Score: 9 out of 10 (Movie review by Todd Gilchrist) As such, it still maintains the same potency it did back in 1995, and remains one of the great portraits of cinematic excess. Scorsese fans occasionally dissociate this film from the ranks of the director's best because it came so quickly after Goodfellas, and sometimes feels as if it covers the same ground but the film's true focus- the implosion of a mob-controlled Las Vegas- works most effectively when it's juxtaposed with the personal peccadilloes of the three main characters, who if nothing else know expertly well how to screw up a good situation. The acting, meanwhile, ranks as some of the best displayed by all involved: De Niro is at his rigid best as Ace, who controls every aspect of the Tangiers business, down to how many berries go into each off the kitchen's muffins Pesci has never been more frightening or fragile as Nicky, a sociopath whose self-possession catastrophically outweighs his good judgment and Stone's Ginger is a manipulator and hustler who hypnotizes the audience as surely as she does Ace in one unforgettable moment.

Scorsese's camera, perhaps never more agile and ambitious than demonstrated here, pirouettes in and out of the action (including a POV shot through a cocaine straw) and creates an illusion of fluidity, even as the walls come crumbling down around the characters.

Unlike few movies made in the past two decades, Casino embodies 'epic' filmmaking with acquiescing to its soul-deadening conventions. Further complicating things is Ginger (a never-better Sharon Stone), a high-class Vegas call girl who mesmerizes Ace to increasingly destructive effect.

As Scorsese himself describes, the film is heavy on plot but light on story: Sam 'Ace' Rothstein relocates to Las Vegas to run the Tangiers casino, only to find trouble when one of his cohorts, Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), leaps into the fray and disrupts his tenuous hold over the quasi-legal proceedings.

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