21

Based on a true story with lots of changes to make it a Hollywood movie (even if the real story didn’t need it), Jim Sturgess stars as Ben Campbell – a brilliant, but financially struggling student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After failing to secure a scholarship to attend Harvard medical school (is he also a rocket scientist?), Ben wants to find a way to pay for it without putting a financial strain on his loving mother. As luck would have it, he has a professor with a plan.

Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) has gathered together some of the quickest minds at MIT to take Vegas for all the money they can. The team has worked out a strategy to count cards and signal each other during Blackjack games to gain more of an advantage, which Vegas casinos hate and advise you (with a vengeance) to avoid, even if it is not illegal.

How successful will the team be?

Will they be caught?

Director Robert Luketic gives 21 a flashy, exciting vibe early on, even if the movie starts to stumble towards the end. Luketic makes 21 into a very visual movie that captivates the audience with strategies, signals, counting methods and more to make the audience feel like they are in the middle of that blackjack table and casino (I almost went All In with my popcorn and peanut M&M's, but then I remembered, this is blackjack and you don’t go All In when playing blackjack, you double down, which sounds like fun if I get double the popcorn and M&M's), while editor Elliott Graham creates the mood with quick edits, perfect music and giving the audience a chance to follow the action on screen, without dumbing it down to make it seem easy.

On top of that, Sturgess is developing into a top notch leading man. He is very good early on as the stammering good guy trying to fight off temptation and sin, especially as Ben makes that classic deal with the devil to give into temptation just long enough to achieve an admirable goal. Then, he takes it to another level as he makes us see the change in Ben as he grows from meek and mild to a big man on campus and in the casino.

However, it’s Spacey who makes 21 so entertaining early on. While Sturgess has to be the noble hero (at least as noble as a blackjack con man can be), Spacey gets the delicious, sarcastic dialogue you will remember, and delivers it with the confidence an actor of his caliber only can. He has perfect timing as he spits out insulting reactions to the young team, but truly shocks us and earns his paycheck when it all goes bad, and you know it will all go bad at some point since this is a movie. You might see a bit of Lex Luthor emerging through Spacey’s performance, just when it is needed.

Unfortunately, 21 gets overly complicated and unnecessarily melodramatic towards the end. Writers Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb insert a superfluous battle between old Vegas and new Vegas exemplified by Lawrence Fishburne as a struggling security expert, which feels like a typical, unrealistic Hollywood twist when it comes into play to help draw the movie to a conclusion.

21 is rated PG-13 for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity.