 
Prime Cut I hadn’t seen Casino since it’s original release in 1995,
so it was a blast watching this newly remastered anniversary edition
and seeing Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci slip into their wiseguy suits
once again under the direction of Martin Scorsese. As with Goodfellas,
Nicholas Pileggi authored the story of Sam Rothstein (De Niro), an ace
gambler who made so much money for the Midwest mob, he was sent to Las
Vegas to run one of the city’s largest casinos. All was going
well until his old buddy (and loose cannon) Nicky Santoro (Pesci) arrived
in town and began dropping Also brutal, but in a less explicit way, is 1972’s Prime Cut, starring Lee Marvin as a mob enforcer sent to collect an old debt from Gene Hackman, who has no intention of paying up. Marvin travels from Chicago to Kansas City to find his target – a wealthy rancher who not only operates one of the country’s largest meat packing plants, but also deals in drugs and women, who are sold like cattle to the highest bidder at private auctions. One of the girls is Sissy Spacek (making her screen debut here), who spends most of her time naked, or in outfits that leave nothing to the imagination. The rest of Prime Cut is all about murder and revenge, with the occasional weiner tossed in for comic relief. It’s almost refreshing to watch a movie with no hidden agendas, no buried secrets – just two great actors trying to kill each other, plain and simple.- David Bassin
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Casino
bodies
like he just joined the cast of Deadwood. To further complicate matters,
Rothstein fell in love with a beautiful hustler (played by Sharon Stone)
who viewed marriage as a stepping stone to a secure future. Three hours
later, there are countless bodies buried in holes across the Nevada
desert, the mobsters are dead or in jail and Vegas becomes the new Disneyland
for vacationing families. De Niro shines as the gambler trying to hold
onto a good thing as his life crumbles around him and the sight of him
in garish, pastel-colored suits is a hoot. Sharon Stone stumbles around
in an alcohol & cocaine-induced stupor and Pesci is perfectly brutal
and foul-mouthed. Although initially not as well-received as Goodfellas,
Casino has aged well and stands up with some of Scorsese’s best
work. Bonus features take you behind the scenes at the casinos and the
lives of the real people depicted in the film.