Casino 1995 Reviews
The explosive beginning of Saul Bass's customarily brilliant opening credits sequence seems to bode well for Martin Scorsese's epic portrait of 1970s Las Vegas, Casino (1995). Weaving a tale about the town, as well as ill-fated mobsters 'Ace' Rothstein (based on actual Vegas-ite Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal) and Nicky Santoro, the first hour merges documentary-style detail (including copious narration) with Scorsese's signature technical flair to depict how the Mob skimmed millions from the casinos. As Rothstein's success unravels, Scorsese unstintingly reveals the viciousness of the old school Vegas powerbrokers (including more gruesome violence than any previous Scorsese work), yet the virtuoso final montage and unsettling coda suggest that the new Disney-fied Vegas robbed the city of its success-fantasy soul. Notwithstanding the bravura visuals and attention to 1970s period detail, and despite a career-best performance from Sharon Stone as Rothstein's hustler-drug addict wife, most reviews noted that the reunion of director Scorsese with writer Nicholas Pileggi and stars Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci paled in comparison to 1990's Goodfellas. The De Niro-Pesci opposition was too familiar, as was the overlong story of Rothstein's rise and fall. Stone scored the film's sole Oscar nomination and won the Golden Globe for Best Actress.
Nov 23, 2020 Casino (1995) movie Review and Film Summary The 1995 movie Casino, directed by Martin Scorsese, is extremely well received and praised by movie fans all over, even more than twenty years later. The story follows Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) who runs a mob-owned casino called Tangiers. 1995 reviews of Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa 'Red Rock Casino opened in early April and they are still doing a lot of construction - even adding in residential condos. It's not located on the strip but can easily rival the likes of the Wynn and Caesar's Palace as being one of the nicest and coolest hotels/resorts/casino types. Movie Review: Casino (1995) Inspired by true events and real-life characters, Casino celebrates Vegas before it was scrubbed clean and gentrified. Martin Scorsese delivers another intense, if not perfect, journey into the intriguing and violent world of Crime Inc.
Gets the seedy nature of Las Vegas, great cast
Movie Info
Movie Name:Casino
Studio: Syalis D.A.
Genre(s): Drama/Mystery/Suspense
Release Date(s): November 22, 1995
MPAA Rating: R
Things are going great! Nothing will ever go wrong!
In 1973, Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is sent to Las Vegas to run the Tangiers Casino for the mob, but unfortunately for Ace, his childhood friend and fellow mobster Nicholas “Nicky” Santoro (Joe Pesci) has also been sent to be the muscle for the casino. Together, Ace and Nicky turn the Tangiers into a success, and Ace becomes one of the big men of the Strip. Ace has everything he’d want including the hand of hustler Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) who joins him in living the good life. When Nicky is banned from all casinos, things begin to go bad as he becomes a major force in the mafia in Las Vegas…and Ace and Nicky are going to go head-to-head in deadly consequences.
Directed by Martin Scorsese, Casino is a historical crime thriller. The movie is based on the 1995 non-fiction Nicholas Pileggi book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas though the story’s names have been changed and some events have been fictionalized. The movie received mostly positive reviews and has since its release become a cult favorite. Sharon Stone received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her role in the film.
It sometimes takes a while for me to get worked up to see a gangster film…this time it took twenty years. The problem I often have with gangster films is that they throw a lot of names at you, they are full of unsavory (often irritating) people who are often self-righteous, and in Casino’s case, it takes a looong time to tell the story. This doesn’t mean the films are bad (because I often like them), but I always have to prepare myself for them. I should have seen Casino earlier, but it does have the standard Mafia pitfalls.
Often the Mafia style movies follow any “success” movie pattern (even if they are based on true events). The characters start relatively small, build a name, live the high life, and generally crash and burn. It happened here, Goodfellas (also written by Pileggi), and in movies like A Clockwork Orange and Boogie Nights. The changes involve how the story unfolds and the characters. Casino unfolds a bit unevenly, drags, and isn’t as good as its comparison film Goodfellas, but it is still enjoyable.
Well…Pesci doesn’t play nice.
The main reason Casino does work is the cast. De Niro is stellar in these type of roles, especially in this movie where he really has to suppress his rage (you can see it boiling in many scenes). Pesci is much like his hot tempered Goodfellas’ role, and love him or hate him, Pesci does crazy well. Sharon Stone is a surprise in the movie with her strongest role thus far in her career but I feel her on-again-off-again partner James Woods is wasted. I particularly enjoy Don Rickles in the movie in a straight role which is a huge difference from his normal performances (Dick Smothers also has an appearance as a Nevada senator).
Casino 1995 Reviews Complaints
Come on, Scorsese…even in 1995 you can do better than this!
Casino Film 1995
The movie also looks great. It gets both the glitz and glam of Las Vegas but also gets the seediness. I like the trips to the desert to show the vast wasteland surrounding the city and Scorsese always has some flare to his directing and shots. I will say however the exploding car at the beginning isn’t a good start since there is the obvious cut and dummy shot.
Casino is a good flick, but there are better movies that fill the same theme and do it in a much more concise and quicker manner. It just feels that parts of the movie could be cut and other areas which could have been explored more were not beefed up. I do recommend Casino but be sure to see some of De Niro and Scorsese’s other wares first.