Casino

This is the middle film of Martin Scorsese’s Mob Trilogy, coming after Goodfellas and before The Departed. The first two feature Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, though in different settings, and the last has Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson. I guess you could say that The Irishman was the fourth leg of the trilogy, since it brings back De Niro and Pesci, and adds Al Pacino. Women don’t really feature very prominently in these movies, just as they don’t play much of a role in the Mob, except to dish out the pasta at home and raise the new generation of sociopaths. But Sharon Stone really shines in this one as De Niro’s coke-addled wife. It is based on a true story of how the Mob owned Las Vegas at a certain period of time (and may still, for all I know), and the shenanigans they got up to when the money poured in like an endless flood. But the characters themselves are all fictional. Pesci is scary once again as a man who has not an ounce of caution or regret in his body. De Niro is fairly restrained, as the voice of reason, worried that too many bloody murders are going to kill the Golden Slot Machine.