So, explanation for our long stony silence: our DVD player died. That's right, folks. Our rampant ReViewing Habit killed the combo DVD/VHS player we got for a wedding present nearly eight years ago. After that, our other habit (proscratination) set in and we never made it Best Buy to replace it. Finally, we remembered the DVD burner we had down in the basement and promoted it up to the bigs. So, we're back. Until we drop the ball again.
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| Fan-made poster. Pretty cool. |
Martin Scorsese really hasn't made as many mob movies as people think. In fact, he's probably made as many music documentaries as crime films. But when his subject concerns La Cosa Nostra, the man is on all cylinders. Casino, our thirty-eighth film, belongs to this canon, but strains under the weight of its spiritual big brother, Goodfellas.
In Casino, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci reunite for a look at rise and fall of the mob in 70's and 80's Las Vegas. DeNiro's Sam "Ace" Rothstein is a man with a taste for pastel suits. The ulimate gambler, he's recruited by the Midwestern mob bosses to run the Tangiers in Vegas. Pesci's hotheaded (gee what a shock) Nicky Santoro is sent out west as well, to "keep an eye on things" - which mainly consists of burying problems in the desert. Sharon Stone's Ginger ropes Rothstein in despite her coke habit and obvious gold-digging, but can never let go of her true love, the dirtbag pimp Lester Diamond (James Woods, playing to type). Unfortunately fitting in with the coked-out mob wife archetype, she spends most of the movie ruining things and screaming hysterically.
In a bold move, the movie unfolds largely through voice over. This quasi-documentary approach investigates the ins-and-outs not just of the mob's operations but of these people trying to navigate a world in which they don't quite fit. There is a surplus of interesting detail here, which builds an indelible sense of time and place. All the same, it also makes the film a little cold and hard to connect to. Some scenes feel more like dramatic reenactments than things that are actually happening. Not helping matters is its somewhat padded running time.
That being said, the core performances are great across the board and handling a story this epic in scope is not easily done. It's three hours well spent.
But maybe not nine or twelve or fifteen hours well spent. Two viewings is probably enough. Very good movie, but not one we plan on re-viewing any time soon.
FINAL VERDICT: PITCH IT.
NEXT UP: CASINO ROYALE
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