CASINO (1995)

CASINO (R) Heady and engrossing -- for a while. In Martin Scorsese's blood-and-glitz underworld epic, Robert De Niro plays Sam ''Ace'' Rothstein, a legendary gambler who arrives in Las Vegas in the early '70s to rule the roost at the Tangiers, a posh casino-hotel owned by the Mob. We see him master the tricks of the trade. We see him fall for the boozy, gold-digging hustler Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone) and get trapped in a lethal dance of wills with longtime pal Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci, doing high-pitched riffs on his GoodFellas persona). Through it all, though, Ace remains what he always was: a dourly ''civilized'' efficiency expert. Scorsese creates an almost surgical slice of backroom intrigue. At the same time, he bombards us with so much objective information about his characters that he never quite finds their souls. As Ace's marriage devolves from frigid to worse, the movie, for all its craftsmanly bravura, creates a no-exit trajectory that wears the viewer out. B-

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