CASINO is long on local color and short on narrative drive. CASINO is also just plain long, clocking in at an excessive 182 minutes.

Rating: 7/10 (18 July 2001)

Martin Scorsese does deliver a vivid, pulsating look at what goes on behind the scenes in the temples of gambling out west, but fails at the human drama. Robert De Niro stars as Sam Rothstein, a Midwestern bookie with mob connections who is sent to Vegas in the '70s to run the Tangiers Casino. Sam is a hard worker and keeps his bosses in Kansas City happy with regular deliveries of cash-filled suitcases. Things start to go awry when his childhood buddy Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) comes to town. Nicky is a psychotic gangster/lowlife whose strong-arm enforcement techniques eventually do him in. Sam has also fallen for blonde bombshell Ginger (Sharon Stone), a gold-digging hustler. For some unknown reason, Ginger can't seem to give up her former pimp, the slimeball Lester Diamond (James Woods). Maybe she's just attracted to his name. The jewelry collecting Ginger would certainly find "Mrs. Diamond" more her style than "Mrs. Rothstein." We unfortunately remain passive observers of the downward spiral that consumes these characters. As the third hour dragged on, I just got more and more impatient for the whole thing to be over. I want to be leaving Las Vegas. De Niro does De Niro as usual, but the character's emotional revelations are small potatoes. Pesci does a veritable reprise of his GOODFELLAS part. Funny at first, with his "F"ing vocabulary, Nicky soon starts to grate on the nerves. Quick, bring out the baseball bats. Sharon Stone does a respectable job as Ginger, but a Golden Globe win over Susan Sarandon (not to mention the ignored Kathy Bates) is a bit tough to swallow. The non-stop soundtrack of 70's hits is distracting at times, but the costumes and set designs are just right. Frankie Avalon, Jayne Meadows, Steve Allen and Jerry Vale play themselves. Guess Wayne Newton was out of town.