Understand Where The Plots Comes From

Rating: 8/10 (28 December 2013)

This film is not a simple one to wade through. That is because it is partially based upon the truth but names have to be changed in order to protect the guilty, some of who are still with us; Because of the intrigue of the events of ABSCAM in the 1970's, there is a lot of care taken in the script of this. The writers have to be careful with the characters to not get too close to the real thing.
This details one of the most successful stings of the US government in History. It involves a phony sheik and the building of a scam trying to prove successfully that out Senators, House members, and others are less than honest. The bribe set up involves organized crime and the building of the casinos in Atlantic City. The thing that is amazing is that guts it took to write this one/ It uses much talking to get the plot over to the viewer. It is necessary to do this as just showing what happened without going into the people pulling off this complex scam would not tell the story properly.
For those who remember the actual events and the SNL sketch about it years ago, this is a hilarious romp. For those who are not initiated, it might get a bit tedious.
There is a great piece of humor from this period of history in this. Something that has changed besides the telephones is the way retail merchandise is distributed. When Microwave ovens and other things first came out back in this era, small middle men would actually make a living distributing hot items from the back of their car. This movie has a sequence that recalls the old Microwave oven from a trunk routine and then tops it by having someone who gets one that way put metal in it and explodes the oven. This is not only funny but is a sight gag as noteworthy now as in any movie in history.