CASINO (1995) C widescreen 182m dir: Martin Scorsese

w/Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods, Don Rickles, Alan King, Kevin Pollack, L.Q. Jones, Dick Smothers, Frank Vincent

From Variety's contemporary review of the film: "In fascinating detail and with dazzling finesse, Casino lays out how the mob controlled and ultimately lost Las Vegas. Martin Scorsese's intimate epic about money, sex and brute force is a grandly conceived study of what happens to goodfellas from the mean streets when they outstrip their wildest dreams and achieve the pinnacle of wealth and power.

"The film, based on Nicholas Pileggi's contemporaneous book, concentrates on three central figures: Sam 'Ace' Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a top gambler installed by the Kansas City mob to run their casino, which he does brilliantly; Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), Ace's longtime best friend and impulsively violent enforcer who introduces street thuggery to the Vegas scene; and Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), a veteran hustler who marries Ace for his money, falls into Nicky's arms when she becomes unhappy and ends up helping to drag them down and the empire around them.

"Pic expands on Scorsese's Goodfellas technique of introducing his characters, their milieu and m.o. through a lot of fast-paced narration laid over descriptive, elaborate docu-style evocation of vivid specifics.

"As the boom begins to lower on all the characters, there is still an hour to go, and Scorsese moves from the rapid-fire, heavily narrated, music-drenched coverage of the earlier episodes to more protracted, dialogue-dominated dramatic scenes in which Ace, Ginger and Nicky, separately and together, play out their endgames.

"Lensed entirely at the Riviera Hotel casino and on other real locations, the film possesses a stylistic boldness and verisimilitude that is virtually matchless.

"Stone is simply a revelation here. She lets loose with a corker of a performance as the beautiful, unstable, ultimately pathetic moll with no inner life."

CASINO was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress (Stone).