Kate Bosworth, left, and Jim Sturgess play MIT students who beat Vegas at its own game — for a while — in 21.

Sony Pictures / Peter Iovino

A group of brainy Massachusetts Institute of Technology students heads for the Las Vegas blackjack tables, trying to stay one step ahead of casino security guards as they rack up monumental wins by counting cards in the hang-on-to-your-seat thriller 21.

Director Robert Luketic has crammed all the ingredients of a hit into his lickety-split movie. It may begin with college seniors playing with flashcards in a vacant after-hours MIT classroom, but it ends with a daring high-stakes chase through the bowels of the Planet Hollywood casino on the Vegas Strip that can spell the difference between a $100,000 payday and nothing. There’s an attractive young cast, skullduggery, surprise twists, a mysterious money man, tens of thousands of dollars hidden in a ceiling, and a hulking villain, plus all the neon and shimmery baubles Las Vegas has to offer.

Best of all, it’s more or less true, inspired by Ben Mezrich’s best seller Bringing Down the House, about the real-life adventures of Jeffrey Ma, a 1994 MIT senior who was recruited for his whip-snap, faster-than-a-computer ability to crunch numbers … even under pressure.

Here he has been turned from Chinese-American to Caucasian-American Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess, who is British but uses an American accent). In 21, Sturgess has the aw-shucks, self-deprecating appeal (and even the voice) of Tobey Maguire, the star of the Spider-Man movies … at least until he starts winning big. Then he gets reckless and begins gambling with other people’s money, forgetting that he’s supposed to be part of a well-crafted synchronous team that operates like clockwork at the blackjack tables, using secret body-language signals to communicate among themselves about when a table is hot, when it has cooled and when it is time to get out … fast.

When he’s recruited by his math professor (Kevin Spacey), the penniless Ben is only hoping to earn enough to pay his $300,000 tuition at Harvard Medical School. But the lure of quick, easy money and the attentions of the prettiest girl on campus (Kate Bosworth’s Jill Taylor), who is a member of the MIT blackjack team, put Ben on a perpendicular track that can only mean trouble.

Spacey’s mysterious Micky Rosa (a much shadier character in real life in Mezrich’s book) is the money man who brings his protégés to Vegas and, puppeteer-like, guides them through the ins and outs of their mission. All the while Rosa tries to keep them from raising the suspicions of the ever-watching security guards who keep a camera’s eye on every gaming table … which is why the team must sometimes resort to disguises. Rosa is a sort of Pied Piper, keeping his team in step with all the money and goodies Vegas can provide and, when things are going well, he’s a mild-mannered uncle, a sly magician who can get things done. But cross him and in a second, Mr. Cool becomes Mr. Rage and watch out where the pieces land.

Ben is quickly seduced by this new-found sense of power and finds that the more successful he is at the tables, the stronger the attentions of Jill. Sturgess, who last was seen as the doomed brother of Anne Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl, and Bosworth have a strong chemistry that makes their budding romance so alluring and fresh. The script by Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb gives much shorter shrift to the other members of the MIT blackjack team — Aaron Yoo as Choi, Liza Lapira as Kianna and Jacob Pitts as Fisher, the former top dog who is jealous of Ben’s turn at being Number One. Yet they’ve been encouraged by Luketic (Legally Blonde, Monster-In-Law) into ensemble performances that have turned them into a believable team.

The counterpoint to all this is Laurence Fishburne’s strongarm Cole Williams. It’s a more interesting, more dimensional character than his thug-like demeanor would suggest. Besides trying to uncover the secret dealings of this young team of card counters on his turf, he’s under pressure because his company is losing casino contracts to a new face-recognition software system that threatens to put him out of business. So he desperately needs to score a big hit for his side to prove his worth.

There’s a point fairly late in 21 where it seems for a moment that all the good work up front will be derailed by a too-easy wrap-up. Fortunately, that’s not the case as 21 piles on more surprises and takes us to unexpected places.

****21

Starring: Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Spacey, Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts.

Rated: PG-13, contains violence, sexual situations, brief nudity.

mjanuson@projo.com