Casino

Rating:
Summary: Robert De Niro Strikes Again!
Review: bobby de niro is known for appering in ganster and mobster movies and making them great. This movie is no exception he leads an all star cast including Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone, and Don Rickels just to name a few. De Niro plays a gambler who can't get enough. He moves to Las Vegas and is put in charge of an up and coming casino and takes it to the top. He is in awe of a beautiful girl who has a nack for being were the money is they utimitley get married. Joe Pesci and his crew come out but there behavior quickly gets them band from every casino in the city. He and his crew are losing thier touch and are not the most feared anymore. De niro's marrige falls apart his wife becomes a junkie and almost kills thier kid on more than one occation. The FBI is all over everybody for various reasons it gets so bad that De Niro and Pesci almost have to break off all communication. Somebody in way back in the town where they came from gives them all away. Pesci and his brother are beaten and killed. Stone went back to her old boyfriend and got five million from her saving and blew it all in a few months on drugs and she dies. De Niro is almost killed by a carbomb but gets out alive and well. He goes back to his home town and picks winners like he alawys did for gambling. This movie potrays casino life and what happens to you when you cheat, you will be punished. This a graphic movie and has a ton of vilonce but it is a great movie and is one of De Niro's and Pesci's best defintly not as good of GOODFEELAS though. Even though their is not any good extras I recommened you get it because it is a classic in it's own way.

Rating:
Summary: Casino
Review: Joe pesci gives a great performance as the gun toting little gangster man Nikki..This movie is about a professional gambler named Ace who is in charge of a cisino in Las Vegas..He falls in love with a girl named Ginger who is constantly up to no good..Things go smoothly until his little friend Nikki from the old neighborhood comes to town to make a better life for himself..

Rating:
Summary: Incredible screenplay
Review: This film has the distinction of having the most curses, the most foul language of any film ever released on this planet. Maybe thats what helps make it a great film- the performances by Stone, Pesci and De Nero are excellent, and the music soundtrack is very well selected, and diverse.

Rating:
Summary: Holy Raviolli!
Review: Now, I'm not the biggest fan of mob-flicks [the only other mod-movie I've seen is Suicide Kings], but I know that this is one of the best films, regardless of genre, that I've ever seen! DeNiro's performance is next to the best, and Pesci just can't be stopped! The film starts off giving the viewer a sense of amazement as to how Las Vegas functions, seen throught the eyes of a gangster. Also, it's an interesting approach having "Ace" and "Nikki" both tell the story in their own view. Anyway, Ace sets himself up as one of the greatest mobsters in LV, and it seems his indomidable presence can never be wounded. However, after firing a certain "yokel" who wasn't performing up to par at his job in the casino, Sam gets in trouble with the Senatory [also a yokel]. This leads to a hearing about his gaming-license, which in turn becomes his great downfall.

People: This movie's a classic. Probably one of DeNiro's greatest films ever. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a DVD that they'll watch as soon as it arrives, and then keep watching it ever 10 years, just to be reminded what good movies USED to be [Hell, I know I'm going to]. Also, let it be known that some of this is, in actuality, true. Of course, as with most films, a lot of it is just pure DeNiro magic.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for what it is...
Review: Just because it isn't the original doesn't mean it isn't the best. Casino is the best mafia film I've ever seen. Pesci's portrayal of psychopath Nicki Santoro is brilliant. Maybe it is an expansion of his previous role in Goodfellas but so what. A previous reviewer complained that these characters lack the inner conflicts that Scorseces earlier movies had. These are different characters and he's telling a different story. Psychopaths don't have moral conflicts and most of these mobsters are psychopaths. What is shown is the epic rise and fall of power in the underworld of Vegas. And, it is shown quite brilliantly. You aren't supposed to feel empathy for these characters. Do you feel empathy for John Gotti? Do you feel empathy for every murderer, psychopath, gambler, and gangster who walks the streets? This is a movie that shows a very ugly slice of life: the mafia. It is not a pretty scene. I especially liked the fact that it didn't try to show some twisted value in it because there really is none. As far as showing mobsters doing what they do, this movie is top quality.

As a side note, I'm not making any judgement on the mafia or its members either. There are many people who grew up in this mold that is so brilliantly portrayed in this film, and who am I to judge them. The actual growing up is shown well in the TV series the Soprano's when they show Tony as a kid. These people don't live in a pleasant world and they may not do pleasant things but they usually reap what they sow and many of them don't have a choice. Attempts to analyze or judge these poeple should be left to those who know them well and grew up with them. I'm told that Mr. Scorsece lived and witnessed alot of what his films portray, so rather than judge and pretend I was the one who was there, I'd rather enjoy. He is a genius for turning his experience into art.

Rating:
Summary: Scorsese: Good, Bad & Ugly
Review: Since GOODFELLAS, Scorsese's gone beyond Great Director status; his talent, vision and confidence, combined with his unofficial coronation among serious moviehounds as King of the Medium, have elevated him to Virtuoso. Every one of his 90s projects feature staggering camera movement, audacious violence, tour-de-force visual setpieces. The opening of this film - DeNiro spinning up and out of an exploding Caddy in glittering slo-mo, segueing into credits superimposed over state-of-the-art montage work - renders opinions of the film's morality moot. It's the kind of jaw-dropping stunner that has become a Scorsese trademark; like the Copa sequence in GOODFELLAS, such moments represent the unbridled brio of a director who has not just Arrived, but occupies a plateau where his only remaining competition is with himself. If only he had the ability to pull back now and then and maintain some perspective...but his style of complete immersion into the story he is telling, more and more often these days, leaves him adrift without a moral compass. And, Lord, could CASINO use one. It's not simply the violence on display, but the soul-dead callousness of every last living, creeping or crawling thing in the film that numbs me even as I'm awed by the compositional fireworks of the filmmaking. Everyone in this film is either vicious and corrupt, or weak and corrupt, and several characters are both at once. The 'love' story between DeNiro and a shrill, hollow Sharon Stone is like a sick parody of romantic love. The gangster/buddy angle is nil, as we see from frame one that De Niro and Pesci's 'friendship' is mutually suspicious and parasitic. The Vegas 'backstory' angle, which dominates the first hour, is visually riveting as you'd expect - Scorsese employs every type of shot in the lexicon of moviemaking here, taking the viewer on the ultimate insider's tour of how a casino operates - all in the service of the most cynical of themes: the fix is in, there are only predators and prey, and the prey deserve their agony - otherwise they'd be in on the feeding frenzy. This is part of the increasingly ugly side of Scorsese: his conscious sacrifice of any moral center, the better to solidify his appeal to the sociopathic side of the audience. Or am I alone in noticing that the amoral-adolescent audience (of ALL ages) who fetishize unfeeling 'hardness' respond and identify so strongly with his latter-day work, almost as visual Cliff's Notes on achieving a zen-like serenity in efficient ruthlessness? I've heard audiences laugh in approving hilarity at some of the most appalling brutality in his films, dating back to RAGING BULL but really emerging with GOODFELLAS, which parallels his increasing disregard for protagonists who represent any kind of inner conflict or divided conscience. The Joe Pesci of RAGING BULL was a torn and vulnerable individual; the Pesci of CASINO is a conscienceless thug, period. You feel nothing when he dies, not even revulsion at the blood and viscera of the scene. He's one more fly whose time has come to have his wings pulled off. There are no more Charlies (of MEAN STREETS) in Scorsese's urban films, or even Travis Bickles, to truly disturb an audience by awakening their own dormant conflicting emotions. There are only Max Cadys, Nicky Santoros, Jimmy Conways. Heroes, even nominal ones, are quickly trivialized into hypocrites, cowards, rats and larval psychopaths. One wonders if Scorsese, for all his brilliance, could have ascended so high in the current pop-culture firmament without gleefully discarding any belief in something better than remorseless efficiency and murder-as-commerce like so much sentimental ballast. He could have been, still can be, the Michaelangelo of cinema. Of course, Goya was a great artist too, but the problem with latter-day Scorsese is he's less Goya than he is Joe Coleman.

Rating:
Summary: Good effort by Scorcese and De Niro
Review: Though not his best, Casino is far from the worst Scorcese movie. Reunited with the crew from Goodfellas, Joe Pesci, De Niro, and Nicolas Pileggi, Casino is very similar to Goodfellas, though not as strong. De Niro plays his usual character, the guy who a pro at what he does and seems to have everything under control. But this time, De Niro is the most sympathetic character which is a change of pace. Pesci is essentially the same character from Goodfellas, a hot headed loose cannon who ends up causing more trouble than good. Sharon Stone shines as ex-prostitute turned wife of De Niro. Stone plays an absoulute terrible person in this movie. But she does it to perfection and recieved a well deserved Academy Award nomination. The imagery and pacing are almost identical to Goodfellas, with the voice overs and the quick jumps from scene to scene, as well as the classic rock soundtrack. There are a few memorable scenes. The sledgehammer scene is not easily forgotten. The corn field meeting also sticks with you. The movie was alittle long, but the performances were good enough to keep it from dragging to much. Overall it's not a classic like Goodfellas, but it is an ejoyable watch if you have 3 hours to spare.

Rating:
Summary: Any remaining doubters....forget about it! A great film.
Review: "Casino" suffered critically on release coming so soon after "Goodfellas". I was lucky to've seen the film for the first time only recently, and I was baffled by the criticisms I'd taken as standard. It's a masterly piece of work. The timing of release was unfortunate; techniques of voice-over, flashback, colour and camerawork were all familiar Scorcese storytelling tools by then, but the overall effect is much smoother and richer than in the first film to suit the 'grander' scenario, very different from the street hustling frenzy evoked in "Goodfellas". DeNiro's role offers him a lot more than Jimmy Conway did and he takes it. Pesci's wisecracking psycopath is allowed significant moments of humanity and sympathy (especially at the end) absent from Tommy in "Goodfellas" (though Scorcese had hoped we would find them). Sharon Stone is superb as De Niro's essentially tragic wife, doomed to hustle herself into the grave.

So unlike in so many ways, one useful comparison can be made with the "Godfather" films in that "Goodfellas" and "Casino" are basically two parts of a bigger story, Scorcese's ongoing history of aspects of 'our thing'. Unlike Copolla's films which were never intended to be 'true' tales of the mob, Scorcese's are based on solid fact, though it is a tribute to the makers of "Casino" that such a good story was woven from far less complete and open sources than "Goodfellas" drew upon (Henry Hill's priceless account being pretty much put on screen verbatim).

The two films are usefully seen as two parts of a symphony, both fantastic and enjoyable individually, better understood as part of a larger whole.

Rating:
Summary: A Dark Spot In Martin Scorsese's Great Career
Review: I saw "Casino" because I am a fan of Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro. Scorsese has made so many great movies that I didn't I could ever describe one of his movies as "unmemorable." His three-hour epic "Casino" proved me wrong.

"Casino," which focuses on the rise and fall of organized crime in Las Vegas, is arguably Scorsese's worst movie. Scorsese took on an interesting topic and had an opportunity to create a masterpiece. Unfortunately, he couldn't seem to decide whether he wanted to create a crime picture or a graphic documentary about Las Vegas; a significant amount of time is simply spent introducing shady characters. The film succeeds more as a documentary than as a gangster movie. The movie is overlong by about an hour. The movie also wastes a magnificent cast. DeNiro, one of the greatest living actors, is given little to do as mobster Sam Rothstein. Sharon Stone gives an overrated performance as DeNiro's wife. Joe Pesci simply recycles his obnoxious gangster character from Scorsese's superior "Goodfellas." The great James Woods is given a completely thankless role as Stone's boyfriend. Scenes of violence and mayhem do nothing to make the movie any more exciting or interesting.

Not a terrible movie, but inferior to Scorsese's previous work. For a great Martin Scorsese-Robert DeNiro crime movie, see "Mean Streets" and "Goodfellas."

Rating:
Summary: Casino on DVD
Review: This is a wonderful movie. I guess I am a bit biased though. I am an avid fan of this genre as well as De Niro and Pesci. The movie follows the career of a mafia associate who is sent by "the bosses" to Las Vegas to run one of their casinos. De Niro turns in his usual excellent performance as the man who can get things done without losing his cool. Pesci is also in his niche as an on the edge mafioso ready to strike at whoever crosses him (or MIGHT cross him). Sharon Stone turns in a Grade A performance as a street hustler who is turned into a pushed over the edge housewife. With Don Rickles and Alan King in the supporting cast the movie is a can't miss. The DVD contains most of the standard DVD extras...Cast and Crew, Trailer...etc...