An amazingly entertaining, mafia movie masterpiece.

Rating: 10/10 (17 September 2006)

when i was 15 years old my aunt Lisa had a garage sale and gave me this when no one bought it from her collection. along with a new reclining bed. at first i only put this movie in out of boredom because i rarely have ever seen a movie that accurately portrays the realism that a mob film demands. so there i was on a Saturday night and i put this movie in and started watching it. the opening scene where ace walks out of the casino and heads to his car, and suddenly as his words ring out "when you love someone, you've gotta trust them there's no other way. you've got to give them the key to everything thats yours. otherwise whats the point...and for a while...thats the kind of love i thought i had." then his car explodes as he turns the ignition. then as he falls in a bottomless pit and a dramatic opening scene hooks you with a yearning to see more i was hooked in the first five minutes to see more.
i sat and watched as the film unveiled itself. to say the least this film like a fellow commentator of this film said should be in the top 250 films of all time. in fact I'm amazed this film isn't in the top ten. it wasn't the unedited brutal violence that made this film, it wasn't the accurate facts and great visual affects alone. it was the skill of its leading offensive line of Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone. to say the least without them this film would have never gotten the credit it so dramatically deserves.
the character of Robert De Niro, Sam "Ace" Rothstein although a somewhat flamboyant character made you want to be him. a man of skill, intelligence, a boss of an ever growing casino, and a wealthy ladies man. this character in my opinion would have been a complete disgrace without the unchallenged skills of the lead man who so brilliantly portrayed him. Ace was a hell of a fun character to see. as the film evolves you see a lot of drama in the world of ace and it goes from great to good to bad to worse and Robert De Niro rolls with the punches and fights fire with fire like no other actor i know of could have done. not since The Deer hunter has De Niro starred in a film that captured my emotion on such a scale. an absolutely brilliant character played by an absolutely brilliant actor.
the character of Nicky Santoro being a quite versatile role required someone who could be sensitive, funny, bold, brilliant, scary, intimidating, and admired in the same character. well they cast the best choice for my money when they cast Joe Pesci. aside from the brutal heartless side of him that comes out when someone interferes with him or his job he was an admirable character. someone who could do what it takes to get the job done while at the same time being a good friend to Ace and also having a wife and a son. its not easy being such a serious character I'm sure but only Joe Pearce would know how challenging it was to tackle this role. when someone told his friend to stick a pen up his A**, well let me tell you he didn't have one shred of decency in his character. he took the pen and stabbed the man at least three dozen times. such a moving character, who has a popular restaurant of his own where he was in some eyes more famous than the famous people there had so many traits that were evolved in this film. hands down this role was handled beautifully and masterfully by the skills of Joe Pesci who in my opinion is the best choice for such a serious mob role.
Sharon stone takes her role as the money obsessed, drug addicted, alcoholic, whore Ginger. she only cared about money and a boyfriend who took it from her. for some reason even when Ace proposed she was still tied to that loser lowlife pimp who ran her life. in the film she even tries to finance his bullshit by taking Aces money. when Ace finds out you almost wish he had killed both of them. because when the good pl' boys beat him down and leave him in a mess in his car ginger cries and sobs like he didn't deserve what came to him. tell me honestly do you think you would deserve getting beaten by three men at once for sneaking around with the wife of a casino boss with mob ties, then trying to take 25,000 dollars of his money. well you decide for yourself.
each character gives you a reason to like or hate them. but only good actors can assure that you will feel both throughout the film. if you haven't seen this film i highly recommend it. if you have like mob movies you will love this film. And even if you don't love mafia movies but enjoy a movie with good acting, good storyline, good accuracy, or any one of the above and more you will find this movie quite to your liking. without doubt a two thumbs up.