| | | HD-DVD, The Look & Sound of Perfect.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Dolby, Digital Audio, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, Spanish, French
Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci star in director Martin Scorsese's riveting look at how blind ambition, white-hot passion and 24-karat greed toppled an empire. Las Vegas, 1973, is the setting for this fact-based story about the Mob's multimillion-dollar casino operation, where fortunes and lives were made and lost with a roll of the dice.BONUS MATERIALS :Casino: The StoryCasino: The Cast and CharactersCasino: The LookCasino: After the FilmingDeleted ScenesMoments With Martin Scorsese, Sharon Stone, Nicholas Pileggi and MoreSystem Requirements:Run Time: 179 minsFormat: HD DVD
"...if you love impassioned cinema, it's the only way to go." Mike Clark, USA Today
"Eye-popping, exhilarating and occasionally a bit stomach-churning." Sean Means, Film.com
"...a stylistic boldness and verisimilitude that is virtually matchless." Variety
Editor's Note
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.
Plot Summary
Novelist Nicholas Pileggi again teams with Martin Scorsese for this epic drama about life in a casino. Robert De Niro plays Sam "Ace" Rothstein, the Jewish front man for one of the mob's premier Vegas casinos in the 1970s. Joined by strongman Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), the casino runs smoothly until an icy blonde (Sharon Stone) jinxes their winning streak. Based on real-life underworld figures Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal and Tony "the Ant" Spilotro, CASINO is another electric crime portrait by the accomplished Scorsese.
| Features | Audio: English, Spanish, French Dolby Digital Plus | | Dubbed: Spanish, French | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | This Is An HD-DVD Made For HD-DVD Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture And Sound |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Universal |
| Release Date: 12/19/2006 |
| Running Time: 179 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1995 | | Catalog ID: 61031063 | | UPC: 00025193106322 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Winner (1996) | | | Golden Globe, Sharon Stone, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama | |
Nominee (1996) | | | Golden Globe, Martin Scorsese, Best Director - Motion Picture | | | MTV Award, Sharon Stone, Best Female Performance | | | MTV Award, Joe Pesci, Best Villain | | | Oscar, Sharon Stone, Best Actress in a Leading Role |
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| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
"...Unmistakably the work of a virtuoso - bold, brutally funny and ferociously alive..." 12/14/1995 p.89-92Sight and Sound
"...It serves its theme brilliantly....It constantly dazzles with visual, auditory and thematic stimuli..." 03/01/1996 p.39-40 USA Today
"...If you love impassioned cinema, it's the only way to go..." -- 3 1/2 out of 4 stars 11/22/1995 p.1D Variety
"...An extraordinary piece of filmmaking....Sharon Stone is simply a revelation here....Technically, CASINO is virtually beyond compare..." 11/20/1995 Los Angeles Times
"...Martin Scorsese is a master filmmaker, so skilled in the manipulation of imagery he might be the most proficient of active American directors..." 11/22/1995 p.F1 Chicago Sun-Times
"...Fascinating....Scorsese tells his story with the energy and pacing he's famous for, and with a wealth of little details that feel just right..." 11/22/1995 p.41 Premiere
"...Scorsese's most complex film, a picture in which every scene is layered with context that reaches far beyond its immediate context..." 06/01/2003 p.101 Uncut
"Scorsese here delivers an epic parable about the fall from grace of people who have it all and squander it through their own recklessness..." 09/01/2005 p.144 Uncut
Ranked #6 in Uncut's Best DVDs Of 2005 -- "A delirious, visually ravishing, fiendishly intricate epic, it's almost Biblical in places." 01/01/2006 p.84-85 ReelViews 9 of 10
After viewing Casino, you may never look at Las Vegas in quite the same way. While this film, adapted from Nicholas Pileggi's nonfiction book, Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas, doesn't offer much in the way of startling revelations, it presents a fascinating insider's perspective of what goes on behind-the-scenes in the country's gambling mecca. As is stated several times, Vegas isn't about fun, glitz, or glamour. Those things are just the surface gloss. Instead, it's all about greed and money -- bringing customers in, keeping them playing, and sucking them dry...In every way -- from the fantastic sets, rich dialogue, and unapologetic violence to the well-portrayed characters and themes of loyalty and betrayal -- Casino is pure Scorsese. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
Martin Scorsese's fascinating new film "Casino" knows a lot about the Mafia's relationship with Las Vegas. It's based on a book by Nicholas Pileggi, who had full access to a man who once ran four casinos for the mob, and whose true story inspires the movie's plot...Unlike his other Mafia movies ("Mean Streets" and "GoodFellas"), Scorsese's "Casino" is as concerned with history as with plot and character...In a place that breaks the rules, maybe you can break some, too. For those with the gambler mentality, it's actually less reassuring to know that giant corporations, financed by bonds and run by accountants, operate the Vegas machine. They know all the odds, and the house always wins. With Ace in charge, who knows what might happen? - Roger Ebert
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