In 2008, some of Hollywood’s brightest stars would team up in the suspenseful drama “21.” Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), a brilliant student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gets approached by his professor, Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey), about tackling the city of sin, Las Vegas, to make some real money.
In dire need of money, Ben decides to work with his professor to pay for his student loans and to experience the excitement of the bright lights of Vegas. Ben begins to improve his craft and the money starts pilling up. With a crew of other students, Rosa is strategically taking down the new casinos and making tons of money.
As the group progresses, Jill (Kate Bosworth) and Ben start a romance and the decision is made to cut Mickey out of the process and keep the lion’s share of the win, but they soon learn that their game is being detected and soon the head of security makes his move and things get scary.
Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) catches Ben counting cards and brings him backstage to rough him up. All of the money that Ben has saved to pay his tuition is now gone and now he must go after one final score to get it all back. He mends fences with his professor and goes after the city of sin one last time with some shocking results. There are unexpected twists, leading to an intense climax.
21 is a great film with a tremendous cast, capturing the excitement of the casino atmosphere and mixing in elements of drama and suspense. This is one of the best films based around a casino and the thrills of playing some high stake games like in bettingtop10.
Other notable casino films that are worth a view are certainly CASINO with Robert De Niro, OCEANS 11 with George Clooney and REINDEER GAMES with Ben Affleck. The casino proves to be a great setting for these and many other movies. It is very easy to add an element of drama or action to a setting that is already exuding it. There is nothing like the lights and excitement of putting down some cash on a game where anything is possible.
