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Written by: Nicholas Pileggi (book), Nicholas Pileggi & Martin Scorsese (screenplay)
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods, Don Rickles, Kevin Pollak, Frank Vincent
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
A tale of greed, deception, money, power, and murder occur between two best friends; a mafia enforcer and a casino executive compete against each other over a gambling empire and a fast-living, fast-loving socialite.
Verdict
This is a gangster movie that trades just a bit in the history of Las Vegas and it's crime roots. De Niro makes almost any movie better and he plays such a great character. We see his rise to the heights of Vegas, his struggle to gain more, and then try holding on to it. In Las Vegas you're one bad roll away from losing it all. In this sprawling crime story we see it all, and this story seems so large as we see the inception of a city and culture.
Watch It.
Review
For years this held the record for most dialog in a movie, with seven times the amount of words than an average movie.
Scorsese made this soon after Goodfellas. Upon first watching both I liked Casino more. While I think Goodfellas is the better movie I can't help but like Casino just a bit more. I think part of it is the voice over. It's extensive, but makes this sprawling story more epic. I feel like I'm reading excerpts from Las Vegas's history. With the source material, that's not far from the truth. Las Vegas is a fascinating world and this takes us inside.
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| Robert De Niro plays Ace Rothstein |
I had forgotten how much voice over is in this movie. It's a lot, but it does a great job of quickly building the foundation for how this world works and expanding the story in way the scenes can't. It also serves as Ace (Robert De Niro) and Nicky (Joe Pesci) voicing their own memoir about this time period. These guys opened Las Vegas. Ace was the odds maker, the money man. Nicky is the muscle.
Ace is the main character. He makes the bosses money, and that's why he's put in charge of the Tangiers casino. He knows the business and his skill is turning a profit. He does that, but he also starts to like that life. Ace wants more. That leads to a marriage with Ginger (Sharon Stone) that was doomed from the start. While Ace is mostly working within the rules, Nicky sees Vegas as the wild west, lawless.
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| Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone play Ace, Ginger |
This sprawling story, despite the elevated stakes, is still about relationships. It's about friends that grow distant, a rocky marriage, and a contentious job situation. The movie does a great job of aging the characters to reflect the passage of time. This captures their lives. They reach the heights and also see the lows. When Ace and Nicky leave Vegas, it's the end of an era as corporations take over.
This is a lot like Goodfellas, even sharing cast members. With this one coming out later, comparisons are inevitable, and those comparisons often point back to the first movie. While Goodfellas has an incredible mood that revels in the allure of being a gangster with the rise and fall that often accompanies that life, I like Casino with it's Vegas glitz and the way it captures the history of Vegas. The story just feels so much larger.
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