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What Happens in Vegas

Professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey, right) schools his students (l-r: Jim Sturgess, Jacob Pitts, Liza Lapira and Kate Bosworth) in card counting.

If you're fascinated by the real-life tale of the Ivy League math-geeks-in-Vegas casino swindle on which 21 is loosely based, you've probably read Ben Mezrich's gripping 2002 book Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas For Millions. 21 isn't outright bad, but it muffs a great setup and squanders its massive potential. Jim Sturgess, the fast-rising Brit from Across the Universe, scores nicely as Ben, a super-brainy, financially strapped MIT senior with his sights on Harvard Law. Campus hottie Jill (Kate Bosworth) recruits Ben to join a cool clique of math geniuses who meet in secret under the tutelage of snarky, devious math professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey, who also produces) to practice a battery of memory tricks and intricate signals. Their plan is to take their exhilaratingly risky card-counting capers to Sin City and beat the house at blackjack. Aaron Yoo, Jacob Pitts, Josh Gad and Liza Lapira round out the crew of super-bright students out to score in Vegas.

Jill (Kate Bosworth) and Ben (Jim Sturgess) celebrate after a lucrative night at the blackjack tables.

Directed by Robert Luketic (Monster-In-Law), the movie kicks off well enough, but meanders during Ben's not-quite-romance with Jill (Bosworth, who seems to have grown thinner and more anxious-looking than in her two previous movies with Spacey, Beyond the Sea and Superman Returns). 21 really comes up snake eyes, though, when it tries to be a caper movie with a moral. That's mostly because the students' weekend capers -- employ disguises and fake ID's, make a killing at the tables, bail before the casino's "loss prevention" honcho (Laurence Fishburne) drops the hammer, repeat as needed -- play as predictably as episodes of Scooby-Doo. The movie packs flash and style but never scratches the characters any deeper than the surface, so things don't crackle or catch us up the way they might have once the characters get too greedy and the plot cards get turned up. Enjoyably acted by everyone on hand, 21 could have been a royal flush but instead packs the wallop of a quick game of cribbage.

Micky and Ben (Kevin Spacey and Jim Sturgess) discuss strategy between hands.

by Stephen Rebello

Photos: Peter Iovino/©2008 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. and GH Three LLC. All rights reserved.