Somewhat Derivative But Has Plenty of That Scorsese Magic

Rating: 7/10 (18 November 2016)

I adore Martin Scorsese he's an amazing director and has ultimately mastered the mob movie with films like Goodfellas which I love, but I often hear people talk about this movie as if it is on par with it but I have to disagree with that I find this movie a bit overrated but far from terrible. I also like to start reviews of positively so I will say that I loved the world that was set up in this film, the whole mobster world hidden behind the guise of casinos in Las Vegas was a very entertaining aspect to this movie. Robert DeNiro is really good in this film I loved the scenes he had with Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone he was very imposing and did a great job in this film. Joe Pesci was good but it definitely felt like we've seen things like this from him before. But by far the best performance in this movie was Sharon Stone she was amazing in this movie she was perfect at conveying a damaged and sick woman with no way out and her break down scenes are just amazing to watch. This movie is extremely violent but I loved that about this movie, the violence was effective it showed the brutality of this system and made it feel all the more realistic. However I think this movie has some very big flaws that people has ignored. For one the first 30-45 minutes of this movie are nothing but exposition through narration your given all the inner workings of this world and everyone in it but it just doesn't work because it's given to you all at once and your struggling to catch up and should have been given slower and more gradually across the movie. Another massive issue that has been addressed with this movie is how many similarities it has to Goodfellas but it never comes close to matching that films greatness. Since its structured and layed out so similarly to Goodfellas the film feels like it has the massive hole in it, since the characters that DeNiro and Pesci are playing in this film are so similar to their characters in that movie you feel as if there should be another character in it to fill the place of a Henry Hill but there isn't and the film never recovers from that. This film is also very long and makes for a lot of moments to drag on and I wasn't really satisfied with how they wrapped up Sharon Stones character arc.
Casino is a flawed movie it's got some really good performances, it's very well directed and has a great world to it, but the simple fact is that we've seen movies like this from Scorsese before and it's has far to much narration given out over to long a time. Though it's far from Scorsese best it's still a solid film.
B-/71%