Cinemas across the country were packed to the rafters over the weekend with Movie fans paying in to watch the US gambling blockbuster ‘21’.

The film which stars Oscar winning actor Kevin Spacey and actress Kate Bosworth (who played Lois Lane in Superman returns) made its debut on the British cinema circuit on Friday night.

In its first box office weekend in the USA its netted ticket returns worth almost £12million making it one of the most successful films to hit the big screen for some time.

Described as ‘The biggest gambling film of the decade' 21 draws from ‘Bringing down the house’ the best selling book by author Ben Mezrich.

The book focussed on the true story of a gang of MIT students who won millions of dollars at casinos across the US using highly technical and intricate card counting techniques.

In the film Spacey plays a professor who is the leader of the infamous MIT blackjack team. In real life the Professor in question did not have as important a role but artistic licence was used in typical Hollywood style.

Describing the challenges they faced in making the film Spacey said “With this movie, we wanted to make a very entertaining, commercial film. We had an obligation to make it entertaining and crowd-pleasing, but it also sort of reminded me of Risky Business: young kids make a lot of money, and the question is, who are they going to be at the end? What choices are they going to make? There's a nice little lesson in that.'

In making it ‘entertaining and crowd pleasing’ though some argue that the true story of the MIT gang is not relayed to the watching public and the movie , though successful in monetary terms, has its critics.