Some more thoughts on ’21′… and the MIT Blackjack team

By John | Monday, April 21, 2008 | 2 Comments

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I had written earlier in the month on “The [MIT] Tech: Movie ‘21′ Discriminatory Casting Unjustified,” and had some additional thoughts on the movie ’21′ given my recent travels and experiences.

My brother and I were in Boston two weekends ago for my cousin’s wedding. After my cousin’s bowling party on Saturday night in Cambridge, my brother and I dropped by Harvard Square briefly and then headed to MIT, where my brother went (MIT’95, ’97, Course 2/Mechanical Engineering). We saw a poster while walking around the student union and Infinite Corridor advertising: “”Bringing Down “Next House”" – From the original MIT Blackjack Team That inspired Bringing Down the House and 21. NEXT HOUSE DINING HALL Saturday, April 12, 10PM-12AM.”

Next House is my brother’s undergraduate dorm – so we decided to drop by. We wound up going to Next House around 11PM, and the person at the front desk let us in. They weren’t letting anyone into the Next House cafeteria because it was packed to the fire code capacity. But after the “official” talk, they had the presenters at different “blackjack” tables to do some blackjack demos and discussion.

Jon Hirschtick , one of the MIT Blackjack team members in the 1980s, talked about his experience. Jon saw the movie ’21′ and from his perspective, he said it was a very, very fictionalized version of “Bringing Down the House” as well as his own experiences, but it was an entertaining ‘romp.’ Having seen the movie this past Friday (after hearing Jon’s comments), I would have to agree – I found the film to be entertaining. To be honest, I really enjoyed the film. It was entertaining. I’m kind of shocked that Rotten Tomatoes had a 31% rating for the movie. I’ve seen worse movies with better ratings. Plus, who wouldn’t want to see a movie with Kate Bosworth in it? (and despite the stereotype, there are a lot of attractive women at MIT).

That weekend at MIT happened to be also Campus Preview Weekend (CPW) at MIT – for accepted high school seniors to stay at MIT to see whether or not MIT was right for them. So it was kind of funny for Jon to say that MIT students weren’t as stupid as those in the film ’21′, doing stupid things like blowing money on a shopping spree, hiding money in the ceiling, playing slot machines, etc.., I wondered if perhaps MIT was giving high school seniors the wrong idea about what MIT was all about – with the MIT Blackjack Team! Or maybe that helped to recruit more high school students to MIT!

’21′ is pretty far from the original storyline of “Bringing Down the House” from what I have heard (I still need to read the book) and a lot of the history of the MIT Blackjack team, that I think the movie can be more accurately described as “inspired by” versus “based” on the book.

It still sucks that the lead character was not Asian-American, considering the accounts of the book were primarily Asian-Americans. The two Asian-Americans in the MIT Blackjack team played somewhat minor roles, thought I thought that both Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira did a pretty good job with what they had (and I thought that Lapira was pretty cute…)

You can catch some more of the videos I posted on YouTube:

Bringing Down “Next House” / “21″ – part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHAl6S3SleE

Bringing Down “Next House” / “21″ – part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g69DOh9OO_8

Bringing Down “Next House” / “21″ – part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc2aMGeJHd8

and my photos I posted on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/55434225@N00/77g340

Jon mention that the “real” Mickey Rosa, John Chang, still lives in Las Vegas and still plays blackjack, making a living. And that in early April, The Boston Globe did a pretty good job of writing up about the MIT Blackjack team: “House of cards,” and about the movie ’21′ and book “Bringing Down the House.”

I also happen to see “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” this weekend, and it was pretty freak’n hilarious (with an 86% Rotten Tomatoes rating). I’m kind of shocked that the Jackie Chan and Jet Li film “The Forgotten Kingdom” beat out “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Coming this weekend, “Harold and Kumar 2 – Escape from Guantanamo Bay“

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21 says:

April 23, 2008 at 1:23 am

[...] According to 8 Asians, the movie is rather far from the original story of the book. I found the film to be entertaining. To be honest, I really enjoyed the film. It was entertaining. I’m kind of shocked that Rotten Tomatoes had a 31% rating for the movie. I’ve seen worse movies with better ratings. Plus, who wouldn’t want to see a movie with Kate Bosworth in it? ‘21′ is pretty far from the original storyline of “Bringing Down the House” from what I have heard and a lot of the history of the MIT Blackjack team, that I think the movie can be more accurately described as “inspired by” versus “based” on the book. [...]
TechCrunch Interviews Citizen Sports’ Jeff Ma | Business | 8Asians.com says:

July 8, 2010 at 6:46 am

[...] interviews Jeff Ma where he discusses his past experience on the MIT Blackjack team, the book Bringing Down the House and the movie 21, and his startup, Citizen Sports – which [...]