Casino Jack 2010

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: If being trapped in the dark with a pair of hopped-up con-artists... for an hour or so is your idea of fun times, then [this] might be the perfect unreality show for you. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Mr. Hickenlooper's oddly apolitical caper film loses itself in the puzzle of its protagonist's personality. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: "Casino Jack" is a portrait of a player - a man always dancing, always spinning. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Hickenlooper and Snider are wise to stage Abramoff's story as political satire, but Casino Jack gets so bogged down trying to explain everything that the jokes, when they come, have no snap. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: "Casino Jack" is glib, fast-paced entertainment that barely leaves a mark - which, given the subject, is just plain wrong. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Kevin Spacey contributes a wonderfully flamboyant performance as Abramoff. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Kevin Spacey gives a bravura performance as superlobbyist Jack Abramoff in George Hickenlooper's uneven but often loopily entertaining Casino Jack. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Spacey has fun doing Abramoff doing Al Pacino, President Ronald Reagan and Sylvester Stallone. But the typically strong Spacey isn't the only actor doing commanding work here. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It's hard to work up a whole lot of love or sympathy for convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Tonally scattershot and more than a little heavy-footed. But then, so were the real cons from which Abramoff profited while the flimflam worked. Read more

Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter: Spacey's splendid in this brisk and engaging portrait of the disgraced Washington lobbyist. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Though the film is peppered with one-liners tailor-made for Spacey to sling with stinging effect, it doesn't so much leave you laughing as just weary, and wishing this weren't a true story at all. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Casino Jack fails at its most critical mission: Laying out in clear detail exactly how and when Abramoff broke the law. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Hickenlooper works in brief, vibrant scenes and happy sunshine -- the movie is meant to be a giddy entertainment more than a morality tale, though the giddiness is trailed by an appropriate tug of unease. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: If you care about the material, you already saw it done earlier, and better, in the Gibney film. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Anyone who's seen Gibney's superior version will immediately be struck by how false this fictionalized account feels. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Spacey has a field day as the hyper-energetic Abramoff, the former producer of the Dolph Lundgren epic "Red Scorpion" who observes that "Washington is Hollywood with ugly people." Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Casino Jack is all over the place: exaggerated comedy, cartoonish high jinks, then heavy-handed melodrama... Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Spacey is the reason to see Casino Jack. This movie will stand alongside The Usual Suspects and American Beauty as examples of what the actor is capable of accomplishing when he is properly motivated. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is Spacey's performance that contains most of the movie's mystery; although Abramoff's actions left little room for justification, in Spacey's performance, there is some. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Golden Globe nominee Kevin Spacey has a ball and then some playing the devil inside Jack Abramoff, the corrupt GOP lobbyist who ran wild during the W. years. Read more

Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: It's a movie of sporadically entertaining scenes that add up to a vaguely unsatisfying whole. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film tries to encompass all of Abramoff's encyclopedic chicanery and chokes on the sheer volume. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Hickenlooper and co-conspirator Kevin Spacey are more successful at entertaining than informing or enraging us, but such a tart souffle may be the best way for a fed-up public to digest this distasteful story. Read more

Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail: The film has a complicated political story to tell, and its erratically suspenseful narrative often detracts from its central interest - what makes Abramoff tick. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Casino Jack is really two movies: a convoluted tale about the exploits of disgraced Washington super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, coupled with a zealous-if-misguided performance from Kevin Spacey in the title role. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: Compounding matters is an ungainly lead perf by Kevin Spacey, emphasizing superficial cynicism, and George Hickenlooper's direction, which lacks the bravura necessary to bring the most emblematic episode of recent Washington corruption fully to life. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: An improbably blithe cautionary tale, recounting the rise and fall of D.C. superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Spacey's portrayal of Abramoff gets at the man's contradictions - his ostensibly devout Jewish faith next to an almost sociopathic blindness to his misdeeds - but it never even partly explains them. Read more