Heather and I don’t normally go out and see movies in the theater that much. We normally wait a little bit longer and rent the movie when it comes out on DVD. That way we can watch the movie through our sound system on our comfortable couch and cuddled up with our dogs. However, last Friday in the spirit of a good date night, we watched the movie 21.
Without giving too much away, 21 is a drama where a group of brilliant college kids from MIT learn how to beat the casino card game blackjack (also known as 21) by counting cards. The main character is a guy named Ben Campbell (played by Jim Sturgess) who is a genius trying to get into Harvard Law. He is a very Joshua Jackson type character from The Skulls because he doesn’t have much money, needs major help to get into law school, and drives around all movie on a bike. One of his MIT professors (played by Kevin Spacey) recruits him to be on a secret blackjack team that travels to Las Vegas every weekend to beat the system by counting cards. Though counting cards is not illegal, it is not an approved practice and the Vegas casinos have hired an enforcer (played by Laurence Fishburne) to stop people just like them.
This movie is loosely based on a true story of a 1990s MIT blackjack team. It is directly from the best-selling book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich.
I really enjoyed the movie. The characters were extremely likable and compelling. Fishburne plays a good prick. Kevin Spacey is great as usual. We saw the 10:30pm show and it kept my attention and Heather’s attention the entire time so you know the plot was good. Don’t go see this movie expecting to see Ocean’s Eleven because it isn’t as light. The film has a great ending that was not predictable (at least not to me at 12:30am).
21 has a rating of PG13. There is not a lot of bad language which was refreshing.
Overall, I strongly recommend you go watch this movie. It was fun and entertaining.
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One topic from this movie that was compelling was that the characters were one person at one place and then another person at another place. It is the idea of living a double life depending where you are at the time. The main characters from the movie were normal college students studying for tests and doing homework during the week. However, over the weekend they were Las Vegas card-sharks staying in hotel suites and living the life of a high roller.
If we were honest, I think we relate to living double lives sometimes. For Christians this often means living one way on Sunday and then a totally different way Monday-Saturday. Following God is way more than a 2-3 hour commitment each week. Jesus told us in Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.“
Are you living multiple lives? If so, God is calling you to come live a fully devoted life 100% dedicated to Him. It’s a much better life then living a double life.
Bless God.
Did you tell a little lie about why you watch movies at home??? Is there not some financial motivation…
Not lying…but I am cheep which is a HUGE reason why I don’t go to the movie theater. If you watch a movie at the theater as a married couple, you have to buy two tickets. If you the same movie a few months later, you only pay once. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Charles and I saw ’21′ last Friday, too. I love going on dates. Charles isnt crazy about chick flicks, a larger percentage of movies I find interesting. So, this movie was win-win.
I liked the story too. I thought Ben was really likeable. It moved me to read up on the actual story, pretty mind-blowing. I thought, in this movie… Ben initially was not tempted to join the team because he was content. I think the enticing element was the idea of going to vegas and ‘being someone’. I think that would be alluring to anyone. But in that suit store, that girl just reminded me of the serpent slithering around Ben. She was just painting a simple picture of immediate gratification, which always takes God’s plan out of the equation. And thats exactly what happened. It was a pretty cool story, though.
Sarah – great thought. I had never thought of that scene in the suit store as a direct reflection of Eve with the serpent. It is pretty much a mirror image. Great thought.