Shoot the Glass

Casino (1995, Martin Scorsese)

Casino is another mafia movie from Martin Scorsese, and I thought it was inferior to Goodfellas in every possible way. Maybe I’ve just seen too many similar (and better) movies, but I was just not impressed with this at all.

We get to follow Ace (Robert De Niro) and Nicky (Joe Pesci), two childhood friends who both go to Vegas in search of money and power. Ace runs the Tangiers, while Nicky plunges into the depths of organised crime. Along the way, Ace falls for Ginger (Sharon Stone), who’s nothing but a money grubbing whore.

This movie was so tedious. First of all, ol’ Marty needs to learn that not every movie has to be “epic”. There’s absolutely no need for this movie to run over three hours long. Secondly, how many times can a person be expected to endure Sharon Stone’s shouting or Joe Pesci’s foulmouthed thug hacking someone to death? I’ll tell you: once.

And yes, it’s brutal. Maybe teenage boys find that exciting, but it’s only really tiresome. Pesci almost parodies his character from Goodfellas here, with the same foul-language-and-stabbing-people schtick. It’s an intense performance, but maybe Marty should have reeled him in a bit, because it quickly gets over the top. Robert De Niro is mostly solid, but takes himself far too seriously. And Sharon Stone… let’s not even go there. I found myself wishing that Nicky would just stab her through the throat with a pen. So no, there are no likeable characters here either, and I’ll be damned if I wanna see these jackasses treat eachother like shit in the name of greed.

I could go on, mentioning how the narration is superfluous, and the characters under-developed, and so on, and so forth — but what’s the point?

You know what I would like to see? A documentary on the history of the Vegas casinos and the real people behind it. If you know of such a movie, let me know in the comments.

Screw you, Martin Scorsese, for making me spend half of my Saturday on this laborious, self-indulgent, pointless exercise.

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