| 21 | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster |
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| Directed by | Robert Luketic |
| Produced by | Kevin Spacey Brett Ratner Dana Brunetti Michael DeLuca |
| Screenplay by | Peter Steinfeld Allan Loeb Chris Kalyvas |
| Based on | Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich |
| Starring | Jim Sturgess Kevin Spacey Kate Bosworth Laurence Fishburne Aaron Yoo |
| Music by | David Sardy |
| Cinematography | Russell Carpenter |
| Editing by | Elliot Graham |
| Studio | Relativity Media Trigger Street Productions |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 28, 2008 |
| Running time | 123 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $35 million |
| Box office | $157,927,340 |
21 is a 2008 American drama film directed by Robert Luketic and stars Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts, and Aaron Yoo. The film is inspired by the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team as told in Bringing Down the House, the best-selling book by Ben Mezrich. Despite its largely mixed reviews and controversy over the film's casting choices, 21 was a box office success, and was the number one film in the United States and Canada during its first and second weekends of release.
Contents |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) senior math major Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is accepted into Harvard Medical School but cannot afford the $300,000 cost. Despite a 44 MCAT score and top grades, Ben faces a fierce competition for the prestigious Robinson Scholarship that would pay entirely for the medical school. The director tells him that the scholarship would go to the student who would dazzle him.
At MIT, professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) challenges Campbell with the Monty Hall problem, which he solves successfully. After looking at Campbell's score on his latest non-linear equations paper, on which he got 97%, Rosa invites Campbell to join his blackjack team, which consists of fellow students Choi, Fisher, Jill, and Kianna. Despite being told by Rosa that he had already gotten into the Harvard Medical School, Ben refuses to join the team on the premise he had been promoted at his job. Next day, Jill visits Ben at his job and attempts to coax him, hence Ben joins the team that evening. The system involves card counting and the team is split into two groups. "Spotters" play the minimum bet and keep track of the count. They send secret signals to the "big players", who place large bets whenever the count at a table is favorable. Campbell reluctantly joins the team, telling Rosa he is only doing so until he can pay for medical school.
Rosa takes the team to Las Vegas over many weekends; Campbell comes to enjoy his luxurious lifestyle as a "big player" there. His performance impresses Jill—who develops a mutual attraction with him—and Rosa, but Fisher becomes jealous of Campbell's blackjack success. Rosa kicks a drunken Fisher off the team after he insults Campbell and incites a melee. Meanwhile, security chief Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) monitors the blackjack team, particularly Campbell.
Campbell, distracted by blackjack, does not complete his part of a project for an engineering competition, estranging him from his pre-blackjack friends. During the next trip to Vegas, an emotionally distracted Campbell continues playing even after he is signaled to walk away, losing $200,000. An angry Rosa leaves the team and demands that Campbell repay him for the loss. Campbell and his three remaining teammates agree to go into business for themselves; Williams, however, apprehends Campbell, beats him up, then lets him go after a dire warning.
Campbell learns that he has been given an incomplete for one of his classes and therefore will not graduate, and that his winnings have been stolen from his dorm room. He suspects that Rosa is behind the events but has no evidence. Campbell reconciles with his friends and Jill, and approaches Rosa with an offer: he and the team will hit Vegas for one more attempt before the casinos install biometric software that will quickly identify card counters, as long as Rosa—once a very successful "big player"—also plays.
Disguised, the team returns to Planet Hollywood and wins $640,000 before fleeing with their chips from Williams and his men. Campbell and Rosa split up, with Rosa taking the bag of chips. Rosa escapes with the intention of stealing the winnings, but finds his bag is full of chocolate coins and that the casino manager is in his car's front seat.
Williams had made a deal with Campbell after beating him up; he would let Campbell come to Vegas for one night to make a lot of money in exchange for Rosa, who years earlier cost Williams his casino job by winning a large sum by counting cards. After capturing Rosa, Williams confronts Campbell and demands at gunpoint the bag of chips for his retirement; after giving up the money, Campbell rejoins his friends and pre-blackjack friends, who have, in fact, been counting all night themselves. The movie closes with Campbell recounting the entire tale to a "dazzled" Harvard director.
The filming of 21 began in March 2007. Principal filming of the Las Vegas scenes took place at the Planet Hollywood Casino, the Red Rock Casino, and the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas. Filming also took place at Harvard Medical School, Chinatown, People's Republik in Cambridge, and the Christian Science Center in Boston, Massachusetts. As MIT did not allow filming on campus, the MIT school and dorm interiors, the gymnasium, and the alumni reception were all shot at Boston University.
21 received poor reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 35% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 160 reviews.[1] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 48 out of 100, based on 29 reviews.[2]
In its opening weekend, the film grossed $24,105,943 in 2,648 theaters in the United States and Canada, averaging $9,103 per venue and ranking first at the box office.[3] The film was also the number one film in its second weekend of release, losing 36% of its audience, grossing $15,337,418, expanding to 2,653 theaters, and averaging $5,781 per venue. The film dropped to third place in its third weekend, losing 32% of its audience, grossing $10,470,173, expanding to 2,736 theaters, and averaging $3,827 per venue. By the fourth weekend it fell to sixth place, losing 47% of its audience, grossing $5,520,362 expanding to 2,903 theaters, and averaging $1,902 per venue.
By the end of its theatrical run, the film grossed a total of $157,802,470 worldwide — $81,159,365 in the United States and Canada and $76,643,105 in other territories, against a budget estimated at $35 million.[4]
Controversy arose over the decision to make the majority of the characters white, even though the main players in the book Bringing Down the House, upon which the film 21 is based, were mainly Asian-Americans.[5]
Jane Willis, on whom the character "Jill Taylor" is based, said in an interview that it was obvious early on that the studio wasn’t interested in staying true to Ben Mezrich’s book. Although race and gender were key to the dynamic of the MIT group, and Ma recruited her to "give the team, which was mostly Asian and male, a little diversity," the studios originally wanted her character left out. They wanted an all white male cast with one Asian girl as a love interest[6] and in another interview, this was also confirmed by Mezrich.[7] Nick Rogers of The Enterprise wrote "The real-life students mostly were Asian-Americans, but 21 whitewashes its cast and disappointingly lumps its only Asian-American actors (Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira) into one-note designations as the team's kleptomaniac and a slot-playing "loser."[8]
Supporters of the decision to cast Jim Sturgess as Ben Campbell claim that producers simply sought the best actor for the job, regardless of race. Ultimately, this meant passing over many Asian-American talents in favor of London-born Jim Sturgess, who required a dialect coach to speak with an American accent.[9]
Jeff Ma, who was the real-life inspiration for the character Ben Campbell and served as a consultant on the film, was accused of being a "race traitor" on several blogs for not insisting that his character be Asian American. In response, Ma said, "I'm not sure they understand how little control I had in the movie-making process; I didn't get to cast it."[10] Ma said that the controversy was "overblown" and that the important aspect is that a talented actor would portray him.[11] Ma, who is Chinese American, told USA Today, "I would have been a lot more insulted if they had chosen someone who was Japanese or Korean, just to have an Asian playing me."[12]
The Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) reported on their web site: "After the ‘white-washing’ issue was raised on Entertainment Weekly’s web site, [21] producer Dana Brunetti wrote: "Believe me, I would have LOVED to cast Asians in the lead roles, but the truth is, we didn’t have access to any bankable Asian-American actors that we wanted."[13]
21 was released on DVD and Blu-ray in Region 1 on July 22, 2008 .[14]
In pre-production, the producers and the book's original writers predicted that the Vegas casinos would be unhelpful, as a film that told viewers the basics of card counting might hurt their bottom line. A featurette included with the DVD completely and accurately describes the "Hi-Lo" system used by the MIT Blackjack Club and by Rosa's team in the film.
In fact, the writers were surprised when told by the producers that MGM Studios would finance the film, though all "MGM" casinos (including one used by the real MIT Blackjack Team) are owned by MGM Mirage and are no longer related to MGM Studios. In reality, as another DVD featurette reveals, the casinos (including MGM Mirage) saw the film as an attention-getter; people who saw it would be encouraged to go to Vegas and play, attempting to count cards, when in reality the film withheld critical details (such as the conversion from the "base count" to a "true count"), and in any case, although the counting system is simple, it is more difficult to successfully make money at counting cards than the film portrays.
| 21 | |
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| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | |
| Released | March 18, 2008 |
| Genre | Soundtrack |
| Label | Columbia |
| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [15] |
The soundtrack was released at the same time as the film.[16]
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