Casino Jack

• Kevin Spacey: Jack Abramoff
• Barry Pepper: Michael Scanlon
• Kelly Preston: Pam Abramoff
• Jon Lovitz: Adam Kidan
• Daniel Kash: Gus Boulis
• Spencer Garrett: Tom DeLay
• Jeffrey R. Smith: Grover Norquist
• Jeff Pustil: Bob Ney
• Graham Greene: Bernie Sprague
• Yannick Bisson: Oscar Carrillo
• Eric Schweig: Chief Poncho
• David Fraser: Karl Rove
• Rachelle Lefevre: Emily Miller
• Maury Chaykin: Big Tony

Casino Jack is an American film directed by George Hickenlooper from 2010 with Kevin Spacey in the lead role. The film is based on real life and the scandals surrounding the lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The film is not to be confused with the documentary Casino Jack & The United States of Money from the same year.

Action

Jack Abramoff is a licensed lobbyist in Washington. He works for a large law firm, helping our clients to enforce their interests with the help of his contacts in the political circles of Washington. Together with his colleague Michael Scanlon, he tries to win a tribe of North American Indians as clients. The tribe operates a financially quite successful casino in his reserve. However, a neighboring tribe also wants to open a casino and would thus threaten the existence of the existing casinos. A fee of 30 million U.S. dollars Jack offers to prevent the construction of new casinos by political means.

Jack's boss makes him pressure that he should use his political contacts better in order to attract a larger and more profitable clients. A lawyer friend looking for an investor for a financially troubled company with casino ships in Florida and hopes that Jack can help him with his contacts. The Greek operators of vessels, Gus Boulis, has problems with the justice system. The gambling is in his own front door an eyesore. Investigators urge him to sell the ships. Jack summarizes the plan to enter themselves in the business for 145 million U.S. dollars. To not even appear in public as an investor, Jack wants to bring the former mattress salesman Adam Kidan as a puppet and investor in position. The first is to offer the creeps. But finally he gets in and returns the plan to gain control of the casino ships.

Jack Abramoff can not convince you, to respond to his offer the governing body of the Indian tribe first. In order to obtain the job yet, Jack and Michael decide to influence the soon upcoming election of the leadership council of the tribe, so that it is controlled by people who are ready for change their offering. Moreover they can finally win the lucrative contract. Jack and Michael begin to embezzle with dubious benefits and excessive bills money of the Indian tribe.

Gus Boulis wants his first fleet of casino ships not sell. Jack, however, can exert its political contacts public pressure on Gus and eventually gain control of the casino ships with the help of a fake of Adam Kidan transfer. Since Jack has been injured with the acquisition of casino ships on the straw man Adam Kidan, the ethical principles of the law firm, he is dismissed. Jack and his team are however employed immediately by another law firm. At the height of his power Jack Abramoff opens in Washington a Japanese and a kosher restaurant and plans to build a private school.

Since Gus Boulis is very upset about the insidious influence, he injured Adam Kidan hard with a pen. Then Adam asks Big Tony to keep him Gus from the neck. Instead Gus just to keep under control, Gus is killed by Big Tony.

As Michael Scanlon his fiancée Emily Miller cheating with a stewardess, Emily goes to the FBI and reported there by the illegal business of Michael and Jack at the expense of the Indian tribe. Susan Schmidt, a reporter for the Washington Post, already researched for some time about the Indian casinos and the intricacies of lobbyists. By Emily Miller she receives more information and brings the scandal ultimately to the public. Because of the public scandal Jack is terminated by the law firm.

Jack Abramoff, Michael Scanlon and other stakeholders will continue eventually arrested. Michael comes Jack before, and can negotiate a deal as principal witness with justice, and thus avoid a prison sentence. Jack is summoned before a parliamentary committee, he denied there but on the advice of his lawyer 's statement. Jack and the other party to be sentenced to imprisonment and damages.

Criticism

"Less would have been more: in spite of full strength with Kevin Spacey as sleazy lobbyists Casino Jack gets stuck in mediocrity. Precisely because of the vast amount of information and insider stories can quite the exciting story of Jack Abramoff's never really entrain. Casino Jack wanted too much and convinced in this way only here as an evil farce. "

"It's always a pleasure to experience a good-humored Kevin Spacey in a role in which he can play his very own outstanding talent for nuanced satire. In his last film director George Hickenlooper died in 2010 has the versatile performer almost written the role of unscrupulous lobbyists on the body. That would have on an issue that seems like barely a second suitable for a political satire, great cinema can be, but to spoil the film that chance from inadequate overacting just by Spacey's screen partner Barry Pepper. The moral of the story is all too predictable presents something clumsy, but fans of Kevin Spacey in spite of these weaknesses safely at their expense. "

Publication

The film played at a production budget of about 12.5 million U.S. dollars at the box office worldwide, only about 1.1 million U.S. dollars. The film premiered in September 2010 at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released on 17 December 2010 in a few theaters in the United States. In Germany the film was released directly to DVD.