Poster © Sony Pictures Releasing. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreCrime, Drama & Thriller
RatedPG-13
Runtime2 hr 3 mins
ReleasedMarch 28, 2008
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorRobert Luketic
StarringJim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne
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21 (2008)
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| 21's Details | |
| Genre | Crime, Drama & Thriller |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 03/28/2008 |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 2 hr 3 mins |
| Budget | $35M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| 21's Interests | |
| General | Card counting, code words, Vegas suites, disguises, the Monty Hall problem, MIT chalkboards. |
| Music | David Sardy, plus a soundtrack built for Vegas montages. |
| Movies | Ocean's Eleven (2001). Different math, same casinos. |
| Television | Numb3rs. Math geniuses cracking a new problem every week. |
| Heroes | Ben. Counts cards in his head, still stressing about med school. |
| 21's Crew | |
| Director | Robert Luketic |
| Writers | Peter Steinfeld, Allan Loeb |
| Producers | Kevin Spacey, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca |
| Cinematography | Russell Carpenter |
| Music | David Sardy |
| Edited By | Elliot Graham |
| Production | Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Trigger Street Productions, Michael De Luca Productions |
| Distributed By | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Math geniuses take on Vegas, and the weakest player at the table is the script. Ben spends the middle hour turning into a jerk on a schedule you could set your watch to, ditching his old friends, skipping his robotics project and flashing chips in hotel suites. Jim Sturgess is likable enough, but the story won’t let Ben be anything but a guy waiting to learn his lesson. The best scene comes early, when Kevin Spacey’s professor springs a classic game show probability puzzle on the class and Ben answers it cold. That’s the movie this should have been: smart people solving problems. Instead we get Vegas montage after Vegas montage. Laurence Fishburne looms as casino security chief Cole and brings the only real menace. It made $159.8 million worldwide on a reported $35M, with a 36% on Rotten Tomatoes. A 4.3 because the card counting is fun to watch and the plot is a stack of chips with nothing underneath. $376 says you try counting cards at your next family game of Go Fish and lose anyway.
What works: The card counting scenes are slick and easy to follow, and Laurence Fishburne brings real menace as the casino’s enforcer.
What doesn’t: Ben’s slide from nice guy to jerk and back is completely predictable, and the romance with Jill has no spark at all.
Who it’s for: Viewers who love a heist movie for the planning scenes and don’t mind a few Vegas montages in a row.
Spoilers
Ben teams up with Cole to lure Micky back to Vegas for a setup, and Micky ends up running off with a bag of chocolate coins instead of chips. Cole then takes Ben’s winnings too, but Ben’s old friends were working the tables the whole time, and the film closes with Ben telling the story to the scholarship director.
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a math whiz at MIT with one problem: Harvard Medical School costs three hundred thousand dollars he does not have. His professor, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), has a solution. He runs a secret team of students, including Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth), who fly to Las Vegas on weekends and beat the blackjack tables by counting cards. Ben turns out to be a natural. Meanwhile casino security chief Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) is starting to notice the same faces winning. Robert Luketic directs. One hundred twenty-two minutes, never split tens.
Anyone good with numbers and a poker face. Keep the count to yourself.
| Jim Sturgess | Ben Campbell |
| Kate Bosworth | Jill Taylor |
| Kevin Spacey | Micky Rosa |
| Laurence Fishburne | Cole Williams |
| Aaron Yoo | Choi |
| Liza Lapira | Kianna |
| Jacob Pitts | Fisher |
| Josh Gad | Miles |
| Sam Golzari | Cam |
| Jack McGee | Terry |
| Helen Carey | Ellen Campbell |
| Jack Gilpin | Bob Phillips |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $159.8M; Domestic box office $81.2M; Opening weekend $24.1M; Profit / loss (est.) +$27.4M; Rotten Tomatoes 36%; CinemaScore B+; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 36% (168 reviews); Metacritic 48 / 100; CinemaScore B+; IMDb users 6.8 / 10 (283,508 votes); movie.guru score 4.6.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.