Casino Jack
ATO Pictures | Release Date: December 17, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
13
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesDec 30, 2010
Though Casino Jack never lets its protagonist off the hook for his misdeeds, it does underline the hypocrisy of those politicians who were content to take his money but then ran for cover in February 2004 when the Washington Post began to expose his fleecing of six different Indian tribes. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 30, 2010
Casino Jack is so forthright, it is stunning. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 21, 2010
Kevin Spacey gives a bravura performance as superlobbyist Jack Abramoff in George Hickenlooper's uneven but often loopily entertaining Casino Jack. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickDec 17, 2010
One of the highlights of Casino Jack is Abramoff doing dead-on impressions of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan, among others. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 16, 2010
Above all, however, Kevin 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 full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Slick superlobbyist Jack Abramoff is the colorful subject of Casino Jack a similarly slick and undeniably entertaining true-life D.C. crime story, boasting a robust Kevin Spacey performance. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorJan 28, 2011
The facts really get in the way of the portrait here, and we are left hungry for more Spacey and more insight into a man with the hubris to wonder if he has disappointed God. Read full review
63
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreJan 26, 2011
It's a sordid tale and, in Gibney's telling, a cautionary one. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 17, 2010
Spacey holds center. He's a bonfire. Read full review
60
MovielineStephanie ZacharekDec 16, 2010
Hickenlooper too often approaches his subject with the filmmaking equivalent of a wry chuckle. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn LevyJan 7, 2011
It's a heck of a character to chew into, and Spacey, never afraid to play a devil, enjoys himself a great deal. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumDec 30, 2010
Tonally scattershot and more than a little heavy-footed. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJan 6, 2011
Despite his character's fondness for mugging and mouthing like Michael Corleone, Spacey (and by extension, his director and writer Norman Snider) can't quite catch the operatic wallop of Corleone's arc, possibly because the film is played top-to-bottom like a caprice. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrJan 6, 2011
Glib, fast-paced entertainment that barely leaves a mark - which, given the subject, is just plain wrong. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJan 6, 2011
Tonally, Casino Jack is all over the place: exaggerated comedy, cartoonish high jinks, then heavy-handed melodrama (a third-act face-off between Abramoff and his wife, played with no center of gravity by Kelly Preston, comes out of nowhere). Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJan 6, 2011
Casino Jack fails at its most critical mission: Laying out in clear detail exactly how and when Abramoff broke the law. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoDec 22, 2010
The entertaining work by Spacey and Pepper is a good thing because the film has problems, including an utter lack of subtlety. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 16, 2010
The plot has so many moving parts - so many envelopes of money, dropped names, half-explained schemes and hasty flights - that it quickly becomes more frustrating than illuminating. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 16, 2010
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 full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanDec 16, 2010
The trouble starts with the casting. The usually reliable Kevin Spacey never quite gets a handle on Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew devoted to unorthodox business methods. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearDec 14, 2010
This is fertile material for a darkly comic indictment. Instead, we get recycled cynicism (politicians are hypocrites! more dirty money, more problems!) and Spacey's gallery of impersonations-W.C. Fields, Stallone, Reagan-in lieu of a flawed, flesh-and-blood human being. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJ. HobermanDec 14, 2010
In the grand finale, Abramoff fantasizes about using a Senate hearing to blow the whistle on the entire corrupt establishment. His rant offers a clue to how this otherwise pointlessly manic movie might have honed its political edge. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasDec 16, 2010
Spacey has made a career out of projecting the smarmy elitism of the powerful, but Casino Jack is so painfully clunky that he gets dragged down along with it. Read full review
25
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanDec 22, 2010
That's the problem with the whole movie, which lies halfway between poker-face documentary and broad farce. Read full review
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