Casino

It's rare to have a movie based on the book be as good as the book itself. Nicholas Pileggi who wrote Wiseguy which was later made into Goodfellas, collaborated on this book with Scorsese while filiming had begun.

The movie follows Sam Rothstein(Robert DeNiro) who is a bookie for the mob and his wild gangster friend Niky Santoro(Joe Pesci) as they're set to take control of a Casino and make money for the mob. Of course in the begining, Rothstein heavily notes how everyone screws it all up. And if the intorduction of Robert DeNiro being blown out of his car doesn't catch your attention then you obviously aren't drawn into this movie.

Of course the runtime isn't actually shy of the normal 90 minutes plus the movie is actually around the 3 hour mark 178 minutes to be exact. But ey if you can survive Titanic and even go watch a Lord of the Ring Trilogy you can certainly make time for this little gem.

Casino is defnitely one of those movies in which they explore the characters a lot, and develop them with the story. We see how Sam and Nicky are at first, and how things start to change later on towards the end of the film. Even Sharon Stones character Ginger in which we love at first, everyone loves her she's beautiful, she has character and she has a lot of fight as well. Only problem is she decends into a dark circle in which you ultimately hate her so much. First by doing drugs, then drinking and even going as far as cheating on her own husband and tieing her own kid up to her bed so she can't escape. In the end you feel bad but also a sense of satisfaction for what happens to her in the end. But for how much you hate her character, the one thing that upset me the most was how Sharon Stone lost to Susan Sarandon for Dead Man Walking at the Academy Awards, sure Sarandon is a great actress and Dead Man Walking was a good film, but nowhere near in my opinion the caliber Stone did for Casino.

But the other person to really watch in this movie, who is insane and psychopathic is Joe Pesci's Nicky Santoro. Pesci takes his character from Goodfellas(Tommy DeVito) and turns it up a notch by making this guy even more insane. Most of the memorable scenes include Pesci within them, especially the head in the vice scene. This scene even to this day is infamous, where Santoro takes an irish hit man who had just shot up one of the mob owned diners in Las vegas, takes his head and puts him in a vice to get an answer as to who ordered the hit, when the hitman responds "F***K You" Santoro immediatly gets mad and starts squashing his head while in the vice, he starts doing it so hard that the guys eye starts popping out of his head. There are so many scenes that make Pesci such a star in this movie, that you ultimately in the end are scared of him. I found Pesci's character of Santoro a lot better then his Goodfellas counter-part, Tommy DeVito. The dialogue he uses swearing every minute, and how he shows he was the real muscle in Las Vegas for that time period, and should be feared.

I have always liked Scorsese films, And he has never dissapointed with his mob flicks. The interaction of the characters like the scene with Rothstein and Santoro in the dessert talking about keeping there mouths shut to eachother and to stay away before a war happens, shows the depth and nature to how guys who were once good friends ultimately get shot down from all the corruption ensueing them. Or in other words You can be on top but not for long. Towards the nd of the film when everyone gets pinched and you see the Mob Bosses talking about who they should have whacked, while in the background the song "House of the Rising sun" by the Animals is played, is so dramatic yet so sad at the same time. Sure there are many other Gangster flicks out there which have had better story's, some even argue that Goodfellas is a better film or Casino is a better film. But for whatever you choose Scorsese doesn't dissapoint with this one.

Casino as much as it's violent, is still an amazing film, with great characters for which you love and hate together. None of them are perfect all are flawed, but when the conclusion comes you are in the end satisfied by both the movie and fates of all the characters.