Casino (1995)

Paradise rarely lasts, especially when it's built on greed, pride and money that was never really yours. Martin Scorsese's "Casino," written by Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi from Pileggi's nonfiction book "Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas," reunites the director with several members of his "GoodFellas" gang, including Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Frank Vincent, for a three-hour epic about how the Mafia seized, and ultimately lost, control of Las Vegas gambling. It opens with a car exploding in a parking lot, then rewinds to tell the story through the dueling narrations of its two main characters. De Niro plays Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a brilliant sports handicapper based on real-life figure Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who's sent by aging Midwest mob bosses to run the glittering Tangiers casino in the 1970s and quietly skim its profits. A meticulous perfectionist, Ace even insists that every muffin in the kitchen get the same number of blueberries. Pesci is his volatile childhood friend, a hot-tempered enforcer who moves to town with his crew of thieves and loan sharks, and whose violent excesses soon get him banned from every casino in the city and threaten everything. The first hour plays like a fascinating documentary, laying out the inner workings of a Vegas casino in dazzling detail. Sharon Stone is the standout, earning an Oscar nomination as Ginger, a glamorous, high-priced hustler who becomes Ace's wife but can't break free of her sleazy former boyfriend (James Woods). As Ginger spirals into drugs and alcohol and takes up with Ace's volatile friend, and the FBI closes in on the skimming operation, the empire collapses. Don Rickles co-stars as Ace's loyal casino manager, and the soundtrack is packed with classic rock, including the Rolling Stones. It's not as fast-paced or gripping as "Mean Streets" or "GoodFellas," but it's still absorbing, and after all, it's Scorsese.