Bringing Down the House, the true story of six MIT students who won millions of dollars playing Black Jack in Vegas, has been lying around my room for several months. With the upcoming movie release I decided to give it a go. I was positively surprised by the book, especially by its honesty (regarding the motivations and opinions of the main characters) and its suspense.
The movie on the other hand was pretty good but not as dazzling as the book. To be frank the movie wasn't as much based on the book but rather loosely inspired by it. The main topic, students going to Vegas to play Black Jack was of course present, but almost all the surrounding story was changed. What I liked most were Kevin Spacey's performance, he did a very good job portraying a greedy professor, and the scenes in Vegas. On the other hand the whole moralizing throughout the movie and the robot competition were the weakest parts.
If the movie awoke your interest in Black Jack and if you would like to discover more about their strategy and what really happened in Vegas, then you should definitely read the book.