21 (2008)

It's divisive. Only 64% of audiences liked it, by Google's archived audience score. Critics scored it lower at 42%, but audiences disagreed.

Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent student at M.I.T. who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 tuition as he comes from a poor, working-class background. But one evening, Ben is introduced by his unorthodox math professor to a small but secretive club of five students, Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Fisher, who are being trained by Professor Rosa to count cards at blackjack. Wikipedia ↗

21 is a 2008 American heist drama directed by Robert Luketic, based on the true story of the MIT Blackjack Team. Jim Sturgess stars as Ben Campbell, a brilliant MIT student who can't afford medical school tuition and is recruited by his unorthodox math professor Micky Rosa, played by Kevin Spacey, to join a team of students who use card counting techniques to win millions at Las Vegas blackjack tables on weekends. As Ben gets deeper into the high-rolling lifestyle and the team's increasingly large bets attract the attention of a security enforcer played by Laurence Fishburne, the operation threatens to consume everything Ben values.

The film was criticized for casting white actors as characters based on primarily Asian-American real-life team members, a whitewashing controversy that became one of the more discussed casting debates of the decade. The casino sequences and the cat-and-mouse dynamic with security were genuinely entertaining. 21 earned $158 million worldwide on a $35 million budget.