Gambling In The Movies - Casino (1995)

Over-run by gangsters at the time, Vegas had a Janus-like reputation: beautiful, glamorous and intoxicating on the one hand, while potentially cruel, heartless and mean on the other. Scorsese captures the mood perfectly and this is a gem of a film, sparkling with great performances, razor-sharp dialogue (including use of the f-word some 422 times), and some of the sharpest suits you'll ever see. Although its characters are no strangers to extreme violence, dubious morality, excessive drug-taking and unspeakable acts of betrayal, you don't half wish you were like them. Marvellous.

So What's The Plot In a Nutshell?

Two old pals from the neighbourhood - Sam 'Ace' Rothstein (Robert DeNiro) and Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) - wind up in Las Vegas. Sam has been sent by the mob to manage the Tangiers Casino - to make sure no one is stealing from the bosses. Sam lives, eats and breathes the odds - he knows every trick in the book. And soon he's making everyone happy by sending his bosses a ton of money back east.

Nicky, meanwhile, has tagged along to look after 'Ace'. In doing so he chances his (very violent) arm at making a name for himself in Vegas. He quickly establishes himself as the local muscle in town and begins to systematically rob, cheat and kill his way to becoming the local godfather. No one messes with Nicky but, if they do, they can expect a grisly end.

The spanner in the works comes when Sam falls in love and marries high-class hustler Ginger (Sharon Stone). All three - inextricably linked by love, lust and greed - are thrown into a vortex of gut-wrenching violence, betrayal and murder. This is an intelligent, raw and utterly absorbing semi-biographical yarn that is a benchmark for mob movies past and present.

So It's A Bit Like...

Goodfellas meets Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - but without the pop-video direction and clichéd pantomime stunts of the latter. It's as absorbing and utterly believable as Goodfellas - it is, after all, based on real people (some of whom make cameos in the film) and real events. The Tangiers never existed, of course, but the action is based on real-life events that took place in the Stardust casino. And the plot is as fast-moving and slippery as Lock Stock, with as many mob-movie staples (psycho killers, gratuitous drugs and catch-phrase dialogue) as any aficionado of the genre could wish for.

So Who Are The Stand-Out Stars?

This is an A-list cast for a gangster movie, if ever there was one. De Niro and Pesci would be first on the teamsheet for any would-be producer casting for a movie of this type. Both turn in exemplary performances here, with De Niro's portrayal of the painfully shy and cowardly 'Ace' a joy to watch.

Sharon Stone is startlingly convincing as the booze-soaked vamp, Ginger. (Thank goodness for us all Madonna, who was a possible for the role, didn't get it.) And James Woods puts in a corker as Ginger's drug-addled paramour. Woods, on hearing Scorsese was considering him for a part, left him a telephone message: "Any time, anywhere, any part, any fee."

Most Memorable Line

Ace Rothstein: "In Vegas, everybody's gotta watch everybody else. Since the players are looking to beat the casino, the dealers are watching the players. The box men are watching the dealers. The floor men are watching the box men. The pit bosses are watching the floor men. The shift bosses are watching the pit bosses. The casino manager is watching the shift bosses. I'm watching the casino manager. And the eye-in-the-sky is watching us all."

About The Director - Martin Scorsese

Having decided against entering the priesthood, Scorsese channeled his considerable talents into making a succession of memorable films, including Mean Streets, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver and the 1991 remake of Cape Fear.

He also taught at NYU from where two of his pupils - Oliver Stone and Spike Lee - went on to forge distinguished careers in the movies.