Dir. Martin Scorsese (trailer)
Casino is Martin Scorsese's ode to the long-gone wild west days of Las Vegas when it was run by the mafia. Often compared to Goodfellas, arguably his most famous film, Casino is very different by allowing audiences to see the darker side of gambling that they usually do not have access to. Featuring much of the same cast as Goodfellas, Casino brings back frequent Scorsese collaborators Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci as two mobsters who realize that Vegas is the next step in the mafia's silent takeover of America's gambling world as they begin to work their way to the top of the Tangiers casino.
Where Goodfellas allowed audiences to see into the world of low-level mobsters in New York, Casino follows the same narrative but changes the location to Vegas. The characters in Goodfellas often seemed like regular people you could know in real life while the characters in Casino seem larger than life and more celebrity like. A major difference between the two films is that the characters in Casino are not a tight knit family like the gangsters in Goodfellas, who care deeply about each other and more or less watch out for each other until the very end. In Casino, it is everyone for themselves as they fight for power and money.
Casino surprised me by how good it was, mostly due to the fact that I rarely hear it discussed when talking about Scorsese's prolific filmography. Shot beautifully on film, the neon lights of the Vegas strip quickly pull you into the secret world of mafia run casinos. The film takes place in the 1970s, and features one of Scorsese's best soundtracks, with each song perfectly encapsulating the emotions taking place in the movie.
Ginger, played by Sharon Stone, commands your attention every second she is on screen, flashing her jewelry and fur coats, given to her by her husband Ace Rothstein (De Niro). Stone is able to bring to life every good and bad thing about Las Vegas, from beautiful show girls to money-hungry hustlers willing to backstab anyone who gets in their way.
Don't let Casino's familiar plot deter you from watching it, as Scorsese is a master of gangster films and anyone who enjoys his films will enjoy this definitive look into Las Vegas.
Rating: ★★★★★
Recommended for fans of: classics, American Gangster (2007), 21 (2008), drama, Bugsy (1991), historical/period pieces
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