Just when you think you've had enough of Martin Scorcese's gangster movies, comes this captivating new thrill - Casino! Scorcese has Robert de Niro subtle, meticulous, and ruthless, Joe Pesci is every inch the tough-guy gangster who never backs down, but has a temper that is rather too immature and loose. Sam Rothstein (de Niro's character) is efficient and serves his bosses well - he's always sending the goodies back home! Sharon Stone's Ginger is a wreck, drug-induced, unstable, irrational, and apparently, very stupid. Now, how did she lure Rothstein's cool cat personality to fall for her? That's everyday life for you - the smart, cool ones do fall for those types - beautiful, with a personality and body to match, until the gold sheens off the statuette day by day. Pesci's fight scenes are brutal, but real. There is no pretence in these scenes - there is enough violence in the world to disguise such brutal depictions on celluloid. I enjoyed the desert scene, when Rothstein captures the essence in his narration as Pesci's character races through the desert - you didn't know what you could get from Pesci's character. Casino is just a magnificently handled subject, Scorcese has not gone over the top or over-done it, it's impeccably handled, the actors are just apt in their parts, and it is just fascinating to see how the gulf spreads between de Niro and Pesci's characters. Thumps up for Casino - if I may dare say it, it surpasses Goodfellas in its power and impact, and ultimately overpowers Scorcese's later movie, The Departed. Yes it does, I'm betting on it....with Sam Rothstein's back-from-the-dead character on the line!… Expand

It's hard too see why any director would put a scene in, where two brothers are beat nearly too death with bats, stripped and dumped in a hole in the ground and burried while still alive. Discusting scene.

Great movie.

Great score.

This movie demonstrated Scorses's brilliant skills and efforts of such a influential movie. It gave me a great understanding of life in Las Vegas in the 1970's, as a sense of such a violent society; over run by "greed", and the strive for power as individuals. By far, the best movie I have ever seen, because both the directing and acting is "fabulous"!

This film is wonderful. The acting is great, the plot is great and the directing is almost perfection. Great performances were given in by Joe Pesci, James Woods, Don Rickles and especially Robert DeNiro and Sharon Stone. The story is about a jewish casino owner Sam a.k.a. Ace (DeNiro) and his struggle with the gaming commision and Mafia business going on in his casino. The person who leads these casino crimes is a violent mental midget (Pesci) who is a made guy. When Sam marries a casino tramp Ginger (Stone) all hell breaks loose for him, especially when she tries to get in touch with her old scumbag boyfriend (Woods) and smuggle some money from Sam to him. When all this crap is going on Sam only can really trust one person, his next in command for the casino (Rickles). For mafia fans, this is a great movie. Rent it right now, but only after you've seen GoodFellas. (2/2/03)… Expand

A great movie, the plot was amazing. The dialogues unbelievable. The exchanges between Pesci and De Niro are classical.

This film isn't a classic like "Goodfellas." This is a typical Scorsese film, the rise and fall of a gangster. The film is too overlong by maybe and hour. The ending is way too violent and pointless. Some of the characters are way too familiar. The thing that saves this film is Scoroses's brilliant directing. His pacing is fine, the film is quite boring.

Preferable to Goodfellas. Excellent directing and cast..would've been a 10 if the storyline had a little more originality .

Absorbing, brilliant, well developed characters. However, some parts of it resulted in total deja vu, meaning that it was quite similar to many other films of the same genre. Maybe that's why it was left out of the Academy Awards race almost entirely. However, the three hours fly by, and the pic does not falter at all.

This movie is a lot better than "GoodFellas" -better directing, better storyline, more details.

Expansion of the world Scorsese explored in Goodfellas in terms of breadth and style, Casino shows a director at the height of his powers marshalling every tool of filmmaking to conjure up the bygone world of Las Vegas during the height of Mafia influence. It's both a celebration of money and power as well as a cautionary, spiritual tale of man's infinite capacity for greed and self-destruction. The main character is the classical Jewish figure in history, a man of brilliance and talent, a foreigner tolerated by gentiles, yet doomed ultimately to be exiled once again. Awesome hurricane of a movie with Scorsese playing the god of cinema. Sharon Stone has never been better.… Expand

It doesn't get better.

Another flawless masterpeice by Scorsese and how many does he have? Five? Six? I actually think it's better than Goodfellas. Goodfellas is another classic, but Casino always been my favorite of the two.

I love this one as much as Goodfellas. What else to say?

Martin Scorcese's Casino is definitely interesting and held me through the whole movie. The story is brilliant but not nearly as brilliant as the performances. Deniro does a fine job as always but Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci are just as good. The movie ends and you sit and stare because so many things had happened to so many people.

Probably the best mafia movie ever made.

One of the best movies I've ever seen, better than goodfellas and f-ing HILARIOUS.

The sheer greatness of this movie cannot be expressed in words. The acting and directing are impeccable, as with most Scorsese films. A perfect aftermath to "Goodfellas". Joe Pesci does it again, creating a character, both menacingly evil, and heartwarming. Robert De Niro does his usual method acting, falling into the role of "Ace", encompassing every aspect of the cold man. And Sharon Stone's performance will live on as one of the greatest performances to ever come from a woman on screen. To all of those critics who whine about it being "too long", the entire movie, every scene, is necessary, I cannot imagine what I would have thought about the movie without seeing the demise of Ginger and Nicky. I mean seriously, 3 hours for a spectacular movie. Quit whining.… Expand

Its merits are few and far between. Badly shot (it looks ugly) and scarce in compelling performances. De Niro is his usual self, but displaying far less depth than in any other Scorcese role he's played. To have to watch the trials and tribulations of these lowlife characters for a merciless three hours is a massive chore. Like in the highly overrated, but superior Goodfellas, these characters are as glib and one-dimensional as they are amoral and this time around, it not only appears as if he has recreated the very same formula, but has in the process of creating such an ambitious project has devoted far too little time to skillful writing or even a sense of plausibility. Thus while Goodfellas palpable sense of realism compensated for the lack of dimension in its story, Casino fails miserably in both departments. What it appears we're left with is 180 minutes of lowest common denominator sleaze and violence. With not a single compelling character or any trace of inventiveness or ingenuity, viewers are expected to appreciate it on that back of its abundant display of sadistic blood-drenched spectacle. Well not this one.… Expand

While this film is a little too similar to Goodfellas. This is an epic crime drama with great acting. Sharon Stone practically stole the show with Ginger.

One of the best mafia movies i ever saw.

Underrated upon it's initial release, this film is worth a second look. It;s not among Marty's best films, however, it's vastley more compelling than self important junk like Bringing out the Dead.

On of the best gangster films ever made. Great cast.

As educational as The Godfather, but more centered on its main characters. One of Scorsese's finest. Get it on tape or DVD - don't bother with the sanitized cable version. DeNiro & Stone are good, but Pesci is awesome as the soldier without a soul.

Just looking at the trailer might seem enough to dismiss Casino as a companion piece to Goodfellas. Sure the argument has a basis. Pesci pretty much repeats his short-tempered mobster from Goodfellas. Both films have similar eclectic rock backgrounds (including heavy usage of Rolling Stones songs). Plus the f-bomb is dropped pretty frequently. Yet Casino still has some positive points to help it stand on its own. From the great writing to the beautiful cinematography, Casino isn't a slapped-together and hastily-made effort. It is a great film with a great story that starts off on a documentary-esque note but slowly reveals itself as the gritty crime drama Scorsese fans fervently crave. The cast is great too. Pesci (who really is the only one who can play short-tempered gangsters like Nicky Santoro) and Stone (surprisingly) shine in their roles. But it is De Niro that deserves the cake as Ace Rothstein as he gives an exceptional performance showing emotion while smoothly restricting it with inner power. Of course, there are some scenes in Casino that feel overdone with language and/or violence to the point where the scene looks comedic. Plus there are scenes that kind of allude to Goodfellas (especially the Pesci beatdown scene) since actors from the former film are reused in Casino. And that kind of ruins some of the original magic that Casino holds, as it isn't a wholly new film. Nonetheless, the Scorsese-De Niro-Pesci trio rock well, regardless of the flaws.… Expand

LOL I really think DavidH nailed it. Usually this is where I'd lay into an overrated frat-boy standby, but I come to this page only to find that I've been preempted.

The progress of storyline is quite bad : too many disorganized switches of narrations and scenes; however, the movie is still good for Sharon Stone's performance.

This is a great movie, not the best in the gangster genre, but still great. Unlike a lot of gangster movies though, this doesn't focus on the mafia nearly as much as it could. As you may have guessed from the title it's about a Casino. This movie is entertaining, intelligent and good doses of violence too.

Almost an exact duplicate of Goodfellas only this time Joe Pesce has some weird, contrived accent. I feel like Scorsese could rattle off this kind of footage all day, and I would watch, but I've already had my fill.