Spacey's team consists of Sturgess, Jacob Pitts, Aaron Yoo, Kate Bosworth, and Liza Lapira and all do a good job at convincing you they are actually MIT students and not pretty faces from Hollywood pretending to be geniuses. Spacey of course is his usual fine self.
I particularly liked Pitts's performance as the kid whose jealousy of Sturgess ultimately wrecks the whole operation. 21 is a pretty good film with good location filming on MIT and in Las Vegas giving it an air of authenticity.
You have to love how Sturgess gets the bankroll to Vegas.