Casino Jack (2010)

Sorry, this movie sucks

People are voting emotionally.

Let's be realistic.

Fantastic!

I had a difficult time dealing with this movie, partly because the entire system of lobbying is so despicable in itself, and partly because the writer has done his best to show Jack Abramoff as a fundamentally nice guy who just overreached a little and got caught.I mean, right at the beginning, after we see Kevin Spacey (superb) talking to himself in a mirror, we hear his explanation of why lobbyists exist. Because they're useful. They give legislators information about subjects the legislators need to know something about in order to do their jobs.That explanation comes straight out of a now unfashionable school of sociological thought called functionalism. If something exists in a society, it's there for a good reason. Otherwise it wouldn't be there, right? Whores make the streets safe for our wives and children. The Mafia fills in the gaps that the police force can't, and it meets a market demand among consumers of illegal goods. Mass murderers and psychopaths provide us with bad examples that we can point out to our kids so they'll know what not to become.According to the film, Abramoff just did was everyone else was doing. He only had the misfortune of being caught. Nobody argues that perhaps congressional aides or interns ought to be doing the research instead of paid lobbyists. No explanation is offered for why spending on lobbyists more than doubled between 2000 and 2009.There are no such reality intrusions. Abramoff is a colorful, funny, very active guy. He works out. He loves his family. He knows everyone. He's religious. He opens a kosher restaurant on K Street and plans to open a Hebrew school.A second reason I found it hard to assess the movie is that I didn't understand it because I'm too dumb. I couldn't follow all the shenanigans. Okay. In one of his minor deals, towards the beginning, the Chippewa tribe, among whom I once lived as a cultural anthropologist, gave him millions of dollars and the money apparently disappeared. Where? I don't know. I told you I was dumb. I don't know what an expression like "he wants ten percent under the table" means. I don't know why a Greek was killed. I don't know why Jon Lovitz got stabbed with a ball point pen. Tom DeLay has a prominent role and I don't know what he did that was supposed to be bad. Abramoff makes some venomous remark about George W. Bush at the end and I don't know why. And I can hardly credit the notion that Mike Scanlon's (Barry Pepper, with a great twisted face) girl friend dropped the dime on all these enterprises because she found a pair of red alien panties in her boy friend's laundry. It's the kind of movie that someone as stupid as I am needs a little preparation for -- a few hours of studying with a book called "Lobbying for Dummies" or something.Because except for the murder I couldn't identify a single illegal act in the entire movie. Lobbyists give money to politicians and the politicians do favors in return. It sounds a lot like bribery to me, and I know THAT'S illegal, or at least I think it is, but I don't know why, when it takes one form, it's called "lobbying" and is as kosher as Abramoff's restaurant that serves the best roast beef in the city, and why, when it takes another form, it's called "bribery" and you go to jail.I do, however, recognize a decent performance when I see one, and three performances are stand outs in this production. Kevin Spacey, a little older and chubbier, gets to do some of his impersonations -- Clinton, Al Pacino, and a few others, and he's good. Barry Pepper as Scanlon is terrific as well, as the emotionally unstable squeal cat. And Jon Lovitz is funny, no matter whether the part calls for a comic presentation or not. He's hilarious in some scenes, which I won't spell out.Not a masterpiece by any means -- "Barbarians At The Gates" is about leveraged buy outs and it's better -- but worth seeing once. I hope you have better luck in decoding the events than I did.

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.

Something went way wrong when the trailer has more weight than the movie. And I found myself irritated in the last scene (here's the spoiler) when the punchline was anticipated from the get go because it was in the trailer. Perhaps that's the whole problem. Gallows humor is your ending? What rhymes with gallow? "Shallow," and that may be what happened here.All the parts are there, all the questions have an answer. But the essential one seems unanswered. Who is this guy? We know who he thought he was. We know his public and private persona. But what can we learn from him about ourselves? He may think he has nothing in common with everyman, but his movie sure was mediocre. The ultimate irony. Compare this to 127 Hours where you have another sympathetic, interesting guy who screwed up. It seems the Casino Jack makers refused to have a point of view. Well that's called good journalism, not good movie making.Perhaps most damning is the runway scene (another spoiler but maybe a helpful one) that was referred to in the end of the movie as important - I didn't get the reference. It was that forgettable - not the acting, but the importance of the plot point. Just seemed like another scheme. Had to go back through the scenes to see what they were talking about. For whatever reason this crucial scene didn't fly.To me, Jon Lovitz stood out. He truly had me sympathizing with him, flawed as his character obviously was. I felt defensive when others criticized him. Bravo.Every Fourth of July weekend I try to watch a movie related to our country in some way. Past ones include American History X, John Adams and Charlie Wilson's War. Those I would recommend and re-watch. This one, not so much.

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