Review of Casino (1995) by Brian R — 05 Sep 2012

I prefered this then Goodfellas maybe it's because I saw Casino first then Goodfellas second. It is a brilliant well made film chronocling the mob's organized crime involvement in Las Vegas casinos during the 1970's. Scorsese explains with fine detail how the casino, the workers, the hustlers and the players all operate and it is shocking. The second half brings down the skim or the scam of how the major players were able to just bring it down to a crashing close like dominoes. Casino is Scorsese's rise and fall and he is a master at telling these stories.

Scorsese, like he did in Goodfellas, makes a highly stylized film. Pumping with a great oldies soundtrack, frenetic camera/tracking shot, stylized editing, iris shots, camera bulbs, freeze frames, and so on to add flavour to the expansive narrative. The performances are first rate. DeNiro, Peschi, Stone, Woods, Frank Vincent, Don Rickles, Kevin Pollak, Alan King, L.Q. Jones, Dick Smothers, and Scorsese's mother Catherine Scorsese is funny.