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DVD Casino (Full Screen 10th Anniversary Edition)
Director Martin Scorsese reunites with members of his GoodFellas gang (writer Nicholas Pileggi; actors Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Frank Vincent) for a three-hour epic about the rise and fall of mobster Sam "Ace" Rothstein (De Niro), a character based on real-life gangster Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal. (It's modeled after on Wiseguy and GoodFellas and Pileggi's true crime book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas.) Through Rothstein, the picture tells the story of how the Mafia seized, and finally lost control of, Las Vegas gambling. The first hour plays like a fascinating documentary, intricately detailing the inner workings of Vegas casinos. Sharon Stone is the stand out among the actors; she nabbed an Oscar nomination for her role as the voracious Ginger, the glitzy call girl who becomes Rothstein's wife. The film is not as fast paced or gripping as Scorsese's earlier gangster pictures (Mean Streets and GoodFellas), but it's still absorbing. And, hey--it's Scorsese! (Additional note: the digital video disc has a "layer switch," allowing you to watch the entire film without interruption.) --Jim Emerson
Review(s): DVD Casino (Full Screen 10th Anniversary Edition)
A flawed but highly entering film that features a powerhouse cast.
Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
Casino was viewed by most people as nothing but Goodfellas Part 2 upon its initial theatrical release in the summer of 1995. It had the same director (Martin Scorsese), the same writer (Nicholas Pileggi) and the same two stars (Robert DeNiro and Jose Pesci) who happened to be playing mobsters once again (just like they had in Goodfellas).
But while Casino's ties to Goodfellas are difficult to ignore, it is really quite a differant movie in some respects and should be viewed on its own terms. But unlike Goodfellas, Casino at times feels slightly bloated, just a bit overlong and is sloppily edited in comparison. But it still manages to remain a very entertaining and insightful look into the behind-the-scenes action in a Las Vegas casino in the late 70's/early 80's. The reason, for the most part, is to a dynamite cast who do some fantastic work.
The plot involves Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) a jewish Mobster who dreams of making it big by running a casino in Vegas. He ends up running the Tangiers Casino, and brings along his longtime friend and fellow hoodlum Nicholas "Nicky" Santoro. While in Vegas Ace meets and falls in love with a beautiful hooker named Ginger (a remarkable performance by Sharon Stone) who is trying to escape from her pimp Lester Diamond (James Woods) and her profession. Ace and Ginger end up getting married and he promises her that he's going to end up going straight. Meanwhile, Nicky becomes the bully of the town and gets involved drugs and basically just making an @$$ of himself. He starts to bring a lot of heat onto Ace since Ace is associates with him, and a huge rift begins to occur between the two. Nicky also feels that Ginger is softening up Ace and ruining his usual way of thinking. Ace eventually breaks off ties with Nicky and Nicky ends up turning to robbing homes and stores to keep up his drug habit and cash flow. Ace begins to have huge problems of his own with Ginger, and the FBI also begins to investigate the financial doings of the Tangiers Casino. Basically, things begin to spiral downwards for everyone in the worst ways.
The first half of the movie is a fascinating and insightful view of the inner workings of a casino in that era and what truly went on behind the scenes. It almost has a sort of pseudo-documentary feel to it at times.
Once things start to go very wrong, the movie switches gears and becomes increasingly more nasty, dense and difficult to watch at times. The second half is where I feel that the movie ran into most of its problems since it lacks the feel and deft touch that Scorsese brought to the first half.
Of all the things that the movie does right, the best is the cast. Robert De Niro might not seem to a likely actor to play play a Jewish mobster (since De Niro's Italian), but he pulls it off convincingly and turns in one of his better performances. Joe Pesci's performance as Nicky at first seems way too similar to his Goodfella's persona, but once his character starts to be at odds with Ace the true side of Nicky manages to come out. James Woods is also his typically great self in a smaller role as Ginger's pimp.
The movie, though, belongs to a surprising and brilliant performance by Sharon Stone. Anyone who had written her off as a one-hit wonder from her Basic Instinct heyday were floored by her tremendous dramatic turn in this movie. Sharon runs the gamut of emotions from sweet, sexy, terrified and drugged out at any given moment. Also, to all of her critics she also keeps her clothes on in this film. I know a lot of people thought that her Oscar nominated performance was overrated, but I strongly disagree. Her turn in this movie is the definite highlight and strong point of the film.
On the downside, the editing in the movie is surprisingly sloppy and just plain bad at times. I'm usually a fan of the way that a Scorsese film is typically edited, but I found Casino to be very erratic and choppy at times.
The movie is also too long at 3 hours and could have easily had a half hour cut out somewhere, especially during the sometimes bloated and too fleshed out second half. The movie began to feel really repetitive at times once things go sour with the characters. While the performances are sure to keep your attention, I couldn't help but feel that the plot and movie began to spin its wheels at times.
The film also contains some of the most brutal and in-your-face violence that I've seen in a R-rated film. One of the most notorious scenes involved a man's head being stuck in a vice and gradually tightened until one of his eyeballs pops out of his head. This is the big scene that caused problems with the MPAA who originally slapped this movie with a NC-17. The scene originally played out with his head eventually getting crushed. In the R-rated cut, they tighten it to a certain point before Nicky has one of his goons cut the guy's throat.
There are also some graphic gun shot wounds, a hand being graphically hit repeatedly with a hammer and a baseball bat beating near the end that had me wincing (and I usually don't get bothered by extreme violence). The violence is not so much bloody as it is brutal and painful. People who are easily squeamish need not view this movie.
Casino as a whole is an underrated film that is worth checking out. While it has problems, the movie has quite a bit that's really good and features some stunning performances and a great soundtrack. It's apparent that more attention was paid to the first half, but overall I like it. I couldn't get the whole Goodfellas 2 feeling out of my head at first, but eventually I just forgot about it and accepted the movie on its own terms.
Casino is nowhere close to being Scorsese's worst film (that would be Bringing Out the Dead IMO) but it also doesn't even come close to the greatness of Goodfellas, Raging Bull and Taxi Driver. But it does do enough things right to warrant a worthwhile rental, if not a purchase.
Casino is rated R and contains extreme brutal violence and strong language.
"Got a lot of holes in the desert...& a lot of problems are burried in those holes."
1995's Casino was Martin Scorsese's conclusion to his unofficial mafia trilogy which had began over 20 years before with 1973's Mean Streets. Using the amazingly talented Robert De Niro once again was a no-brainer for Scorsese. Also, being used in a similar role to his Oscar-winning performance in 1990's Goodfellas, Joe Pesci was another great asset to the success of Casino. And, as with Goodfellas, it was another brilliant collaboration between author Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese. Although many critics thought that Casino didn't even come close to matching the greatness of Goodfellas, in many ways Casino is THE ultimate mafia epic of all time. The same gritty and brutal side of the underworld that was portrayed in Goodfellas was given the same kind of exposure in this film, although more time is spent in showing how the mob had managed to get a strong foothold in mainstream America. And even more time is spent showing how they brought on the destruction of their own multi-million dollar empire in Vegas, due to greed (duh), distrust, betrayal, and murder.
Casino begins with Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) being blown sky-high by a car bomb. Through his voice-over narration, we learn how he came to Las Vegas in the early 1970's as a result of a partnership between the mob and the Teamsters union. Sam is an experienced Jewish gambler who is given charge of the Tangiers casino by the mob, although Philip Green (Kevin Pollak) is the stooge with a "clean" record that is used as the official head of operations. To insure their "investment", the Midwest mob bosses send Nicky Santori (Joe Pesci), an Italian thug with a red-hot temper, out to Vegas to protect Sam. Anyone who even looks at Sam the wrong way can receive a brutal beating from the sadistic Nicky, and Nicky's reputation gets even worse after he tortures a victim by putting his head in a vise (This was probably the most gruesome scene of the film, and in order to avoid getting an NC-17 rating Scorsese agreed to cut some of the footage. Unfortunately, the missing footage is not included in the deleted scenes section of the special edition DVD).
Sam's casino operation at the Tangiers is going great and millions of dollars are rolling in, but then he meets Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), a beautiful hooker with a fiercely independent attitude. Sam falls in love with her and soon asks her to marry him. She reluctantly agrees after hearing his guarantee that no matter how the marriage goes, she'll be "taken care of for life." For a short while their marriage is filled with happiness, but Ginger's slimy pimp boyfriend Lester Diamond (James Woods) still holds a strong grip on her and continually asks her for money. Sam finds out and gets Nicky and his "crew" to give Lester a beating. But nothing will stop Ginger from seeing Lester, and this ultimately results in the failure of Ginger's marriage to Sam. Add to that the fact that her alcoholism and drug use goes out of control, and eventually she even seduces Nicky and almost starts a mob war as a result. But contrary to what many viewers might think, Ginger is only one of the causes for the downfall of the mob in Vegas. Nicky's greed and violent temper lead to distrust from his bosses, and Sam gets himself into deep trouble when he fires an incompetent relative of one of the local public officials. So in fact, the characters in Casino are largely responsible for their own destruction.
Casino is a lavishly filmed gangster epic, with top-notch Oscar-worthy performances, an amazing selection of music (typical of Scorsese), and wonderful cinematography. Critics and viewers who rant against Scorsese for his unflinching portrayal of mob violence should realize that he's only the messenger, who doesn't glorify violence but simply "tells it like it is". The 10th Anniversary Edition DVD has six(!) different documentaries: Casino: The Story - A compelling behind the scenes look at how Pileggi's book led to one of Scorsese's best films; Casino: The Cast & Characters - Tells about the real characters that the actors portrayed and explains the reasons behind the casting; Casino: The Look - All about the décor, sets, and actual locations used in the making of Casino; Casino: After the Filming - Focuses on the editing and music selections chosen for Casino; Vegas & the Mob - A brief summary of the mob's long history in Vegas; and lastly, the History Channel documentary True Crime Authors: Casino with Nicholas Pileggi, a fascinating look at the true story which inspired the film. There's also some deleted scenes. What disappointed me was that instead of a real audio commentary, you get audio excerpts of the same interviews that were used for the documentaries! Aside from that, I have no complaints with this excellent special edition DVD. Highly recommended!
Music, dialogue, but no Goodfellas
After the excellent Goodfellas Scorcese, DeNiro and Pesci team up again for another crime movie.
Don't get your hopes up too much. 'Casino' is certainly not a bad movie but there are some points that don't work in it's advantage.
Length: The real cut is almost 3 hours long and a little too long. Especially since there are now real points of rest. There is almost always a monologue by DeNiro and Pesci (occasionaly someone else) or the characters talk. There is never a period of action or silence. Sometimes the talk is almost a parody of gangstermovies.
The music is good however, ranging from the 50s to 80s and very out there and part of the music.
The acting is ok. Pesci is the best, deNiro his usual self but never super like in Raging Bull. Sharon Stone got an oscar nomination for her part of the wife of deNiro who keeps sliding down and down. But it's not a superpart and there have to have been better roles that year. More than 4 anyway.
For the Scorcese fan this movie is ok. But it's long, a little too long and too fast so it might exhaust you.
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