First of all, I want to get this straight: Casino is Goodfellas 2: Return of the Tracking Shot. Seriously, if there ever was another Goodfellas, it was this, except in Las Vegas. Also, Scorsese pushes the limit even more here, with a tracking shot (this is a long shot which usually follows a certain character) popping up many times throughout the movie.

So, how is it? Well, Pesci, De Niro and Scorsese are back together, and this time, Pesci is just as bad, De Niro is just as slick and Scorsese is just as much a perfectionist as he ever was. Plus, there’s the addition of Sharon Stone here, who provides better acting in a supporting role than the Oscar nominated Lorraine Bracco.

What happens then? As you can guess from the title, it’s centred around a casino: Sam “Ace” Rothstein’s (Robert De Niro) casino. Based on a true story, the opening scenes show exactly how his casino worked, how they picked out cheats, how they dealt with cheats and how they dealt with the money. All this of course comes up later. Then, we are introduced to Sam’s friend from the old country, Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci). Once again, Pesci plays a physcopathic killer excellently. Nicky moves to Las Vegas in hope of success equal to his friend’s. He starts setting up cheats in Ace’s casino. One of them gets caught and Ace smashes his fingers with a hammer. Lovely. Anyway, things start getting a little more complicated when Ace marries Ginger (Sharon Stone).

However, at a lengthy 178 minutes Casino outstays it’s welcome leading to a story too long winded for it’s content. It’s also rather difficult to tell what exactly it’s based on, Nicholas Pileggi, true story or some other external source. In areas, Casino falls short and the repeated and repetitive use of the same type of music (and in particular Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones, here a live edition is used) could make one start feeling deprived of originality.

Not to fear though, Casino thrills 91.8% of the way through. Although it can’t hold the acclaimed title of a “Scorsese Classic”, as a standalone film and as a Goodfellas follow up, Casino will be seen best upon first viewing.

91.8%