Casino, 1995

Something's missing here. The film has a great pedigree, but it never gets off the ground. It's been said a lot, but I'll say it again: we've seen this all before. In Goodfellas, in The Godfather trilogy, even Scarface and Carlito's Way. What we have here is simply a change of venue and no surprises. I could perhaps have been more engaged if there had been a bit less (actually, a whole lot less) voice-over narration. The narration gives the film's first half a feeling that it's constantly JUST STARTING (well past the first hour) whereas the narration at the end of the film gives the last hour a feeling that it is CONSTANTLY ENDING. And Pesci is horrible at voice-over! He reads his lines so wooden it's almost child-like; he sounds nothing like his character in the narrations. I could go on with the negatives, but I don't have enough space. De Niro's performance is great, Pesci is OK (when he's on camera) and Stone is thrilling. What's wrong here is the story itself and a rare Scorsese misfire in his decision of how to tell the story. Watch this if you're a completist of any of the involved artists; otherwise, not a lot of reason to queue it.

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