p-stepien In a world in turmoil the world of politics, big business and the profligate space in between has been increasingly nominated to be the devil's Trojan horse in modern day society. No one better fits the bill of demon spawn than Jack Abramoff (played intuitively by a potent Kevin Spacey). Working as a lobbyist to the Capitol with intimate ties to the White House and Goerge W. Bush Jr. he as full access to the decision-making quarters and apt opportunities for political racketing and profiteering. Amongst his most pronounced victims Indian tribes in boom thanks to the newly developed gambling business. Money is the motivator, albeit Abramoff, unlike his partner Michael Scanlon (Barry Pepper), does have a misguided sense of communal responsibility, limited however to investment in Jewish educational facilities and development of kosher restaurants.A movie about a man, who wanted it all - power, influence and money - but caught fire by overreaching and losing perspective. In the end the high-life tumbles around him to engulf him. Such a strong potential story...But such an aseptic delivery. The events unfold in a leisurely, almost sluggish, manor, weaving the fabric of deceipt, lies and overblown egos. They do not however knit together into a well-prepped end result, but incite a sense of lethargy and disinterest, which degrades the plausible performance by the cast, fronted by Kevin Spacey. With so much substantive source material "Casino Jack" perpetuates a mean task by boring the hell out of viewers and fumbling to convey the magnitude of the downfall, mainly owed to a lack of focus throughout. not to mention that some key dots were never connected, leaving holes as to what happened and why.Thankfully the horrendous awareness that this is in fact a true story, with people cheated and taken for a ride, adds a subconscious punch to presented reenactments. Essentially it does manage to deliver a poignant message regarding the true nature of lobbying and its functionality. Abramoff's case was specific as he attempted to bite of more than he can chew, but the reality is that these are everyday shenanigans, albeit of a lesser, more self-controlled, scale. Despite the culmination delivering a sub-par punch, the message manages to burrow inside and create a well-deserved backlash at reality.

timmyj3 I viewed Casino Jack recently. The story centers around Jack Abramoff who is a registered lobbyist. It is kind of an odd movie subject. Jack rises and then falls in a dramatic fashion even though the true story is pretty dull. Lets look at the different areas of this film. After reviewing the specifics I want to talk about Hollywood and politics.The acting: Kevin Spacey was the only reason this film is watchable. He delivers a solid smooth performance. Barry Pepper is becoming a first rate supporting actor. Spencer Garrett was strong as Tom Delay. Kelly Preston is a weak link. Not sure how she got this role ( I have an idea though). Her looks are gone and her mediocre acting ability is getting even worse. Poor choice. The rest of the cast is OK. GRADE B-.The story/screenplay: This film was written by Norman Snider. This is as bad as it gets. He gets most of it wrong. Making some stuff up out of the blue. He tries to tie the life long criminal activities and ultimate death of the SunCruz owner to Jack with no proof or even allegations. This was the only interesting part of the film and its mostly false at least in tying it to Abramoff. The dialog is more of "evil Rupublican" theme than anything. Of note, the director's brother is a Democratic Governor in Colorado. We make Tom Delay a focal point here. He had some ethics issues but none seemed linked to Jack. As time as gone on Delay has actually been vindicated in most common sense circles. The real story of Abramoff is that he got greedy at the end with shaking down Indian tribes and trying to get into the offshore casino business. One point the movie harps on is that the Bush administration didn't help Jack when it went bad. Well doesn't that say something for integrity that the Bush administration would go after this guy in the first place? If Abramoff could be so damaging to the Republicans, wouldn't they have left him alone? If this would have been a factual story it would have been quote boring and complicated. GRADE DThe directing and technical aspects: The director was George Hickenlooper. He is awful. This film had a LMN feel to it. It seemed to have a decent budget but showed like a TV movie. This film was disjointed and not smooth. It seemed as the actors had very little to work with here. Again, Hollywood seems more interested in showing how bad the Republicans are than making a decent film that sticks to the facts. GRADE: DOverall film GRADE: C- (only because of Spacey)Now my big picture thoughts. Hollywood recently seems to be heavily invested in making mainstream films depicting the right as bad, evil, stupid, criminal, etc.. The logic seems to be lets use legitimate actors and films to twist facts and make some odd leftie political statements. Films such as this one, Too Big to Fail, Inside Job, No end in sight, Recount, etcc.. There seems to be a shift from the outright kooky Michael Moore stuff to a more "normal" looking films to further the nutty left look at things. I believe everyone one of these films has been a financial flop. Hollywood isn't good at listening to their customers. I suspect we will see more films like this depicting the right as evil and left as saintly.This got me to thinking. We must have had 10 medium to big budget films ripping President Bush over the last 10 years. Most downright silly and clearly financial losers. But.. what about some "leftie" films that could/should be made? Here is a list of films we could make showing the left in not so flattering terms. Most would be pretty entertaining as well. Here goes:1) "House of male Congessional review" Starring Rep. Barney Frank. Remember he and his partner ran a male prostitution ring out of their town home. You cant even make this up!!!2) "I am not a drunk, no matter how many girls I kill" starring Sen. Ted Kennedy. This fool actually killed an innocent girl either by just being drunk or something more sinister. Oyy.3) "Governor and mama need a new pair of shoes" Starring Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. This character actually tried to sell Obama's Senate seat!! This is gold!!4) "I invented the Internet and baseball" Starring Vice President Al Gore. How come this fruit loop doesn't have more media dinging him? He is a liar and a profiteer. He has made more money on the global warming scam than there are carbon foot prints in Europe!I think you get my points. While my suggestions may seem silly they are true and can be documented. Wouldn't a film on Blago be way more entertaining than Jack Abramoff?? I think it would. What about Barney Frank? This idiot not only broke the law with his house of ill repute, but it was his sponsored legislation that really enabled the housing collapse (forcing banks to give low income, no background check loans, Too Big to Fail must have missed this). Funny we never have seen Hollywood disparage any of these people.While clearly few if any Americans actually look to Hollywood for political guidance they sure seem to want to give it to us. I mean do you want to be told how to vote or think by most Hollywood types? Of course not. Many of these people have no education, never had a real job, are surrounded by butt kissers. (Did you ever see that video of Matt Damon prattling on about dinosaurs and voting for Obama?? It was quite enlightening. Lets just say you wouldn't hire Matt to work at the local Wal-Mart). Gimme a break. Hollywood, stick to entertaining us. You really should be better at it.

Gin-ster Informative, stacks up reasonably well against published facts, and it is absorbing as a story. Some of the casting is "apt," while some is not exactly on-target (Norquist in particular, and Ambramoff too - Greg Kinnear would've been more on-target as far as appearance) but this is not the main problem as Spacey's acting is, as usual, excellent. I can't put my finger on it, but there is something cartoonish about the portrayals that got in the way of my saying it's an "excellent" film even though I have no doubt the people portrayed are, in real life, the sleazebags that they are shown to be. There is some attempt at nuance as we are asked to consider the possibility that Jack Abramoff is a conflicted figure as he believes in family, faith and country and the idea that the Bush (and right wing) are best for America, but it is not clear how he can also readily embrace basic criminal acts. Another credibility-stretching aspect was his (and Scanlon's) foolishness with money. They are shown to be "sharp cookies" in business dealings on the one hand yet unable to control their wish to spend money they don't yet have on more and more extravagant possessions. So this doesn't add up either. Again, I am not denying that these things may well have taken place but they are not rendered "credible" in the film and instead the key characters (Abramoff, Scanlon) come across as irrational above all.

Tony Heck How long can you screw someone before you get caught? The true story of super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff (Spacy) and his partner Michael Scanlon (Pepper). After finding a contribution loophole, Abramoff and Scanlon begin to exploit this and become very, very rich. I enjoyed this movie. I like true story movies, and I really enjoy political ones too. There was a lot of stuff in here I didn't know about. The amount he took and the favors he gave out are astounding. This movie really exposes the lengths that he and other senators will go to in order to get what they want. The movie is filled with different movie quotes from the "Godfather", "Rocky" and others, which is fun (Spacy is a pretty good impressionist). Overall I really liked this movie, and found myself liking Abramoff even less then before. The amount of money he through around to get his way is enough to make you sick, especially when you think a lot of our tax money went to helping him by a casino boat. Abramoff gets an F, as for the movie, I give it a B+.Would I watch again? - Yes I would, this is the kind of movie I like