"21" is based on a the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich. I found Mezrich's book to be highly entertaining and recommend it strongly. Where "21" stays close to Mezrich's book, it is quite good. The movie does a good job of giving an overview of how blackjack works, how card counting works, how card counting as a team works, and the intricate game of countermeasures that casinos employ to prevent card counters from breaking their games. Unfortunately, the producers or screenwriters apparently decided that story beyond the card counting presented in Bringing Down the House lacked sufficient drama for a movie, so they decided to spice up that story. The main character Ben can't just be a bright MIT student. Instead, he has to be a desperate MIT student who has gotten into Harvard Med but can't figure out how to pay for it (apparently Ben has never heard of student loans). Even worse, the movie tacks on one of those obvious yet unbelievable Hollywood endings. Also, if you know Vegas and Blackjack well, there are a number of small errors throughout they movie that can be annoying. Overall, I enjoyed the parts of the movie that focused on playing blackjack in Vegas enough that I can't say I thought the movie sucked, but I'd definitely recommend that you stick with the book on this one.
Final Grade: C
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