Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Five brilliant MIT students and their professor go to Vegas and make millions playing Black Jack. They have developed a fierce system to beat the house using secret codes and gestures. Counting Cards is not illegal but if the casino catches you – let’s hope your health insurance is paid up.

Jim Sturgess plays Ben Campbell, a shy and exceptionally gifted young man. He has been accepted into Harvard Medical and needs $300,000 for tuition. When his physics professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey) invites him to join his Black Jack club Ben is reticent. When the lovely and seductive Jill Tayler (Kate Bosworth) tempts him with the Vegas superstar lifestyle Ben finally folds. Choi (Aaron Yoo), Kianna (Liza Lapira), and Fisher (Jacob Pitts who looks a lot like a young Kevin Bacon) round out the rest of the club.

They are incredibly successful and Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburn) is pissed. A new facial recognition software that will put him out of work looms on the horizon. Williams is the head of security at the Hard Rock Hotel. The Hard Rock is the last casino to use humans and video surveillance. If it’s not bad enough he will soon be out of a job, now some smart assed geeks are going to rob him of his pension. He plots revenge.

There isn’t a lot of time for real character development but we get enough to be fully engaged in the outcome of their actions. Director Robert Luketic is at the helm, which is a big move from the chick-flicks he is known for. Luketic is best recognized for the smash hit comedy Legally Blond which grossed nearly $100 million. His last film, Monster-In-Law, starring Jennifer Lopez and Jane Fonda also did well. Apropos of nothing, he is from Sydney and he is one of the boys.

This flick is a wild ride of plot twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end. Just remember, “Nobody is allowed to beat the system. It’s the cardinal rule of Vegas.”

Watch the trailer here: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/21/