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IMDb > 21 (2008)
21
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Photos (see all 84 | slideshow) Videos (see all 17)
Trailer for 21
Clip: The language of counting
Interview: Laurence Fishburne "On his character"

Overview

User Rating:
6.8/10   41,282 votes
Director:
Robert Luketic
Writers (WGA):
Peter Steinfeld (screenplay) and
Allan Loeb (screenplay) ...
more
Release Date:
28 March 2008 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama more
Tagline:
Inspired by the true story of five students who changed the game forever. more
Plot:
"21" is the fact-based story about six MIT students who were trained to become experts in card counting and subsequently took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
1 win & 4 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(5 articles)
Hollywood Money Man Kavanaugh Faces Jail For Second DUI
 (From WENN. 8 December 2008, 8:06 AM, PST)

21 Is No. 1
 (From Studio Briefing. 31 July 2008, 10:38 AM, PDT)

User Comments:
Nothing new, but it's worth the watch more

Cast

 (Cast overview, first billed only)

Additional Details

Also Known As:
21 - The Movie (USA) (promotional title)
more
MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for some violence, and sexual content including partial nudity.
Runtime:
123 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS
MOVIEmeter: ?
^ 24% since last week why?

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Jeff Ma, the real life Ben Campbell, has a small role in the movie as a Planet Hollywood blackjack dealer. more
Goofs:
Factual errors: In the scene were we first see Ben in the casino playing for the first time, the count is +18. We then see a face card (worth 10) appear and Ben wins. Micky then asks him what the count is. He says +18, but it's really +17 because a face card has a value of -1. more
Quotes:
Ben Campbell: [after Jill wakes him up when their plane arrives in Boston] I seem to be waking up to you a lot.
Jill Taylor: Don't get used to it.
more
Movie Connections:
Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2008-03-29)" (2008) more
Soundtrack:
Young Folks more

FAQ

Were there more than one team card counters from MIT?
A NOTE REGARDING SPOILERS
Did Ben really start playing blackjack to help pay for college?
more
74 out of 114 people found the following comment useful:-
Nothing new, but it's worth the watch, 3 April 2008
6/10
Author: Kristine (kristinedrama14@msn.com) from Chicago, Illinois

21 is definitely the major film for the spring time, it has young hot actors, including an incredible academy award winner, Kevin Spacey, and another great actor who's head looks like it grew quite a bit bigger, Lawarence Fishburne. So it has all the key ingredients for a good movie, a decent plot, over all a good combination of actors, and looks like a well put together movie. So I saw it this weekend and I have to say that I was a little disappointed, I think this movie was more for the teenagers, with the actors and the rating, I think it should've been more adult. It was a typical rise and fall story with cliché'd characters. Kevin Spacey, seriously my favorite actor, he's always a dead on hit with every role he takes on, but he seemed to just sleep his way through the film and didn't really care about it. He and new and hot up-comer, Jim Sturgess were not a bad couple on screen, but were not strong enough to hold the story into something original.

Basically we have Ben Campbell who needs $300,000 for Harvard Med. School, he's extremely gifted with numbers, so when his professor, Micky Rosa notices his gifts, he invites Ben with a group of his other students to go to Vegas and play 21. But there is a way to beat the game apparently, by counting cards. Ben promises up and down that it is just for school, but of course when he gets so hot, he takes it way further and ends up making a huge mistake and gets caught with some nasty security guards you don't wanna mess with.

Now 21 has decent enough acting, the movie itself is decent, I didn't mind at all watching it. For the most part, it's the young group of students that keep the movie interesting and keeps your attention. My main problems are for example about the characters Ben and Jill hooking up, I seriously doubt that would happen for real, but for the movie, they want these two hotties to get together at least for the teenage audience's sake. Also supposedly the group says they have to stay on the down low in Vegas so they don't get caught, yet they go around Vegas buying all these new clothes, clubbing, drinking, etc. 21 is worth the watch, but to be honest, if you're reading this, wait for the rental, it's just a regular rise and fall story.

6/10

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Message Boards

Discuss this title with other users on IMDb message board for 21 (2008)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
counting not allowed ruud-zwart
His Fat Friend was behind it all harvey-harv
Name of the song? Feltherre
was that legal for the casinos to beat up people like they did? emailissent
Minor Plot Hole pitcher24
Continuity error? soulsk8ter225
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