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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: MCA/Universal Pictures
Salesrank: 23269
Released: June 14, 2005 |
| Our Price: $8.98 |
| Used Price: $2.24 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
GREED, DECEPTION, MONEY, POWER, AND MURDER OCCUR BETWEEN TWOMOBSTER BEST FRIENDS AND A TROPHY WIFE OVER A GAMBLING EMPIRE.
Description of Casino (Full Screen 10th Anniversary Edition):
Director Martin Scorsese reunites with members of his GoodFellas gang (writer Nicholas Pileggi; actors Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Frank Vincent) for a three-hour epic about the rise and fall of mobster Sam "Ace" Rothstein (De Niro), a character based on real-life gangster Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal. (It's modeled after on Wiseguy and GoodFellas and Pileggi's true crime book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas.) Through Rothstein, the picture tells the story of how the Mafia seized, and finally lost control of, Las Vegas gambling. The first hour plays like a fascinating documentary, intricately detailing the inner workings of Vegas casinos. Sharon Stone is the stand out among the actors; she nabbed an Oscar nomination for her role as the voracious Ginger, the glitzy call girl who becomes Rothstein's wife. The film is not as fast paced or gripping as Scorsese's earlier gangster pictures (Mean Streets and GoodFellas), but it's still absorbing. And, hey--it's Scorsese! --Jim Emerson
Casino (Full Screen 10th Anniversary Edition) Reviews:
Casino is A Sure Bet 
2009-10-27 - Casino is just as good as "Goodfellas", Scorsese's other wiseguy film that often overshadows Casino. By just as good, I mean brilliant, perfect, and mesmerizing. The movie is fast-paced, has a great soundtrack, with music pulsing throughout the film, has the best voice-over I've heard (it's integral to the story), the acting is perfect, and well, it's just one of those movies that does exactly what it tried to do.
Highly recommended as well is listening to commentary by Scorsese and some of the actors. Scorsese's thoughts on the film are wonderfully enriching to the film viewing experience itself. We find out that Scorsese is interested in the "conflict between the sacred and the profane" (no surprise there if you've seen other Scorsese films), so he shows this right away at the beginning of the film, by showing Lefty's blown-up body descending into a fiery hell, while the music playing is Bach's "The Passion of Christ". Sacred and profane, all within the first minute. Also, Scorsese says that he wanted the film to explore "the spiritual growth" of the gangsters who are "living in a sinner's paradise". Wow. Not many directors can give you that in a film. Actress Sharon Stone talks of "the psychological density" of the characters, and actor Frank Vincent reminds us that the gangster "does not feel your pain".
Wonderfully entertaining. The only caution I would give is that if you are offended by harsh language and violence, stay clear from this film. Otherwise, even though the film is close to three hours long, it's so engrossing, it seems to be a thrill ride that's over in too short a time.
review of Casino
2009-10-23 - We love this combination of Robert Deniro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone. They take a real life story and make it come alive. Very entertaining
Flawed masterpiece
2009-08-28 - The only problem I have with this movie is the performances of DeNiro and Pesci. They are just too similar to their work in Goodfellas. It seems almost like some kind of encore. Other than that, excellent movie in the vein of Goodfellas and Mean Streets. Not as good as those two msterpieces but on the same level. Highly recommended.
Ivan Rorick
Robert De Niro, an icon of the contemporary Hollywood crime film... 
2009-01-30 - Based on a true story, Martin Scorsese "Casino" is a motion picture about two characters and their chance to rule the desert paradise of Las Vegas... We are introduced in with all the lights, the noise, the flashing and the colors of the town that doesn't sleep day or night...
De Niro's character, Sam 'Ace' Rothstein, is based on Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who was a hell of a handicapper... He was so good that whenever he bets, he could change the odds for every bookmaker in the country... Genius at what he was doing with numbers, he proved to a lot of guys in the Chicago Mob that he was a tremendous earner that he could make a lot of money for them... As a result, he was able to accomplish whatever bookmaking, handicapping, he wanted to do, with the umbrella of protection from those guys... 'Ace' runs the casino with an iron fist refusing any outside people cheating at his tables...
But he had a fatal flaw... 'Ace' always felt that he could logically and intelligently deal with things, even to deal with emotions... So he decides on making a life with a woman who, he knows, does not necessarily love him... Anyway with such a sexy wife and money to burn, 'Ace' was the epitome of opulence, confidence and power...
Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) was fascinating... Great woman, truly beautiful, one of the best-known hustlers in town... For her, a guy like 'Ace' was the ultimate score... So the way to Ginger's heart was clearly money... 'Ace' knew that but he didn't care...What he wanted was to marry her...
Sharon Stone really stood up to the challenge in her role as a casino hustler who is so wild... She was young, fresh, confident, looking absolutely fantastic as the independent woman whom everybody desires...
Joe Pesci succeeds in his scary tough role as the strong man who has nerve, and isn't afraid of the cops... He was reportedly a mob hit man reputed to be a sadistic killer... (In one scene, his character is shown torturing someone by putting his head in a vise.)
To protect his friend and adviser, Nicky (Pesci) would beat to a pulp any street guys who messed with 'Ace' or didn't give him the proper respect... Over the course of their friendship Nicky delivered a number of these messages always making sure that 'Ace' didn't get his hands dirty... 'Ace' witnessed several beatings on his behalf... Nicky's mission was to show his worth to the family as an enforcer...
The clothes on De Niro looked very straight, more dangerous and very threatening... They were very important cues to his character, and again, to the progression of the story... 'Ace' was an extremely fastidious guy... And, of course, as you follow the story he starts out in more conservative colors and as things become more chaotic, the colors become more chaotic...
Casino - Even Better Second Time
2009-01-29 - Seeing it on DVD with subtitles was almost like seeing a new movie - one that I understood a lot better. Seeing it for the second time also helped. The first time (15 years ago at the theatre) I was too busy being shocked by the incredible violence of the film (i.e. Joe Pesci). I didn't understand why Pesci seemed more powerful than DeNiro. Second time I got it - Pesci's character is a 'made guy'. DeNiro's is not. Perhaps all those Sopranos episodes between now and the last time I saw this film tuned me into things I didn't pick up on the first time.
I liked it the first time I saw it though not understanding why DeNiro's character let Pesci's run the show had bothered me. The violence bothered me. The second time, I was (a bit more) prepared for the violence and had time to notice other things - like DeNiro's character and some of the mistakes he made along the way - he wouldn't give in on little things - money issues perhaps. These things cost him a lot more in the long run. Take for example not letting the hick relative of a powerful politician stay on the job. And not allowing his wife to get away with giving her ex-lover the $25,000 she seemed so bent on giving him. Even when she returns to him he cannot let sleeping dogs lie and instead has to find out exactly how she used the 25,000 until their relationship has once again disintegrated. While Pesci's character is wildly out of control and the most obvious cause of what brings them down, Rosenthal's own quiet stubbornesses have enormous consequence in what later goes down as well.
I found this movie relentlessly fascinating/horrifying and hardly noticed it was 3 hours. To say Casino is not as fast paced or gripping as Scorsese's earlier gangster pictures (Mean Streets and GoodFellas) is just a joke. Mean Streets is nowhere near as fast-paced (or gripping) as Casino and while Good Fellas is considered Scorceses mob masterpiece I'd venture to say Casino is roughly in the same ballpark in terms of greatness (and certainly fast-paced intensity).
In terms of DVD special features, the Anniversary edition (anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1) is double-sided with the movie on side A, and bonus features on side B including:
*Deleted scenes,
*"Casino: The Story" - how Scorcese collaborated with writer Pileggi,
*"Casino: The Cast and Characters" - a look at the real people behind the characters and how the filmmakers cast them,
*"Moments with Scorsese, Stone, Pileggi and more!",
*"Vegas and the Mob",
*"True Crime Authors: Casino with Nicholas Pileggi"
This is a fairly jam-packed single dvd for special features and well worth the 4 or so bucks it's going for on Amazon. I think I enjoyed it more on DVD than I did at the movies.
