Ben Mezrich’s book, “Bringing Down the House,” is good; the movie “21” is not. Hollywood took a story that should have had people on the edge of their seats and muddied the water with trials of working class people and a boring love story. I read “Bringing Down the House” in two days. I couldn’t wait for my two hours of “21” to over end.
Here’s the story of “Bring down the House:” A bunch of smart MIT students join a clandestine blackjack team. Basically, they take a simple card counting technique and add a team component in it to make it more profitable and harder for casinos to detect. (Card counting is legal in Vegas and Atlantic City, but they’ll throw you out if they think you are doing it.) In order to keep their enterprise rolling and avoid detection and banishment by the casinos, they use fake names, wear disguises, and bounce around to different casinos. Over the course of the story, they live the life of high rollers, to include parties and women. They are also chased by locals, physically threatened by casino employees, and have an entire company (the Giffen Agency) devoted to shutting down the team. Ultimately, greed, fear of violence, boredom, and restlessness break up the team.
How can you screw that up? Vegas, women, money, violence…. Well, here’s how the “21” writers chose to screw it up.
- In “21” the main character, Ben, is a MIT student genius/nerd who wants to go to Harvard Medical School. He can’t afford the $300K fees. After declining several times, he decides to join the blackjack team, but only to cover his medical school fees and to be near a girl for whom he has a crush. The problem with this working class twist is that it’s completely unnecessary and takes up roughly 30 minutes of valuable time. Why do I care why boy genius wants the money? I signed up to watch a bunch of nerds win a bunch of money and party down with hot chicks and strippers. This whole thing just wastes my time.
- It seems like nothing gets out of Hollywood without a love story, and “21” is no exception. This love story is really half-assed and wastes more time. They kiss a couple times and go at it once, but otherwise, it’s just there. The girl, Kate Bosworth is hot, but we never get to see her naked. I was rooting for Ben to have a completely meaningless but fun to watch relationship with a stripper. Instead, “21” offers “After School Special” light petting. Again, I’m not here to feel good about the world; I’m here to watch Vegas in all its glory.
- The blackjack team head, Professor Mickey Rosa, turns out to be a bad guy. Sort of. Honestly, I’m not that sure. I was so bored by this point in the movie I didn’t really care what happened, and was thinking about products I might want to purchase. Suffice it to say, here was one more plot elements that distracted from what should have been the point of the film.
The more I think it over, the more disappointed I am. The non-fiction version of the story was better than the spruced up fiction version. Overall, I paid $3.99 to watch a movie about card counting in Vegas and instead got a morality tale with crappy love story thrown in at no extra charge. Take my advice and just read “Bringing Down the House.” And if you hate reading, then watch the History Channel’s documentary about the MIT blackjack team. It’s shorter and more entertaining.
