Film Review: “21″ (***)

Kate Bosworth and Jim Sturgess in “21.” 

Robert Luketic’s “21” tells the mostly true story about young mathematics wizards who formulated a fail-safe way to beat the tables in Las Vegas. It is a fun and exhilarating ride with predictable twists, but great visuals and a solid young cast answering to ringleader Kevin Spacey helps “21” deal out a good story.

Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a hard-working Massachusetts Institute of Technology student. But the stresses of financing an Ivy League education are starting to wear at him. He works afternoons at a suit shop, which will hardly put a dent in the $300,000 it will cost to enroll in Harvard Medical School, and he spends free time with buddies Miles (Josh Gad) and Cam (Sam Golzari) trying to build a better robot.

Then opportunity knocks when professor Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) sees real genius in Ben. The teacher is running an after-hours team of card counters, using mathematical principles to win at blackjack. Along with his dream girl Jill (Kate Bosworth) and fellow players Choi (Aaron Yoo, “Disturbia”), Fisher (Jacob Pitts) and Kianna (Liza Lapira), Ben starts living the high life on weekend junkets to Las Vegas, where they clean up at the tables and party until Sunday night. The only hitch is a security expert (Laurence Fishburne) who gets wise to the team’s system.