21 (2008)

Adapted from the Ben Mezrich bestseller Bringing Down The House, this movie tells the story of Ben (Jim Sturgess) a Boston student who wamts a scholarship to med school but is told he lacks life experience.  He then gets recruited into a team led by a math professor (Kevin Spacey) that travel to Vegas each weekend and makes a killing by counting cards.  Ben makes enough money to go to med school, but then loses it all.  Thus the movie is dressed as a cautionary tale, but is not all that believable.

It seems that this roller coaster ride, where the honesty he started with is discarded, does in fact, constitute "life experience". It made me wonder whether people brought up without crises or traumas in their lives are actually missing something.

I enjoyed the movie but its not a great movie.