"Casino," an obvious attempt by Martin Scorsese to come up with an epic in the "Godfather" mold about the corruption that created Las Vegas, would seem to place the filmmaker squarely in his element. But instead, this bloated three-hour misfire this is a major fumble.
Despite some stunning visual tricks and an opening hour that takes a fascinating back-door tour of how Vegas works, "Casino" is seriously hampered by a ridiculous number of off-the-wall miscalculations, including a sloppy narrative technique, an unremittingly dark view of human nature without any comic relief (despite a number of comedians in the cast) and characters who are so unsympathetic you'll regret spending two hours with them, much less three.The real surprise, however, is how dull it all is. This may be the most boring movie Scorsese has ever made.
Reuniting the "GoodFellas" team (director Scorsese, co-writer Nicholas Pileggi, stars Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci), "Casino" tells the story of Midwest bookie and gambling whiz Sam "Ace" Rothstein (De Niro), who is sent to Vegas by Kansas City mobsters to open a new casino. A short time later, he is joined by his boyhood pal, the volatile, reckless Nicky Santoro (Pesci, virtually reprising - or parodying - his Oscar-winning "GoodFellas" character).
Ace sees to the day-to-day casino business and Nicky takes care of the dirty work. To illustrate the latter, when someone verbally insults Ace, Nicky retaliates by repeatedly stabbing the guy in the neck with a ballpoint pen, a gory, shocking but surprisingly sterile moment. (Later, Nicky tortures someone by laying him out on a workbench and squishing his head in a vice.)
As the film progresses, Ace lets his power go to his head and makes some decisions that disturb his bosses back home. But Ace's judgment really goes haywire when he begins romancing Ginger (Sharon Stone), a high-rolling hustler/
hooker who eventually becomes his wife. Ace isn't just in love with Ginger, he's obsessed with her, and it doesn't help that she becomes an alcoholic cokehead and is emotionally attached to a former pimp-boyfriend (scene-stealer James Woods, who barely registers here).
And, as if you couldn't guess, it isn't long before Ginger and Nicky get together, and things really spin out of control.
Unfortunately, the movie spins out of control much earlier.
One major misstep is having Ace and Nicky provide a competing voiceover narration - and not just to set things up, but throughout most of the movie! There are dialogue sequences, of course, but this bulky narrative device dominates so much of the exposition that it quickly becomes cumbersome, redundant and irritating. (It also provides some unintentional humor.)
Some moments, especially an early, lengthy point-of-view, single-shot trek through the casino (which may remind you of a similar scene at the beginning of "GoodFellas"), stunningly demonstrate Scorsese's understanding of cinematic language. But the soap opera shenanigans that make up the bulk of the picture are a mess, and they could have been wrapped up in half the time.
Even the performances are surprisingly ineffective, with De Niro too low-key, Pesci too hyper and Stone too whiney and obnoxious - and none of them click emotionally. The supporting cast includes character turns by comedians Don Rickles, Alan King, Dick Smothers, Kevin Pollak and Joe Bob Briggs, but they don't have much to do.
"Casino" is rated R for considerable violence and gore (including a hard-to-take scene toward the end where two characters are beaten at length with baseball bats), wall-to-wall profanity, vulgar language, graphic sex, brief nudity and drug abuse.