Bagman (2009), Rollercoaster Entertainment, An Olive Branch Productions
Kevin Spacey, Kelly Preston, Barry Pepper, Rachelle Lefevre, Jon Lovitz, Graham Greene, Christian Campbell, Eric Schweig, Yannick Bisson, Spencer Garrett
Casino Jack is a fictionalize drama based on the real story of Jack Abramoff who along with a junior partner defrauded native american tribes of tens of millions of money. Jack was a professional lobbyist in Washington who got way too greedy and started to believe “If everyone else is doing it, then it must be okay”. Jack ended up getting in a lot of trouble and spending a good deal of time in prison for his fraud. It’s got everything from scams to theft to murder in this crazy story featuring Kevin Spacey as Jack Abramoff, Kelly Preston as Jack’s wife, Barry Pepper as Michael Scanlon, Jack’s junior partner who eventually turned states evidence against him. Spencer Garrett as Tom DeLay, and Jon Lovitz as Adam Kidan who helped Jack on another of his scams, buying an off shore “cruise to nowhere” gambling ship that sailed 12 miles off the shore and turned on the slot machines. This deal lead the afore mentioned murder.
There is another film called “Casino Jack and the United States of Money” which is a documentary version of the same story. From what I am told, this film is more truth than the fictional account in Casino Jack, but I have not been able to see the documentary yet. From what I saw though, Casino Jack is an interesting film, and Kevin Spacey is very good in the title role. It is probably jazzed up some to make it more interesting like the do in “docudramas” but they did not change the names to protect the guilty (or innocent) in this one, and it is an interesting film. I enjoyed it, and though I’ve heard the names a lot in the news, did not get the whole story of what Jack was up to and what brought him down, (as well as Tom DeLay who also melted down at the same time).
All in all, it’s a fairly interesting film, and though not a Hollywood blockbuster, is a solid story of the events.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
Below is a preview of the documentary “Casino Jack and the United States of Money” if you are interested for comparison.
