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51 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scorcese and De Niro together again!, April 22, 2004
Casino is nothing less than a Scorcese masterpiece, based primarily on the true story of the violent life and death of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, who was the mob's chief enforcer during the early 70's, while protecting the mob's gambling interests run by Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal. As someone interested in the development of the American mafia, Casino is a brilliant translation of the building of Bugsy Siegel's vision in the desert up to the gaudy haven for high rollers that it was during the 70s. This movie brings the dusty pages of Las Vegas history to life. Spilotro was the real thing; Joe Pesci gives us only a taste of how brutal he really was. His death in a mid-west cornfield was the final act of this particular chapter in Las Vegas history. This is perhaps Scorsese's most underrated film, Casino contains one of De Niro's finest performances--his Sam Rothstein is controlled, nuanced, quiet, contemplative, depressed, ambitious, and furious. De Niro plays all these sentiments at once, and he ultimately creates a character that may not be Scorsese's most likable but is certainly his most mesmerizingly believable. The film's rare dual voiceover is so well executed, as Pesci and De Niro's characters fight for control over the storytelling just as they battle for power over Vegas. This film is flamboyantly stylized-In many ways it is about style. There are as many flashy whip-turns and ironic soundtrack selections as there are peach blazers and white pantent leather loafers. If you want a film that is at once great entertainment and moving art, watch Casino, and let Scorsese transport you back to a rare moment in American history: "The last time tough guys like us we're ever given anything that 'effing' valuable."
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stupid criminals in paradise, March 17, 2004
I was born in Chicago, and my father went to Stienmetz high school with Tony Spilotro, the mobster portrayed in this film by Joe Pesci. I grew up listening to stories about "the Ant" (not flattering), and when he was finally whacked, my old man (a reporter for the Chicago Sun Times) wrote what amounted to his obitiuary. In it he recalled such charming Spilotro antics as the time he threw acid at a girl who had rebuffed his advances and the time he tried to split open my dad's head, and thus prevent my birth, with a T-square during shop class. To top it off, I recently discovered my Dad's old yearbook (1955 or so), in which he and the future boss of Las Vegas are standing in true 1950s glory (slicked hair, plaid shirts, everybody wearing horn-rimmed glasses) next to each other on picture day. So I guess you could say I had a personal interest in seeing how Marty Scorcese and his "Goodfellas" crew would tackle the subject of transplanted Chicago mobsters in the neon desert. My final verdict: they all did a hell of a job. Pesci, as "Nicky Salerno" (all the names have been changed to protect the guilty) is just as horrifying and vicious here as he was as "Tommy DiVito" in "Goodfellas"; Pugnacious, bloodthirsty, bad-tempered, arrogant, and paranoid, but also capable of humor, loyalty and a certain weird charm. Some would say he was just playing the same character again, and yeah, he is, but he's so damn good at it, who cares? Bobby D is superb (what else?) as "Ace Rothstien" -- the micro-managing, ego-maniacial Chicago handicapper and casino boss who trades in on his friendship with mobsters to become a big time player in Vegas, and promptly realizes he's let the snake in the manger. Nicky is what mobsters call a "Cowboy" -- a crazy, reckless hoodlum who thinks with his fists (or his gun, or the sharp end of a pen, or a telephone, or whatever's handy) and creates more wreckage than profit. He also attracts the attention of the Feds and the Nevada Gaming Commission, who soon make Ace's life miserable, and more importantly, begin to interfere with the Mob's ability to "skim" Casino profits back to Chicago. And if you know anything about the Outfit (as it is called there), you know N - O - B - O - D - Y is going to interfere with their profits and get away unscathed. "Casino" is one of those movies where you watch bad guys get their hands on something really big, and drive it straight into the ground. Things blow up, people get beaten and whacked, fortunes are made and squandered, and monster egos crash against each other like bumper cars. There are many similiarities to "Goodfellas" except the stakes are much higher, and like "Goodfellas" there is not a character you really can root for -- Ace is miserly, controlling, egocentric and arrogant, Nicky is a straight up homicidal maniac, and Stone's character is your typical scheming, treacherous hooker-hustler. A lot of people felt this movie was the same thing, with the same cast, done not quite as well, and indeed, "Casino" is not as good as "Fellas" but it is a very good movie all the same. If "Fellas" had never been made, this might be a top-5 Mob movie of all time. I recommend it to anyone with a gangland fetish, 80's nostalgia and strong stomach. And by the way, the actor Frank Vincent, who gets revenge on Pesci in this film (with a baseball bat) for twice getting the best of him in previous Scorsese movies ("Raging Bull" and "Goodfellas"), actually bears a stronger resemblance to the real Tony Spilotro than Joe Pesci does....wierd.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best film of the 1990s, and one of Scorsese's finest., February 19, 2000
As far as underrated films go, Casino is the one that has been overlooked most unfairly. Shallow critics were quick to jump on this film for being "too similar to Goodfellas", for its measured pace, for its perceived coldness. These guys are way off base. Obviously this film is similar to Goodfellas on only a couple of superficial levels: it's a crime film, it has DeNiro and Pesci, there's narration, etc. Fine, I'll give 'em that. But this film's tone and story arc are so completely different that you end up realizing that those critics are nitpicking, and unable to handle a director who makes a film that is a distinct variation on a theme dealt with in an earlier film. I doubt these same critics would jump all over John Ford for making western after western with John Wayne, Ward Bond, and others. These critics can't take the film by itself, so they resort to shallow critiques. As far as the film goes, it's absolutely brilliant. DeNiro hasn't had a better role than this since then, and at the time it was his best role in years. Joe Pesci, by my estimation, exceeds his performance in Goodfellas by presenting a more three-dimensional character here, one who is at once a brutal thug, family man, and conflicted friend. Sharon Stone isn't quite as good as those two, but she is still great, concealing her cold heart with a mask of charm in the first half of the film, and then falling into drug and alcohol addiction and showing her true nature. The supporting cast is right on the money - Frank Vincent as Pesci's loyal right-hand man (he also provides the film's most terrifying twist), Alan King, Don Rickles, Kevin Pollak, L.Q. Jones, and John Bloom are all wonderful in their roles. And what can one say about Martin Scorsese's direction? Phenomenal as always. His camera is constantly moving, not for the sake of moving (like some young turks like P.T. Anderson) but to show things, gives us information, to show the flow of money and how it and the mob control Vegas. I like this film a shade more than Goodfellas, if only for this film's total unwillingness to compromise itself, for its sheer ambition, for its scope, and for its terrible beauty. And it's interesting to note how in a recent poll by Film Comment magazine, Casino was one of the top vote-getters for film of the decade. I think this is a truly great film that will be properly appreciated once the short-term hyperbole of idiotic critics has lost its ability to influence.
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