Today's Movie: Casino Jack

Casino Jack was released in 2010, and it tells the story of the lead-up-to and eventual fall of former Washington D.C. lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Directed by George Hinkenlooper (who died before the film's release) the movie stars Kevin Spacey, Barry Pepper, Jon Lovitz, Kelly Preston. and Rachelle Lefevre.

For anyone already familiar with the story, this is a comedic-dramatization of events. One of the problems that sometimes arises when making a Hollywood version of a story like that of Abramoff is that there is no good guy to root for. While Spacey (his own future scandals aside) plays Abramoff as likeable as possible, everyone related to this story is at fault. The lobbyist, the Senators who take money from the lobbyist, the people paying the lobbyists to sway the Senator's vote in their favor... it's a story of fraud, greed and corruption and leads to the movie being a bit of a mess tonally. That being said, I do like the film overall. I think that the acting is pretty solid throughout, and I'm a bit of a sucker for true crime stories. It's also not a particularly long movie, only about 1hr 45mins, but it packs a lot into that time and keeps the story moving. 

Casino Jack wasn't a critical or box-office hit but, I think there is enough good stuff in the film to make it worthwhile. 

I give it a 3 out of 5.

Today's Movie: A League of Their Own

"There's no crying in baseball!"

Though not my favorite baseball movie, 1992's A League of Their Own is both fun and entertaining. It was also one that I debated placing on my "10 Tom Hanks Movies Everyone Should See" list (which you can check out by clicking here), but ultimately there were just too many movies that I didn't want to leave off.

The film is about a women's baseball league that is started up while many MLB players were fighting in WWII. The two main players the film focuses on are a pair of sisters from Oregon, a catcher named Dottie Hinson (played by Geena Davis) and a pitcher named Kit Keller (played by Lori Petty). They are recruited to the league by scout that is played by Jon Lovitz, and though he's only in the film for a short time, he provides a couple good laughs. They play ball for the 'Rockford Peaches' and are joined by woman from across the country played by Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, Anne Ramsay, Megan Cavanagh, Tracy Reiner, Bitty Schram, and others. Their manager Jimmy Dugan (played by Tom Hanks) is a drunk, ex-MLB player, with a bad knee, and who doesn't initially even think the women should even be considered real baseball players, but he comes around in the end.There's a decent amount of comedy sprinkled throughout, and the chemistry among the cast works well enough that you buy into them being a team.

As the season goes along tension builds between the two sisters because, due to her baseball skill and good looks, Dottie becomes the star of the league and Kit is constantly frustrated being in her shadow. Eventually, Kit is traded and both the 'Peaches' and her new team the 'Racine Belles' meet in the world series. This is Kit's time to shine and in game 7 she scores the winning run, allowing herself to finally feel like more than just Dottie's kid sister.

Overall, though not great, I think it's a pretty good movie.
I give it 3 out of 5.


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Today's Movie: High School High

Released in 1996, High School High is a comedy staring Jon Lovitz and I had honestly never even heard of this movie until I stumbled upon it today.

The movie is about an idealistic teacher named Richard Clark (played by Jon Lovitz) who has taken a job at a run down, crime filled, inner city high school, and the film pretty much centers around the obvious jokes that you'd expect with this premise: All the students are over exaggerated stereotypes, the teachers all drink, Jon Lovitz tries to connect with his students by talking their lingo and he just sounds like a nerd... You get the idea.

On his first day, Richard meets Tia Carrere's character Victoria who will be this films love interest, the mean principle Doyle who he'll be working for, and Griff the former gang member/college hopeful/student he needs to get through to. As you can probably guess, this a parody of those inspirational teacher dramas like Stand and Deliver. Well, Richard soon turns the school around and earns the respect of the students, as well as, foiling the plans of a local gang that is trying to recruit Griff. In the end, everything works out and 6 of the students actually graduate high school.

So, is it any good?

  Well, the film currently sits at a whopping 13% on 'Rotten Tomatoes' and it's hard to argue that it should be rated too much higher. In general, I like Jon Lovitz and I think he's funny as a side character but, movies like this one prove why he's not the star of more comedies.

I got a few laughs out of it and it's not unwatchable by any stretch but, overall, the writing feels kind of lazy and there just aren't enough jokes that work to make this a really enjoyable movie.

I give it a 1.5 out of 5.

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