Casino

<<

Catching Up

>>

I'm gonna start this one off by putting my cards on the table (appropriately enough) and just confess that I found this to be one of those hard-to-follow movies that is, perhaps, a bit beyond me. This was also my first time watching it, so it's also a movie that I feel I'd get more out of with multiple viewings. However, at about 3 hours, it's one I need to be in the mood for.

I'll do my best here, but bear with me. It won't be my best quality review. Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is sent to Las Vegas by the Chicago Mafia to run the Tangiers Casino. While Sam unofficially runs everything behind the scenes (often quite brutally), there is still a front man serving as the casino and hotel manager named Philip Green (Kevin Pollak). Sam is incredibly successful, leaving nothing to chance with any cheaters, raking in cash, and sending some to Midwest Mafia bosses. Meanwhile, Sam's childhood friend, Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) is also sent by Chciago boss, Remo Gaggi (Pasquale Cajano) for Sam's and the casino's protection.

While Nicky does a fine job of keeping everyone in line, his own criminal activities end up catching up with him by drawing too much media attention, especially when he gets his brother, Dominick (Philip Suriano) and friend Frankie Marino (Frank Vincent) involved. This threatens getting Sam into hot water on its own, but Sam also has to contend with his drug-addled, alcoholic, former prostitute wife, Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) who still cares way too much about her former pimp, Lester (James Woods).

So a lot of it seems to have to do with Sam being sort of caught in the middle of things. While his wife is an off-the-wall, overall unlikable drama queen of a character, Nicky ends up taking a lot of his "talents" much too far. I'm a little ashamed to end things there, but that's essentially what I got from it. Having said that, however, this is the kind of movie you have to really focus on if you want to follow it, and I did have a few distractions along the way. But once again, I do feel like I'm quite honestly just a little below this movie as far as really getting it goes. It's the kind of movie where I wish things were simplified after a long explanation.

But is this something I would call a "bad" movie? Not even a little. I think I just need to view it a few more times to get more out of it. It's clear that it's cleverly written, and beyond that, I have to say I liked how "real" it got in a lot of parts. The whole ending quite honestly made me a bit uneasy, so kudos to Scorsese for his great direction. At the end of the day, it's simply not my favourite Scorsese flick, and I'm gonna end up in the 1%, I'm sure. I know this is a total classic, and I don't mean to take that away, but I have to admit that I'm not entirely sure this one was for me. It does, however, have genuine potential to grow on me over time.

3/5

---