Casino (1995)

	Directed by: Martin Scorsese	COUNTRY USA/France GENRE Drama/Crime NORWEGIAN TITLE Casino RUNNING TIME 178 minutes
	Produced by: Barbara De Fina
	Written by (based on the book by Nicholas Pileggi): Nicholas Pileggi Martin Scorsese

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Sam 'Ace' Rothstein	Robert De Niro
Ginger McKenna	Sharon Stone	½
Nicky Santoro	Joe Pesci	½
Lester Diamond	James Woods
Frank Marino	Frank Vincent
Phillip Green	Kevin Pollak
Remo Gaggi	Pasquale Cajano
Billy Sherbert	Don Rickles
Artie Piscano	Vinny Vella
Andy Stone	Alan King
Jennifer Santoro	Melissa Prophet

Review

The narrator has always been the audience's best friend – the companion who guides us through complex waters. In Martin Scorsese's overlong and excruciatingly over-narrated Casino, the roles are reversed; here the images accompany the narrator(s). Of course, Scorsese cannot seem to fall out of love with his once-winning formula of fielding a dangerous Robert De Niro opposite a more or less trusted pal (previously Harvey Keitel, these days Joe Pesci) in stories of enormous proportions – both thematically and cinematically. The problem is just that in Casino, the themes and characters are rather forgettable, the dialogue is contrived, and Scorsese's epic directorial style is worn out. There is nothing here to justify this kind of running time. Evidently, Scorsese needs some sort of artistic resistance for his future projects.