Casino

Martin Scorsese stays too long at the table, but the first hour of this epic conclusion to his mob trilogy (that includes Mean Streets and Goodfellas) is riveting as it chronicles how the mob took hold in Las Vegas. Robert DeNiro, Scorsese's favorite leading man, and Joe Pesci, his favorite pit bull, find themselves at odds over chip-hustling call girl Ginger McKenna (Oscar-nominee Sharon Stone). Vegas veterans Alan King and Don Rickles play it straight, and James Woods was born to play a scumbag in a Scorsese movie. As expected, a visual tour-de-force and a jackpot of great performances, but sometimes sickeningly violent. Recommended. (K. Benson)[DVD Review--May 30, 2005--Universal, 179 min., R, $22.98--Making its second appearance on DVD, 1995's Casino: Anniversary Edition sports a nice-looking transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Available in either widescreen or full screen versions, DVD extras on this double-sided disc include commentary “moments” in which Martin Scorsese, Sharon Stone, Nicholas Pileggi share comments throughout the film, the 44-minute History Channel program “True Crime Authors: Casino with Nicholas Pileggi,” a cast and characters featurette (20 min.), a set design and wardrobe featurette (17 min.), an NBC News segment on “Vegas and the Mob” (14 min.), a featurette on editing called “After the Filming” (10 min.), a behind-the-scenes segment on writing (9 min.), four deleted scenes (3 min.), and production notes. Bottom line: the lack of a real commentary by Scorsese is disappointing, but this is otherwise a nice extras package for one of the director's best.][Blu-ray Review—Oct. 14, 2008—Universal, 179 min., R, $29.98—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1995's Casino sports a great transfer and a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. Blu-ray extras include selective commentary in which director Martin Scorsese, actress Sharon Stone, and author Nicholas Pileggi share comments throughout the film, History Channel program “True Crime Authors: Casino with Nicholas Pileggi” (44 min.), a cast and characters featurette (20 min.), a set design and wardrobe featurette (17 min.), an NBC News segment on “Vegas and the Mob” (14 min.), four deleted scenes (3 min.), and a picture-in-picture track incorporating much of the extras material from the previous anniversary edition on standard DVD. Bottom line: a fine BD release of one of Scorsese's best.]