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Tuesday, March 18, 2008
‘21’: Counting cards, partying in Vegas and eyeing Kate Bosworth
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The PG-13 “21” is all about brainy M.I.T. students going all flashy in Vegas, counting cards and winning at blackjack.
The movie, based loosely on the book “Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions,” opens March 28. And if you go, here’s some of what you’ll see.
1. Jude (well, really, actor Jim Sturgess is playing real-life M.I.T. student Ben Campbell, but after his Beatlesesque lead performance in “Across the Universe,” he’ll always be Jude) slowly becomes un-nerdy, winning big in Vegas and he starts wearing better clothes.
2. Kevin Spacey in a Western getup that’s almost more trucker than cowboy.
3. Kate Bosworth in a strip bar — though she’s just a visitor there.
4. Flash cards that help explain how to clue team members into the current card count. The art of card counting, however, is explained in very vague terms. It involves the principles of probability and, maybe, variable change and it’s way over the heads of most people so the filmmakers, when a table is “hot,” just show a lot of ace-and-face-card blackjacks.
5. Limos, short dresses, Gucci suits, champagne, strippers and the Bellagio fountain in Vegas. The M.I.T. campus, the Charles River and store-heavy Newbury Street in Boston.
6. The real-life Ben Campbell has a small part as a blackjack dealer in the Planet Hollywood casino.
Are you looking forward to “21”? Do you like movies about gambling?
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