21

Adam and I found a movie theater with a cry room. This is super exciting. It's also an old theater that only shows one movie per weekend. This is cool too - it's like you walk back in time when you walk through the doors.

Anyway, we went to this theater to see the movie 21. Adam had read the book on which the movie was based and the plot sounded interesting. The story is centered around a few MIT students who decide to take on Vegas Blackjack with an elaborate card counting scheme.

According to Adam, the book and the movie really diverged in places. In order to fit in Hollywood, the movie had to be a little flashier than the reality in the book. However, the movie - taken simply as a movie - was pretty good. There was a bit of suspense and for the most part, I found myself really rooting for the main character. The whole scheme sets up an interesting mind game... the group didn't do anything illegal (well, they didn't set out to, at least), but yet they were constantly looking over their shoulders hoping not to get caught - knowing that if they did, they were probably in more trouble than they would have been had the whole thing actually been illegal. Though we, as movie-goers, all sat there, knowing that the end of the story couldn't simply be that the students all walked away with a lot of money... it was still interesting to watch the plot unfold.

Adam sat beside me, knowing the card count as the numbers flashed across the screen during almost the whole movie, which was pretty impressive. Watching this movie with him, it became apparent that gambling simply comes down to a numbers game - and because of that, it can actually be pretty boring (I mean, I knew that all along... but he really hit that fact home). Take out the glitz and glamour of the casino and it's more boring still (though of course, it's amazing to watch Adam's mind work - and I was blown away by the things that he remembered and knew).

Anyway, the bottom line is that gambling - once you know what the characters in the movie knew - is pretty dull. But there's more to the movie than that. And because of that, I'd say that it's worth a rent.