• Intense
• Nostalgic

‘Casino’

Casino is a three-hour journey deep inside the underbelly of Vegas with two of cinema’s greatest on-screen criminals– Ace Rothstein (Robert De Niro) and Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci)– as our guides. With its glitz and glamour (check out De Niro’s threads) undercut by its unrelenting portrayal of violence and corruption, Martin Scorsese’s crime epic marks his second successful collaboration with Goodfellas scribe Nicholas Pileggi. Everything about this movie is flawless, from its expert pacing to its jaw-dropping production design, but what stands out most is Scorsese’s use of music to comment on and enhance key scenes. Look no further that the terse dinner shared by Ace and Ginger (an Oscar nominated Sharon Stone) as their marriage falls apart. Playing in the background? The soundtrack of B.B. King’s “The Thrill is Gone.”