Lost more substance than the book, takes out the real formulas and interjects synthetic ones.

Rating: 6/10 (2 May 2008)

I read the book and appreciated it greatly, i did feel it was a little light (you get to seem some more reality in the actual gambler's short essay in the back) but it at least gave some of the real data behind the cards. the degree at which the game could be mathematically gamed, etc.. The movie doesn't even say what is a low card and a high card. (face cards -1, 2-6 +1) Trying to combine 'Oceans 11' and a lame "perfect-kid getting into college" film into one has produced a bland nothing, you can also see how they changed the main character from a Asian kid to try to make it more appealing, in fact they totally changed the main character in order to make it a a stock rise-and-fall movie. The real life man was actually one of the few who also had a great engineering job while others were relying fully on card counting for their sustenance. And then wrapping the whole thing in the context of a college interview---ewww thats exactally the same thing as that prissy movie Spanglish. They have tried to make it more modern with reference to a job at google and dot-com millionaire. I also hate the direction of incorporating lame corporate-sponsored ad-libs into movie scripts. It humorous the famous personalities in this movie and their roles :)