51
Metascore
24 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliAbove 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.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThe Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenSlick 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.
- 63Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversSpacey holds center. He's a bonfire.
- 60MovielineStephanie ZacharekMovielineStephanie ZacharekHickenlooper too often approaches his subject with the filmmaking equivalent of a wry chuckle.
- 50Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyLos Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyThough 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.
- 50The New York TimesA.O. ScottThe New York TimesA.O. ScottThe 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.
- 40Time OutDavid FearTime OutDavid FearThis 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.
- 40Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanIn 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.
- 40New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNew York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanThe 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.
- 33The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasSpacey 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.