21 [videorecording] / Columbia Pictures presents in association with Relativity Media, a Trigger Street/Michael De Luca production ; produced by Dana Brunetti, Kevin Spacey, Michael De Luca ; screenplay by Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb ; directed by Robert Luketic.
Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent student at M.I.T. Wanting to transfer to the Harvard School of Medicine, he learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 for the tuition. Then Ben is introduced into a small but secretive club by his math professor, Micky Rosa. The club has four other students: Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Jimmy; and they are being trained by Mickey in the skill of blackjack card counting. Intriged by the desire to make money, Ben joins his new friends on secret weekend trips to Las Vegas where, using the skills of code talk and hand signals, Ben makes hundreds of thousands of dollars winning blackjack at casino after casino. Ben wants to make only enough money for his tuition and then to back out of the group. Ben's greed and arrogance put Micky, as well as the group, on the radar of a brutal casino security enforcer named Cole Williams. Cole holds a personal grudge against Micky which threatens to undo everything the students have learned and earned.
Record details
- ISBN: 1435924398
- ISBN: 9781435924390
- Physical Description: 1 videodisc (123 min.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in.
- Publisher: Culver City, Calif. : Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, c2008.
Content descriptions
General Note: | Title from container. Based on the book: Bring down the house: the inside story of six M.I.T. students who took Vegas for millions / by Ben Mezrich. |
Restrictions on Access Note: | LICENSED FOR HOME USE ONLY |
Creation/Production Credits Note: | Director of photography, Russell Carpenter ; editor, Elliot Graham ; music, David Sardy ; costume designer, Luca Mosca ; production designer, Missy Stewart. |
Participant or Performer Note: | Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Spacey. |
Target Audience Note: | PARENTAL ACCOMPANIMENT -14+ - MATURE THEME. Manitoba Film Classification Board MPAA rating: PG-13; for some violence and sexual content, including partial nudity. |
System Details Note: | DVD, region 1, anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) presentation; Dolby Digital. |
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction Note: | For private home use only. |
Language Note: | English, dubbed French or dubbed Spanish dialogue, English, French or Spanish subtitles; closed-captioned. |
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Available copies
- 7 of 8 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 0 of 0 copies available at Creston Public Library.
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- 0 current holds with 8 total copies.
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- Video Librarian Reviews : Video Librarian Reviews
Inspired by Ben Mezrich's book Bringing Down the Houseâa true story of how some of the country's brightest young people took Las Vegas casinos for millionsâ21 stars up-and-comer Jim Sturgess as Ben Campbell, a brilliant mathematician and science geek who desperately needs big money to pay his M.I.T. tuition. Deceptively sympathetic math professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey), recognizing Campbell's preternatural facility with numbers, recruits him to join a group of gifted studentsâincluding sexy Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth)âwho travel to Vegas every weekend, using their card-counting abilities and an intricate system of signals to beat the odds at blackjack. Eventually, the group runs afoul of one casino's menacing enforcer, Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne), who has a stake in making examples of smarty-pants college kids. Up to this point, director Robert Luketic's 21 is reasonably engaging if not terribly suspenseful, but the story kicks into gear when the double perils of Campbell's cockiness and Williams' interference force Rosa to take a more active role. Spacey is superb as the polished manipulator who wraps the kids around his little finger, only to turn frighteningly menacing when his youthful protégés slip up. Recommended. (E. Hulse) Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2008.