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21

A novel transformation
By BRETT MICHEL  |  March 25, 2008
2.0 2.0 Stars
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21

In need of $300,000 for grad school at Harvard Med, Southie-bred MIT senior and former nerd Ben Campbell (Across the Universe’s Jim Sturgess) has left his robot-building pals to their virgin ways, finding his inner cardsharp during weekend trips to Vegas with a clandestine group of card-counting students led by smug math professor Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey, still playing American Beauty’s Lester Burnham, with an emphasis on ham). Director Robert (Legally Blonde) Luketic has transformed Ben Mezrich’s mostly non-fiction (and fairly non-readable) bestseller Bringing Down the House, adding mostly non-facts that include a villain (Spacey), lots of danger, a sexy dame (Kate Bosworth), another villain (Laurence Fishburne), and a new identity (including race) for Campbell (real name Jeff Ma). An Asian leading man is, it seems, too big a gamble for Hollywood’s myopic big players. 123 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Harvard Square + Somerville Theatre + Chestnut Hill + Embassy + suburbs
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ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL
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    Scars run deep in Christopher Nolan’s Götterdämmerung
  •   LOVE COMES LATELY  |  July 09, 2008
    Splendid and dreamlike
  •   WALL•E  |  July 01, 2008
    Hopeful and engaging
  •   HANCOCK  |  July 01, 2008
    Comedy or existential drama?
  •   MONGOL  |  June 18, 2008
    An idealized portrait of Genghis Khan

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