The Destruction Of A Criminal Empire - 70's Style

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2009)

When released in 1995, Casino was dismissed by many as Scorsese attempting to remake his own GoodFellas. But the movie, although quite similar to GoodFellas in many respects, stands on it's own. A most fast-paced 3 hour movie containing no unnecessary tedious scenes to slow it down, never failing at any opportunity to fascinate and entertain the viewer.
Enter Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a brilliant sports handicapper who takes his talents to Vegas. Ace's uncommon expertise and success with making the world of gambling pay off naturally attracts the wrong type of people in the likes of old hometown buddy now heavily connected with the Mob Nicky (Joe Pesci), and the romantic object of his affection Ginger (Sharon Stone). Sam unfortunately takes a gamble on these two and the results don't pay off as well as he would have liked. Neither Ace or Nicky are a match for Ginger, who gets in between them and ultimately plays them both for a couple of tricks.
One of the film's remarkable achievements is how expertly the story is told, and Scorsese's ability to cram so many rich details into such a short amount of screen time frequently throughout. An example of this is where DeNiro's character catches on to a couple of card players using a sophisticated cheating technique so they can communicate with one another morse code style to inform each other of their opponents' playing cards which they can see from opposing tables. The way Scorsese can illustrate such rich details during a brief montage showing how the players are able to incorporate this scam to the beat of the Jeff Beck Group's "I Ain't Superstitious" is like watching a master teaching a free class to show how it's done for other director-wannabes.
Casino also of course features fine performances from the cast - many of whom also actually happened to appear in GoodFellas. Watch for a clever nod to Frank Vincent's "Billy Batts" role in GoodFellas towards the film's conclusion.
A masterpiece in direction, film editing, and storytelling, Casino contains scenes which may be considered by some as excessively violent, and must also hold some sort of record for the amount of "F" words ever said in a film. Literally every line of dialog contains the word or variations on it. The easily offended may want to steer clear.
Certainly one of the great films in the Scorsese canon which makes for a fine companion piece for his groundbreaking classic GoodFellas. I hope Scorsese makes one final mobster film with DeNiro and Pesci. Casino proves that, as far these three are concerned, you can't get much better of a combination as far as movies go. Should my wish come true, hopefully Mr. Scorsese can find another classic rock song to put on the soundtrack to fit the mood of the story besides "Gimme Shelter" - also featured prominently in GoodFellas and The Departed.