Hello, moviegoers!
Today I am going to tell you about Casino, a slow, but entertaining, Mafia film.
Casino is a movie which follows the rise and fall of Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a Mafia bookie who gets tasked with running a Casino in Las Vegas controlled by the Mafia. It is directed by Martin
Scorsese and features Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci.
The first thing to note about this film is that it starts slow. About the first half of it is devoted to properly introducing the characters. Fortunately, the deal is done in a sort of lively
phashion so you don't get to get bored, but at some point you feel just like after eating a bag of cheap snacks. You have the notion that you have consumed something which tasted fine, but know
deep down they are empty callories.
The three main characters are Sam, Sam's love interest (Ginger) and Nicky, the bodyguard assigned by the mafia to cover for Sam. Sam is pretty much a strong gentleman, ellegant outside, but
hardened businessman inside. He is played by Robert de Niro, who plays him as a competent administrator who lets nobody pull his leg. Ginger is your regular Bimbo from Las Vegas, ready to suck
any gentleman dry of his money and do anything to survive and pay her vices. Nicky, played by Joe Pesci, is probably the most funny character: he is a brutal thug who wants to set a proper
local gang in Las Vegas and does not shy away from torturing or killing anybody who dares interfering with his business, Sam's business, or who just looks funny at him.
Casino starts moving when issues start piling up for Sam. For one, Nicky's activities attract the attention of the FBI toward's him and the Casino. For another, Sam marries Ginger, who is
obviously not interested in Sam but on the Mafia money he controls. The Mafia's business starts to falter because some of the men involved start stealing money from the operation. Nicky starts
getting involved with Sam's wife.
It is a race in which every issue is running fast to be the first one to blow Sam's operation up. The reason you keep watching this movie is precisely that you want to find out which part of
the operation is going to explode first and who is the one who will get killed when it does. Since the characters are so fleshed out, this movie is kind of effective at making you feel for them
when circumpstances implode and people starts dying. You don't know how evil you are until a gang of mobsters start beating somebody with baseball bats in the middle of nowhere and you are
jumping up and down on your armchair, laughting as teeth fly around.
This film takes its 3 hours to deliver. It is quite fine once it kicks into gear, but it takes its time. Still, if you have some time to kill, watching Casino is safer than a poker party with
mobsters and hookers, so maybe it is an option worth considering.
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