Often Extremely Underrated Due to Comparison and Excitement For Goodfellas

Rating: 10/10 (1 September 2016)

Put simply, Casino is often completely underrated and discarded because people hold it right beside Goodfellas and compare it with Goodfellas. Most people love Goodfellas, and when they then move on to see Casino, get a bit disappointed that it didn't give them the same vibe or feeling as Goodfellas.
I should know, because that's how I felt the first time I saw Casino. I was fresh into a discovering Scorsese films and watched Goodfellas first, a day later, Casino. And after listening to all the hype about Goodfellas and being in that type of mood, I thought Casino fell short.
A few years later I watched Casino and loved it, absolutely loved it. It's a slower moving, riveting, slightly disturbing dive into the world of excess. Complete excess. As the characters dive deeper and deeper into their stories, we realize that the film is indeed NOT like Goodfellas in the sense that the characters are not clawing their way to the top with the audience sort of cheering them on and enjoying the cowboy show. No, in Casino the characters ARE at the top, and we have the uncomfortable experience of seeing how they deal with it. There are no REAL obstacles against these people, except for their own vices. What we are left with is a very disturbing and deep tale.
I encourage anyone watching this movie for the first time to CLEAR the expectations and hype setup by Goodfellas and Scorsese's reputation overall, and really give this film the time to deliver what it delivers in an amazing way.
I also encourage anyone watching this film again who is so decidedly against it (or definitely thinks that it is inferior to Goodfellas) to rethink their position and watch it again with a different mindset.