21 is a 2008 American 21st birthday cake ideas drama film directed by Robert Luketic and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. He applies for the prestigious Robinson Scholarship which would cover the entire cost. Back at MIT, a professor, Micky Rosa challenges Ben with the Monty Hall Problem which he solves.

Micky invites Ben to join the MIT Blackjack Team, consisting of fellow students Choi, Fisher, Jill and Kianna. Over many weekends, the team is flown to Las Vegas Valley and Ben comes to enjoy his luxurious life as a high roller big player. The team is impressed by Ben’s skill but Fisher becomes jealous and fights him while drunk, leading Micky to expel him. The head of security, Cole Williams, has been monitoring the team and begins to focus on Ben.

Ben’s devotion to blackjack causes him to neglect his role in an engineering competition, which estranges him from his friends. Ben and three of the students decide that they will continue to play blackjack without Micky but they are caught by Williams, whom Micky tipped off. His winnings are stolen from his dormitory room. Micky flees with the bag of chips, jumping into a limousine but realizes it was a setup when he discovers that the bag is full of chocolate coins.

It is revealed that Ben and Williams made a deal to lure Micky to Las Vegas so that Williams could capture him. Williams’ men take Micky, and Cole explains he’s going to get in contact with a friend of his with the IRS about Micky’s untaxed winnings. Miles and Cam also turn out to be quite good at card-counting while working with Choi and Kianna during Micky’s capture and as such, the 6-person team make a lot of money despite Williams’s robbery of Ben and Micky’s chips. The film ends with Ben recounting the tale to the dazzled and dumbfounded scholarship director. The filming of 21 began in March 2007.

172 critics gave the film a positive review, for an average rating of 5. The site’s critical consensus reads: “21 could have been a fascinating study had it not supplanted the true story on which it is based with mundane melodrama. 9,103 per venue and ranking first at the box office. A race-based controversy arose over the decision to make the majority of the characters White Americans, even though the main players in the book Bringing Down the House, upon which the film 21 is based, were mainly Asian Americans. Jeff Ma, who was the real-life inspiration for the character Ben Campbell and served as a consultant on the film, was attacked as being a “race traitor” on several blogs for not insisting that his character be Asian-American.