Running Time: 178 minutes You can't watch Casino without drawing some pretty strong comparisons to Goodfellas. Aside from all the Martin Scorcese tricks you expect from his decade spanning epics (extensive voice-overs, long steadicam shots, Robert De Niro), the story of the rise and fall of gangster-led Vegas is narratively rather similar to that of Henry Hill's experience with the mob on the other side of the country. You're tricked into finding the clearly illegal lifestyle alluring before seeing everything crumble in a horrible explosion of violence and emotions, with the one semi-good guy just about getting away. Obviously, being a Scorcese film, Casino is a good movie. It's entertaining and enlightening, with Joe Pesci once again perfecting psychopathic gangster. But there's a distinct familiarity to it that makes its length much more noticeable; it's an extra half an hour longer than Goodfellas, yet doesn't really do anything to justify it. Heck, even The Godfather came in at 175 minutes. What could be cut? There's plenty of episodic vignettes that wouldn't be missed, but really just a more sprightly sense of pace would make Casino an immediately more arresting film.
