21 Movie Review – The MIT Blackjack Team

Many of the most captivating stories are about heroic deeds. But not all heroes wear capes some just count cards. That might seem like an odd statement, however to a group of skilled blackjack players, it is a means to an end. It all started when the math professor Micky Rosa assembled a battle worthy team of prodigies who assaulted the Las Vegas casinos. But they didn’t bring any weapons other than their sharp minds and perfectly crafted blackjack strategies. How did the story unravel for the notorious MIT team? Read the full 21 movie review to find out how much of the movie screenplay is based on real-life events.

Trailer and Plot of the Movie 21

In the early 90s, blackjack card counting was an extremely profitable activity, and there was one particular team of students that was killing it. The MIT team was a well-trained group of highly intelligent and skilled undergraduates who were beating the best casinos in Las Vegas at the game of 21.

Their brilliance was guided by a math professor who goes by the name of Micky Rosa (played by Kevin Spacey). He passed on his mastered tactics to six of the brightest students, putting them through all kinds of tests. The MIT blackjack team even used a secret language, so the casino’s security wouldn’t know what was going on.

The main story of the movie 21 revolves around Ben Campbell (played by Jim Sturgess), who’s an extremely clever student. Between him and his dream to study at Harvard Medicine School is the absurd amount of $300,000, which Ben couldn’t afford and desperately needed the full scholarship. However, there were many suitable candidates, and just one scholarship meant that he really needed to stand out from the crowd.

Despite all the extra classes and excellent grades, Ben didn’t really have any impressive life experiences to brag about. He was just a shy boy, who worked at a shop for minimum wage and never even left Boston before. So, how was he going to dazzle Harvard’s director? Well, here goes nothing.

After impressing his math professor in one of his non-linear equation’s lectures, Ben was quickly noticed by Micky and offered a position at the MIT blackjack team. At first, he was hesitant about the idea, because he was not the gambling type and didn’t know anything about blackjack. But when his widowed mother offered him her entire life savings of $60,000, Ben couldn’t accept the money and lied that has already been given the scholarship.

Long story short, Ben Campbell jumped right into the crew and begun his extensive training. After a few weeks, Micky decided to test the newcomer to a real-life blackjack game in an illegal basement casino. After the successful trial, Ben and the rest of the MIT team were ready to roll in Vegas and win millions in the way.

21 Movie Cast, Ratings and More

The screen adaptation of 21 was handled by Robert Luketic, who directed the movie as well as Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb, who were responsible for the screenplay. Regardless of the mixed 21 movie reviews and debate over the actors’ choices, the 21 movie cast did pretty well with total worldwide box office gross of nearly $160 million. In addition, the movie was number one in the US and Canada during the first two weeks after its official release.

As mentioned earlier, Jim Sturges adopts the main’s character role of Ben Campbell. Although his performance was not worthy of any major awards, we thought that he did a pretty good job. His character has evolved from a shy boy to a Big Player within a matter of 60 screen minutes, which is not an easy task.

Meanwhile, the lead role is greatly supported by Kevin Spacey, who portrays professor Micky Rosa. The chemistry between the actors gives a vibrant experience to the audience, especially when things go sideways between their characters. Of course, Spacey is an award-winning actor, and his job as a supporting cast member was as outstanding as his character’s.

Kate Bosworth plays the role of Jill, who’s also a part of the MIT card counting team and later on falls in love with Ben. Her character Jill had a significant influence over the choices which Ben made; however, we didn’t feel like her acting stand out in any particular way, mainly because of lack of backup story of her character.

Finally, we have the somewhat villain of the movie 21 Laurence Fishburne, who played Cole Williams – the bitter security boss, who was about to lose his job to advanced biometric casino software. Cole was a skilled card counter himself, which helped him spot Ben while monitoring the blackjack tables. After an unsuccessful attempt to capture him, Cole was already breading down Ben’s neck and was ready to get him.

21 Blackjack Movie Inspiration and Facts

21 blackjack movie was inspired by the book ‘Bringing Down the House’ by Ben Mezrich, which was published in 2002. The book itself follows a somewhat exaggerated storyline, mainly because of the characters it features. Otherwise, it’s said that “Bringing Down the House” is much closer to the reality compared to the movie.

Likewise, the movie and the book focus on a professor who gathers a team of students, when, in reality, there was no such figure. Micky Rosa’s character combines Bill Kaplan, who founded the real MIT blackjack team alongside with JP Massar, and John Chang.

Another major fact fallacy is the number of team members. While 21 – the movie and the book ‘Bringing Down the House’ tell the story of six members, the real MIT team had close to 80 people at their peak. The protagonist Ben Campbell is also fictional, which might be disappointing news to the movie fans.

The real person on which Ben’s character is based is Jeff Ma, who is actually Chinese and comes from a wealthy family. Also, Jeff’s mom is not a widow, and he never really hooked up with his teammate Jill, whose real name is Jane Willis. A cool fact, however, is that the veritable Jeff Ma partook in the movie as the casino dealer Jeffrey.

You might also be interested to know that the casino security expert Cole Williams was also a mere Hollywood adaptation. In reality, the MIT team was busted by the security agency Griffin Investigations. There can’t be a good drama movie without a proper antagonist of the main character, so inaccuracies are admissible. If you want to know more about the real-life of the notorious crew, we suggest watching this brilliant documentary called: Breaking Vegas: The True Story of The MIT Blackjack Team.

Watch 21 Movie Online

Although fairly old, 21 is still an entertaining movie that can be found on streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. So, if you’re a fan of gambling-related films that hold a plot twist, quirky references, and is generally entertaining, we highly recommend it.

While we didn’t want to spoil all the fun before you go and watch 21 movie online, we had to make sure that we give you a detailed overview of the synopsis. And we promise that we didn’t ruin the best parts, so clear up the next two hours of your precious schedule and enjoy yourself. If you’re an Indian player and wish to try some exciting casino games for yourself, you can try at the best online roulette casino in India here.

21 Blackjack Movie FAQs

This movie is generally entertaining, even though most of the supporting characters lack the depth of their story. It would’ve been much better if the writers gave us a backstory about the rest of the MIT team, as they were also important not only to the script but in real life. However, the question of importance remains, is this movie worth your time? Well, based on our opinion, it definitely does. But how about we also answer a few other questions below before we wrap this 21 movie review.

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