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Through the complicated deals that seem to characterise the Mafia web, the local bosses turned to Ace when they wanted a new casino boss. Despite not being Italian he was trusted (as much as anyone is) and, more importantly, a man to whom gambling was everything. Under his close supervision, of everything from the dice to the local politicians, the Tangiers doubled its revenue. With their monthly cut the bosses were happy, with his new-found power Ace was happy and, of course, the punters were happy. Ace takes us on a guided tour of the casino and the people who give it life - the dealers, the floor-managers, the eye-in-the-sky and, last but not least, the hustlers. These come in all shapes, from lowly card-sharks to high-tech wireheads to high-class broads with curves in all of the right places; the best of these is Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), who catches Ace's gaze in a freeze-frame moment. It's love at first sight and Ace has enough determination and money to induce the same in Ginger.
What could possibly go wrong in this desert paradise? Nicky could. Deciding that the East is getting just a little to hot, and recognising the untouched riches of Vegas, Nicky decides to come and help Ace - just like in the old days. The problem is that Ace is now legitimate and that Vegas requires a certain amount of subtlety in its players (not a quality that Nicky has in any quantity). Their friendship is such that Ace tries to protect Nicky from his worst excesses but so great is his greed that even this is no help - Nicky just doesn't care about anything (death, jail, whatever) and, in his own mind, has nothing to lose. Further trouble rears its head with Ginger; a combination of Ace being blinded by his own devotion and Ginger's continuing relationship with her one-time pimp and lover Lester Diamond (James Woods). The question is, can Ace juggle all of these aspects or will the Mafia steam-roller get him as well?
Immediately recognisable as a Scorsese film, Casino contains all of the technical flourishes and trademarks for which he is famous plus a few more. Throughout the picture slow-motion, freeze-frame, highlighted-details and a curious form of motion-jumping are used with abandon, but never randomly. The cumulative affect of these pace changes is to heighten the impact of key scenes, giving us the moment as the character remembers it (rather than as how it actually happened). The atmosphere of Vegas has been captured with a riot of flashy suits, astounding behind-the-scenes violence and a notable (as always) soundtrack.
Unfortunately Casino will inevitably bear comparison with Goodfellas, especially when De Niro and Pesci are ideally placed for comparison between both movies. With this in mind, the acting is generally excellent (with Pesci reprising his earlier role with added violence!) even though the characters are uniformly repellent. No one in the entire story has any redemptive qualities whatsoever, which tends to distance us from them (even if this is true-to-life). A more pressing problem is that the story itself is weak and over-extended, stretching (as it does) a 2-hour story into a 3-hour epic. The orgy of violence that builds up towards the end simply seems to disguise the fact that we don't care about the characters and, hence, they're getting what they deserve. Still, any film which tortures a crook by putting his head in a vice has to have something going for it!
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