There is a new movie, set to be released in March 2008, called "21." It is based on a book called "Bringing Down the House." I read the book and I thought it was great, and I think the movie will be great too.

"21" is about the card game blackjack. So before I discuss the movie, let me explain a few things about blackjack.

In blackjack, you add up the value of all the cards in your hand to get the total value of your hand. You always have a choice to ask for another card ("to hit") or to stop with what you have ("to stand"). The object of the game is to get a hand whose value is higher than the dealer's hand, but without going over 21 ("to bust"). That is the game of blackjack in a nutshell.

Blackjack strategy is based on probability. If, for example, you have 15 in your hand, you must calculate the probability that the next card will be ace through 6, which would enable you to hit to increase the value of your hand without busting. But the interesting thing is that the probabilities do not stay constant. If a lot of low cards have been dealt out in the first few hands, then there will be a higher percentage of high cards left in the deck, so the probability of drawing a high card is now higher than it was originally. That is why the best blackjack players count cards. They keep track of all the cards that have been dealt out and calculate the probabilities that the next card will be high or low. It is not easy - it takes a lot of brainpower and a lot of concentration.

Another thing you should know is that casinos are private property. The owners have a right to admit whom they want and to exclude whom they want. The civil rights laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of race or religion, but there is no law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of IQ. So most casinos have an unwritten - but strictly enforced - rule: no smart people allowed. After all, the casinos make their money from the losers. They don't want winners coming in and taking their money.

What all this means is that winning in blackjack requires two skills. First, you must be a smart and highly skilled card counter. Second, you must not let the casino know that you are a highly skilled card counter. You must project the image of a dummy who occasionally gets lucky but doesn't really know what he is doing.

Now (finally) we get to the movie 21. The movie is about the MIT Blackjack Team, a group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who mastered both of the skills needed to succeed at blackjack, and actually won millions of dollars from the Las Vegas casinos before they were finally caught.

But don't think of 21 as a documentary on "How to Win at Blackjack." If it is anything at all like the book, it will be a very human story about the characters on the MIT team. The book has interesting characters, action, suspense, and even romance, all against a background of high-stakes blackjack. I expect that the movie will be the same.

The movie 21 stars Kevin Spacey, Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, and Laurence Fishburne. They are all superb actors, and I feel confident in predicting that 21 will be a superb movie.

21 - THE TRIVIA QUIZ

Thank you to Mighty Samson, who posted a comment and turned me on to the 21 Trivia Quiz. I tried the quiz myself, and had a great time. The best thing is that you are allowed to Google for the answers, so you don't have to be a know-it-all to do well. (Do you know who was the 21st president of the U.S.? I do now.) I highly recommend the 21 Trivia Quiz: you'll have a lot of fun, you could win $21,000, and you'll learn some interesting new facts. Thanks, Sam.