Casino Jack [Blu-Ray]

Based upon actual events, Kevin Spacey plays infamous lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the movie-obsessed douche bag who scammed millions and millions of dollars from naïve business people. When Jack and his protégé, Michael Scanlon (Barry Pepper), hire a mattress-selling simpleton (Jon Lovitz) to become their business partner, their worlds quickly come crashing down, as they have to deal with how greed inevitably consumes the ruthless. In late director George Hickenlooper's film, there is a part where Jon Lovitz exclaims to Spacey's character to show him his pussy. By this point in the film, many viewers may feel like breaking the fourth wall and exposing themselves to the screen in hopes that Casino Jack would come to an abrupt stop. Casino Jack should have been a dramatic film, but instead it's a mixture of genres that simply don't coalesce. From the moment Spacey graces the screen with his presence while reciting lines from Raging Bull, Casino Jack instantly leaves itself open to public mockery in its 108 minute runtime, wanting desperately to be the intelligent political satire it thinks it is. If you want a more truthful depiction of Abramoff's indiscretions, rent Casino Jack and the United States of Money instead. At least you won't have to see respected has-beens ham it up on screen. The Blu-Ray features include an extensive director's photo diary that showcases many pictures of the cast and crew in Hamilton, ON. Casino Jack's features also contain a gag reel that mostly consists of takes where Kevin Spacey stops scenes simply because he can't "compete" with outside noises and a deleted scenes section that actually showcases some very fairly humorous and provocative material that should have been kept in the film.