In Vegas, everybody’s gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I’m watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all. – Ace Rothstein
If we learned one thing from Goodfellas, it was that when you team up the likes of Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro, and Joe Pesci, something magical happens. 15 years have passed since it’s release in 1995 and that shovel scene at the end is still a cause to cringe. The cinematography, the acting, the premise; all felt very gritty. I mean this movie holds a Guiness World Record for most swear words feature length film. The “F-Bomb” is dropped 422 times, that’s an average number of 2.4 times per minute (thanks IMDB for that interesting statistic). Casino is more of a, ‘remember the good ole days’ cautionary tale of what mob life did to the Vegas strip. It’s a story of one man’s rise from complete obscurity to take a city by storm, only to lose touch with the ever changing moral foundation of a city with a lack there of.
Synopsis: Casino is the story of Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein (Robert DeNiro), a former bookie turned casino operator and his quest to make the Tangiers casino a success while satisfying his mob connections fiscal demands. This is of course made increasingly difficult by his money grubbing wife, Ginger (Sharon Stone), and ambitious boyhood friend turned Vegas mob leader, Nicki Santoro (Joe Pesci). As Vegas is ever changing, Sam is either forced to change with the times, or lose all he has worked so hard to build. Just remember, you don’t stay at the top forever.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: Nicholas Pileggi
Cast: Robert DeNiro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci
Total Box Office Gross: $116,112,375
Favorite scene: House of the Rising Sun montage. Without spoiling too much, near the end of the movie, the mob ties up a whole bunch of lose ends. Narrated by Nicki; if there was ever a moment to prove that crime did not pay, this was it. An excellent way to tie up loose ends, plus we get to see Robert DeNiro in a very snazzy orange suit. What a stud.
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Tags: casino, goodfellas, joe pesci, martin scorsese, robert deniro, sharon stone
