''Casino Jack'' (known in certain territories as ''Bagman'') is a 2010

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by George Hickenlooper and starring

Kevin Spacey Kevin Spacey Fowler (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, obtaining supporting roles before gaining a leading man status in film and television. Spacey has received various accolade ...

. The film focuses on the career of Washington, D.C. lobbyist and businessman

Jack Abramoff Jack Allan Abramoff (; born February 28, 1959) is an American lobbyist, businessman, film producer, writer, and convicted felon. He was at the center of an extensive corruption investigation led by Earl Devaney that resulted in his conviction ...

, who was involved in a massive corruption scandal that led to his conviction as well as the conviction of two

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

officials, Rep.

Bob Ney Robert William Ney (born July 5, 1954) is an American politician from Ohio. A Republican, Ney represented Ohio's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 until November 3, 2006, when he resigned. Ney's resigna ...

, and nine other lobbyists and congressional staffers. Abramoff was convicted of

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compen ...

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agr ...

and

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the tax ...

in 2006, and of trading expensive gifts, meals and vacations for political favors. Abramoff served three and a half years of a six-year sentence in federal prison, and was then assigned to a

halfway house A halfway house is an institute for people with criminal backgrounds or substance use disorder problems to learn (or relearn) the necessary skills to re-integrate into society and better support and care for themselves. As well as serving as a ...

. He was released on December 3, 2010. Spacey was nominated for a

Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy The Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy is a Golden Globe Award presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance ...

for his portrayal of Abramoff, eventually losing to

Paul Giamatti Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti (; born June 6, 1967) is an American actor and film producer. He first garnered attention for his breakout role in '' Private Parts'' as Kenny "Pig Vomit" Rushton, leading to supporting roles in ''Saving Private R ...

for his role in '' Barney's Version''.

Plot

A hot shot Washington DC lobbyist and his protégé go down hard as their schemes to peddle influence lead to corruption and murder.

Cast

Kelly Preston Kelly Kamalelehua Smith (October 13, 1962 – July 12, 2020), known professionally as Kelly Preston, was an American actress. She appeared in more than 60 television and film productions, including '' Mischief'' (1985), '' Twins'' (1988), ...

as Pam Abramoff *

Rachelle Lefevre Rachelle Marie Lefèvre (, ; born February 1, 1979) is a Canadian actress. She has starred in the television series ''Big Wolf on Campus'' and had recurring roles in '' What About Brian'', ''Boston Legal'', and ''Swingtown''. She played the vamp ...

as Emily J. Miller *

Barry Pepper Barry Robert Pepper (born April 4, 1970) is a Canadian actor. He played Private Daniel Jackson in ''Saving Private Ryan'' (1998), Corrections Officer Dean Stanton in '' The Green Mile'' (1999), Roger Maris in '' 61*'' (2001), Joseph L. Gallowa ...

Michael Scanlon Michael Scanlon (also known as Sean Scanlon) is a former communications director for Rep. Tom DeLay, lobbyist, and public relations executive who has pleaded guilty to corruption charges related to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. He is curr ...

Jon Lovitz Jonathan Michael Lovitz (; born July 21, 1957) is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1990. Lovitz starred as Jay Sherman in '' The Critic'' and played a baseball scout in '' A League of ...

Adam Kidan Adam Kidan (born 30 July 1964) is an American business executive and lawyer who is the current president of Empire Workforce. He is also the current vice chairman of the Staffing Advisory Group. Previously, he served as the president of Atlant ...

* John David Whalen as Kevin A. Ring *

Yannick Bisson Yannick Denis Bisson (born May 16, 1969) is a Canadian film and television actor and director best known to international audiences for playing Detective William Murdoch on the series ''Murdoch Mysteries''. Early life Bisson was born in Montrea ...

as Oscar Carillo *

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

as Bernie Sprague *

Eric Schweig Eric Schweig (born Ray Dean Thrasher; 19 June 1967) is an Indigenous Canadian actor best known for his role as Chingachgook's son Uncas in ''The Last of the Mohicans'' (1992). Early life Schweig was born in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. He is ...

as Chief Poncho * Maury Chaykin as Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello *

Christian Campbell Christian Bethune Campbell (born May 12, 1972) is a Canadian actor. He is known for his roles as Gabriel in the film ''Trick'', Greg Ivey in the television series ''Big Love'' and on stage as Jimmy Harper in the musical '' Reefer Madness''. E ...

as Ralph Reed * Spencer Garrett as Tom DeLay *

Joe Pingue Joe Pingue is a Canadian actor and film maker. Early life Pingue was born and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario. He attended Ridley College for both elementary and high school, and studied theatre at York University. While attending Ridley C ...

as Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari * David Fraser as

Karl Rove Karl Christian Rove (born December 25, 1950) is an American Republican political consultant, policy advisor, and lobbyist. He was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration until his resignation on Augu ...

* Jeffrey R. Smith as

Grover Norquist Grover Glenn Norquist (born October 19, 1956) is an American political activist and tax reduction advocate who is founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization that opposes all tax increases. A Republican, he is the primar ...

Daniel Kash Daniel Joshua Kash (born April 25, 1959) is a Canadian actor and film director. Life and career Kash was born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Canadian opera singer Maureen Forrester and Toronto-born violinist and conductor Eugene Kash (May 1, 1 ...

Gus Boulis Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis ( Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Μπούλης; April 6, 1949 – February 6, 2001) was an entrepreneur, land developer, casino operator, and restaurateur of Greek descent, who was murdered in 2001. The murder has been ...

Conrad Pla Conrad Pla (born October 24, 1966) is a Canadian actor and former professional kickboxer. He is best known for founding Tristar Gym and starring in the Canadian television series ''ReGenesis''. Early life Pla was born in Madrid and moved to Cana ...

as FBI Agent Hanley * Hannah Endicott-Douglas as Sarah Abramoff * Ruth Marshall as Susan Schmidt * Reid Morgan as Brian Mann * Duke Redbird as Senator Nighthorse

Production

Filming took place in June 2009 in various locations across

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of ...

, Canada, including

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

and downtown Hamilton. The film was scheduled for release in December 2010 and premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

. This was Hickenlooper's final film. He died on October 29, 2010, seven weeks before its scheduled December 17, 2010, national opening.

Reception

''Casino Jack'' received mixed reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has a rating of 39%, based on 97 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Kevin Spacey turns in one of his stronger performances, but ''Casino Jack'' is a disappointingly uneven fictionalized account of a fascinating true story." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 51 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film three out of four stars, stating that "''Casino Jack'' is so forthright, it is stunning."

References

External links

* * * * *
''Casino Jack''
production website at Hannibal Pictures {{Jack Abramoff 2010 films Canadian comedy-drama films 2010 comedy-drama films Canadian docudrama films Films set in the 1990s Films set in the 2000s Films set in Washington, D.C. Canadian biographical films Films shot in Ontario Canadian political satire films Films about con artists Films about fraud 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films