Starring: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone
Overall Rating: 97.1
"Casino" stands out as a quintessential Martin Scorsese gangster movie. It epitomizes everything that is great about Scorsese: crisp writing, over-the-top personalities, and an Italian charm mixed in with ultra-violence.
The story follows gangsters Sam "Ace" Rothstein (De Niro) and Nicky Santoro (Pesci) as they move to Vegas to try to take over the town. Rothstein using his skills as a bookie and oddsmaker gravitates towards legitimately taking over the Tangiers casino, while Santoro prefers the old-style beat-downs and thuggish takeovers to assert power.
After meeting and falling for the Vegas strip hustler Ginger (Stone), Rothstein and Santoro begin growing apart. As the decades switch from the 70's to the 80's, even more complications ruin what was once a powerful crime empire.
The beauty of "Casino" is the narrative storytelling. The audience is shown a storyline, but given two different narratives through the voice-overs of De Niro and Pesci, each telling their own sides to the story. Scorsese manages to take Nicolas Pileggi's (Goodfellas) great screenplay and turn it into a moving novel, never focusing on one character too long without giving a taste of another.
Across the board, Scorse always manages to get the most out of his actors. While Sharon Stone got the most awards buzz, including an Oscar nomination, it's Pesci's fireball Santoro that steals the show. His brutal tactics make you fear him, but ultimately respect him. De Niro may not give his best performance when you look at his entire resume, but considering "Casino" came out the same year he was wrapping up "Heat", he still managed to have one hell of a year.
While Casino may seem like a sequel to "Goodfellas" with many of the similar actors and overall tone, each film manages to highlight it's protagonists in different lights. While Goodfellas focused on the 50's and 60's "good ol' days" of the Italian mafia and the family of it all, "Casino" helps transition the decades of decadence in the 70's and 80's, the greed that went behind each, and every man's fight for their own survival.
Individual Ratings
Enjoyment Factor: 10
Dialogue: 10
Acting: 9
Direction: 9
Audio/Visual: 9
No comments:
Post a Comment