One ofMartin Scorsese’s classic crime thrillers is climbing the streaming charts.Casino, Scorsese’s acclaimed tale of love, death, and honor in Las Vegas, is currently at #8 on HBO Max’s movie streaming charts in the United States. The film is in some unusual company: New releasesMountainheadandImplosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster, two tales of billionaire hubris, top the charts, while fourHunger Gamesmovies are jostling for position as well.
Casino was well-received by critics and audiences in 1995; it grossed $116 million USD at the box office on a $40-50 million budget, and holds a 79% fresh rating onRotten Tomatoes. However, it is not held in the same regard as some Scorsese classics likeTaxi Driver,Raging Bull, andGoodfellas, with many critics citing its similarity to the latter. In fact,Casinowas based on the non-fiction book of the same name byNicholas Pileggi, who also wroteWiseguy, the source material forGoodfellas. Both are told via first-person narration, star two of the same actors (Robert De NiroandJoe Pesci), and chronicle the rise and fall of a criminal enterprise as it is undone by greed.
Sharon Stone’s performance as a Vegas con artist was singled out for praise, however:She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar and won a Golden Globe.Last year, she remarked that she had expected the role to be better for her career than it actually was: “I was shockedthat I didn’t get to continue to work well, because I did everything to be my very best.”
What Is ‘Casino’ About?
Casinocenters around Sam “Ace” Rothstein (De Niro), a professional gambler and oddsmaker with connections to the Mafia.He’s brought into Las Vegas in the 1960s to oversee the Mob’s operations in the Tangiers casino, ensuring that his bosses get their cut. Keeping an eye on him for the bosses is his friend, hot-headed Mob enforcer Nicky Santoro (Pesci). However, Ace runs into trouble with the gaming commission over his Mob ties, and gets into even more trouble when he falls for unstable grifter, Ginger (Stone), who’s still entangled with her longtime lover and pimp, Lester Diamond (a never-sleazierJames Woods). Before long, bodies start turning up in the desert, and everything starts closing in, signaling the end of the Mob’s golden age in Nevada.
Casinoalso starsDon Rickles,Alan King,Kevin Pollak, andFrank Vincent; the latter has his “revenge” on Pesci after being on the receiving end of a brutal beating by Pesci’s character inGoodfellas.Casinois based on actual events that occurred in Las Vegas in the 1970s and ’80s. All the characters in the film had their names changed for legal reasons: Ace Rothstein was based onFrank “Lefty” Rosenthal, Ginger on his wifeGeri McGee, and Nicky onTony “The Ant” Spilotro.
Casinois now streaming on HBO Max. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
