Product Description

Martin Scorsese, one of America's most influential filmmakers, returns to the world of mobsters, greed, and excess that he explored so compellingly in 1990's GOODFELLAS. Set in the 1970s and reveling in the minute details of how Las Vegas casinos operate, the film chronicles the rise and fall of casino manager Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro). As the king of his domain, Ace efficiently runs the business and regularly sends lots of cold cash to his bosses. Helping him keep the casino's employees and customers honest is his best friend, Nicky (Joe Pesci), a violent sociopath. Although Ace aims to run a relatively respectable casino, the volatile Nicky wants to take over the entire gambling mecca, and when Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), a seasoned Vegas hustler, enters the picture, Ace and Nicky's friendship is complicated even further. As drugs and alcohol become a bigger part of Ginger's life, all three are eventually brought down by their own greed and blind ambition. CASINO shares many similarities with GOODFELLAS, beginning with a script that was cowritten by Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi. Regulars De Niro and Pesci are first rate once again as the dissimilar companions, but it is Stone who steals the show with her grueling, intense performance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2199 in DVD
• Brand: Universal Studios
• Released on: 2006-01-17
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Dolby, Dubbed, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 178 minutes

Customer Reviews

New version of last year's Anniversary Edition that actually works...
This new "Special Edition" is a watered down version of last year's Anniversary Edition. Usually this is a bad thing. However, since Universal can't seem to figure out how to make a DVD-18 work properly, it's actually good they have seen fit to release this title as a single-sided, dual-layered DVD. Unfortunately, in doing so they have dropped most of the extras found on the Anniversary Edition. Still found on this release are the deleted scenes, the commentary and one of the featurettes.

Why they didn't decide to do 2 DVD-9's for this is beyond comprehension, but at least they've dropped the list price a few dollars.

My rating is for the overall the release, although in my opinion both the film and the transfer on this release get 5 stars. Colors are vivid and rich, and detail is very fine.

In closing, if you're not a "special features" junkie, definitely get this release, as it's much more likely to play properly. If you must have the Anniversary Edition, make sure you play the disc right away, because most likely, it will have problems.

You better believe this is one of Scorsese's best.
"Casino" is, without doubt one of the best films by Scorsese. The film runs for almost three hours and events take their time to unravel, and rightly so.

The performances: Robert De Niro is one of the finest actors to come out of Hollywood and that's a universal fact! In this movie, he delivers a performance that qualifies as one his best after 'Raging Bull'. He appears super-cool as the Casino operator and you cannot help but sympathize with him in some later parts of the movie when he is having a bad time because of various reasons. Trust him to play an all-in-one character: a mob-connected Casino guy, a friend and a loving father all at the same time! His powerful performance in this movie has to be seen to be believed. It is nothing short of mind-blowing!

Joe Pesci..what can one say about this guy! Delivering sharp dialogs and firing those F-words with a one-of-a-kind punch is something only he can do! He plays a wicked, wicked character who also cares for his boy-hood friend, Sam. Another brilliant performance after GoodFellas, he is the finest choice for his role.

Sharon Stone: Superb!! I never thought I would feel that about her performance, but indeed, she gets a hell of a chance to act here..and she does it exceedingly well! The drunk hustler who cannot find happiness is played to perfection by Sharon...I guess it is also kudos to the director for bringing out the actor in her.

Then there are some wonderful, but small supporting performances by James Woods as Lester Diamond, Frank Vincent as Frank Marino, Alan King as Andy Stone and Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects) as Phillip Green. Special mention here, of Pasquale Cajano, who is superb as the mob boss, Remo Gaggi.

The soundtrack is very much like that in GoodFellas. And much in the same manner, there is some playful rock'n'roll music playing in the background during any violent scene of crime!

The dialog is brilliant. Robert Richardson's cinematography is amazing. The wonderful screenplay for the film is co-written by Nicolas Pileggi who is also the author of the book.

As mentioned before, the film runs for about 3 hours but there is not a single moment when you'd want to take your eyes off the screen.

An under-rated classic, this one deserves a rightful place up there along with Scorsese's other acclaimed classics.

This Edition
This edition is not the 10th Anniversary Edition, this is the "Special Edition", the difference being that this is a) cheaper b) not a flipper c) misses out on a bunch of all the documentary little features that are on the other one. I was surprised, it never happened to me but after I read some reviews I wondered where all the extras are. Well turns out I bought this edition instead of the 10th Anniversary Edition... Well, they just dropped a few things and sell it for a few dollars less.

One of my all time favorite movies nonetheless, I'll just trade it in for the other edition at some point.