Casino (1995)

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If you go to biggrove.com and order some for yourself, or stop in at any location in Iowa, including Seoul and Iowa City, Des Moines, or Cedar Rapids, and Omaha, Nebraska, and soon to be Kansas City. Everything's fine when you're drinking from the vine that the hops come off of. Do hops come from a vine? I don't know. Doesn't matter. Drink responsibly. Sorry for the slurping noises. And thank you, Big Grove Brewery. This is your latest project. It's heavy with information, data, and exactly 36 pages of waffle. But with Acrobat Studio, you can create a PDF space, an AI-powered workspace that turns documents into summaries and insights, and even generates reports or presentations out of it. So you can cut through the waffle, work smarter, and save time. Do that with Acrobat. Learn more and try it out on adobe.com. Well, hello and welcome to the Confused Breakfast podcast. Do you remember the pure joy of a trip to the video rental store as a kid? Sure, it's hard to beat the ease and the convenience of the modern streaming era, but the experience of a Friday night trip to Blockbuster to make the big, and sometimes tough decision of what movie was coming home with you, was a truly magical experience. We're all part of the last generation that knows the joy of the search, the snap of the plastic clam show. We're here to revisit the movies that shaped us and defined our childhoods. My name is Mike Schulte, joining me as always, two dudes who know that there are three ways to do things around here. Sean Pryor and AJ Manz, how the heck are you? Yeah, there's the wrong way, there's the right way, and then there's the way I do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or there's just the Sean way, the Mike way, the AJ way. Yeah, there's three ways to do it, and then it could go like any one of those ways, and it'd probably be okay if any of those ways went. You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm stressed, guys. I'm sweating a lot, and I don't know if this movie's really gonna help me out on that front, but I'm still- I'm still excited. You could be a mark for the Kansas City mob. Yeah. Yeah. Bunch of posers out there. Yeah, I know, right? Kansas City. Kansas City, Travis Kelsey. Well, boys, today's episode is powered by our friends at Big Grove Brewery. We've got some delicious neighborhood beers in our hands, which is truly the perfect way to talk about classic movies with your bros. Cold, crisp, ladder from Big Grove, a movie that we can't wait to talk about. Cheers, fellas. Let's get into it. Today's movie is 1995's Casino. We're gonna do a scene-by-scene deep dive analysis of the entire movie, but first we gotta talk nostalgia, fun facts, and reviews to set the stage. So right off the bat, AJ, tell us the first memories of this movie and what your nostalgic rating is of this thing. I remember this movie and being absolutely shocked by some of the scenes. I truly think that there are some more shocking, there are moments that are more shocking than this than in Goodfellas. It was like burned into my brain probably around like 12 or 13 years old. So very shocking, very disturbing, didn't really like it a lot other than Robert De Niro looking really, really cool. Like a fly, baby. Yeah, looking real fly. So I would give this a nice little 6.2. 6.2 nostalgic for AJ. Sean, what about you, nostalgically? I saw this, I saw Goodfellas first and then wanted to get into this, but I could only like watch it on TV, which is the worst way to watch this movie. Everything is taken out. Also, it's three hours long, so I have Boy Meets World to watch at that time. But eventually, watch it all like on DVD or something and liked it, not loved it. I'm gonna give it a 7.3. Yeah, this was, I saw this before Goodfellas, and I still cannot figure out how this was ever on television because like I only saw it on TV and they take out all the parts. So this is just kind of a movie. When you take out the parts, it's just people talking and like bad things happening and then whatever the things over. Yeah, I mean, the like the cover of the swears or like the dub are really bad for this movie. But I, you know, I'll give it a 7 really because that was the first way I saw this movie. We do need to check in with our boy, Starling. Starling is the executive producer today. He said, I somehow never saw Casino when it mattered. My movies were never really my genre, though I was certainly aware of its existence, mostly because I was treated or it was treated like a cultural event that Sharon Stone had somehow wiggled herself into a Scorsese movie. My vague understanding was that it was about a surprise, a casino, and possibly the origins of Las Vegas being started by organized crime or organized crime, inventing Las Vegas. Hard to say. I also did not care for Robert De Niro for the first half of my life. I didn't really warm up to him until Meet the Fockers, which is probably invalidates this entire exercise. Historically, if I missed a serious drama when it first came out, I never felt compelled to go back and correct the error. So sure, put me down for a double zero on the roulette wheel, boys. Let's finally do this. So my friends, as a group, we're going to be a 6.9 of every movie we have done is going to tie this with, this ties with inner space at 128th on our list of movies we've done. Okay. Pretty much the same movie, if you think about it. I mean, really, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Sean, we got to go to you next, man. You're going to hit us up with the short and sweet details of the movie we need to know before we dissect it. What do you got? Produced by Robert De Fene, written by Nicholas Pelleggi and Martin Scorsese, based off his novel, which hadn't been written yet. Edited by Thelma Schoonmaker, special makeup effects by KMB, cinematography by the great Robert Richardson, works with Tarantino a lot in his latter career, directed by Martin Scorsese. He's a filmmaker. Cast Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Sarah and Stone, James Woods, Don Rickles, Alan King, Kevin Pollock, LQ Jones, Dick Smothers. That's nice. Frank Vincent Pasquale, Caggiano, Melissa Profitt, Frankie Avalon and Joe Bob Briggs. Cassino was the idea of author Nicholas Pelleggi when he read a report from the Las Vegas Sun about a domestic dispute between Frank Rosenthal and wife, Jerry McGee. And as he started to dig into the story, it went so deep he had to write a book about it. That idea being that Rosenthal was involved in one of the biggest skimming schemes in Las Vegas history, perpetrated by organized crime families from the Midwest. Pelleggi thought Martin Scorsese was a perfect person to adapt the novel and wanted to write the book before working on the screenplay. However, Scorsese had other ideas. He convinced Pelleggi to write the screenplay with Marty first and then wrote the book. So that's what they did. Came out simultaneously. I think the book came out like a week after the movie. A lot of liberties were taken with the script, including changing the name of the characters and changing the name of the casino where most of the plot takes place. For that reason, that's why you see adapted from a true story as opposed to based on a true story. The leading title card. And when characters refer to Kansas City or Chicago, it's called Back Home. The production had considered building their own casino for production purposes, but thought that would be too costly. So instead, the crew shot mostly at the Riviera casino and the front facade was shot at the landmark hotel entrance. The costuming budget was rumored to cost upwards of $1 million, but Cosme designer Rita Ryak said it was much lower than that. Filming in real working casinos meant two things. It's Vegas and since it never sleeps, neither does business. They couldn't close the casino for filming. Two, this meant the production had to shoot almost all at night. Very, very late nights. Casino was released on November 22, 1995 and on a budget of $50 million, the film made $116.1 million at the box office. Nominated for one Oscar only, which is a fucking shame and a crime. This was the year of Braveheart, so that took everything. That one Oscar was Sharon Stone for Best Actress. Well, thanks, Sean. Now we got to get AJ. He's got to tell us what the critics and the fans and the ratings were before we hit this scene by scene. What do you got, dude? Well, guys, everybody in podcasting is watching everybody, okay? Boxmen are watching the dealers, Mike's watching Sean, Sean's watching me, I'm watching Logan, Logan's watching Mike, it just goes around in a circle, and then all of a sudden, watching us all up in the sky, it's the time of year! It's disgusting, isn't it? 79% certified fresh. Tied with Wayne's World and Gladiator and Back to the Future 3 of all the movies we have done. Wayne's World and Gladiator are the same, say, per the critics. They are the same movie. Per the popcorn meter, this is a 93%. They certainly weren't agreeing. 8.2 on IMDb. Of all the movies we have done, that ties in the 22nd spot with Die Hard, Snatch, and The Sting, also making this the 146th highest rated movie according to DB. Roger Ebert said The Chicago Sun Times gave it 100 out of 100. One out of one, full out of full. Scorsese tells his story with the energy and pacing he is famous for, and with a wealth of little details that all just feel right. Peter Travers said, whether or not Casino meets your expectations, it delivers the rush you only get from an audacious gamble. Mike Clark, 88 out of 100. USA Today, he said, a two hour classic wrongfully stretching into three. Sounds good. Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago reader, simultaneously quite watchable but passionless. Also interesting, not completely off with that. Letterbox, right? Favorite place we'll get some of these new reviews. Sponsor us. Sponsor us. Check us out. Love to give you my top four every day. Five stars. Robert De Niro walking around, smoking in colorful suits. Sharon Stone being a queen, and Joe Pesci screaming and attacking people. This very telling of what I love about cinema. Absolutely. Four stars. Joe Pesci is a funny guy. Call back. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Joe. Funny how? Funny how? God damn it. I'm not close with my grandparents because Joe Pesci said an unrealistic expectation for old people. Scorsese's mom said it. Yeah, I would say so. Four stars. I want a pastel colored suit now. I don't mean this in any insult, but this just feels like every Scorsese film morphed into one, which is amazing. In some ways, it's the most Scorsese movie possible. I don't see much wrong with that. Okay. Yeah. Last thing, all things considered, these guys are kind of okay dads. Four and a half stars. I have a lot to talk about. I have a lot to talk about there too. So we'll get there eventually, guys. We do have a couple things from the little Lebowski ribbon achievers. We do that at the end now. Oh, that's right. We do that at the end now. I just wanted to let them know. You wanted to let them know that, hey, we're not leaving you out. We're doing it near the end. Well, because it's kind of important. They are our little Lebowski's and they are actually giving their final thoughts on this movie. Exactly. We want to do it when we give the final thoughts. It's very important. Well, dear podcast listeners, it's time. We've curated a scene by scene analysis of Casino. This is the end result of all the movie watching, the research, all the parking tickets we get at our studio, all the broads, all the big grove and Cedar Ridge, all the late nights away from our family. It's all been arranged just for us to get your money. So please check out our Patreon and our sponsors and here we go. This is why we started this is why we started our podcast. It's not why he started in the business. You know what I mean? He's like, I want to do this. Then you get the money. Scene one, Sam Ace Rothstein is a sports handicapper sent by Midwest mob bosses to run the Chantan Gears Casino in Las Vegas. He turns the casino into a massive, massive success while skimming millions off the top for the mafia. His efficiency makes him indispensable to the bosses to protect the operation. They send his volatile childhood friend, Nikki Centoro, to Las Vegas. While Ace builds an empire, Nikki begins to build a reputation for violence. I know you want to talk this intro, bro. I mean, they were originally wanting to start it with like an argument between what, who the real ace was and his wife. They wanted to start it like with that argument out in the front lawn and they're like, we can't let's do that later. We got to kind of start with a bang, literally. And I mean, yeah, this sets up like, this is the whole sort of point to the movie in my mind of it's our star Robert De Niro walking out of casino, a movie called Casino, into his car and it fucking blows up and then you get Saul Bass intro title sequence and it's just Scorsese, dude. Like that's, I don't know. I don't know how you, if the way to start a movie, you either do like a long sort of great scene with like Tarantino-esque dialogue like and glorious bastards or like this, you know, do you like when you find out that a movie, like you find out how it ends in the first scene and then we just have to get there? Sometimes I don't like, because we're finding out that he's blown up and maybe killed in the first second of the movie. Now we're going to rewind and go back to see how it happened. Like, do you enjoy that? Or does that take away from it? There are times. I enjoy it like with these movies. Like I've said it before, but like, I think it's kind of overdone now. But yeah. Yeah, I think there are times when it when it works out really well and you're right. I think it gets played out a little bit more. People have elaborated on the idea a little bit more. But something like this is so nice, quick, clean of an intro that and it kind of turns into to be completely honest, something mildly kind of funny of him like going across the screen in the introduction. I'm like, okay, is this supposed to be funny because it feels kind of funny. It also feels very Bondesque. And I'm like, what's going on here? But then the reason I think it works so well is because I kind of forget about it. You do. Yes. Almost right away. Well, it's a long movie. It's a long movie. But the moment he starts talking and they're and they start showing all the casinos, it's kind of like flashing something shiny in your face. You're like, oh yeah, now what's going on? What are we doing? No, it's like real Vegas. It's like you get there and you're like, wow, it's one big distraction. It is. Yeah. Lost $1,000 last night on one hand and you wake up the next morning, you're like, this is gonna be my day. Oh, God, here we go. The face sounds great. I completely forget about a nice chunk of money. Yeah. When we look one time, I think I've no, I've been to Vegas twice. Twice been Vegas. We went for my bachelor party, one of those times. And I remember us all walking through in a big group and a couple people kind of got lost along the way. And then we found them and they came back with these big massive drinks. And there was like, what the hell guys? And they were apparently they were really strong. The things cost like 70 bucks. It's like you just blew 70 bucks. It's one big fucking distraction, man. I actually, you find something new about your friends every day. Like I can't believe you were a Vegas bachelor party guy. Oh, really? Yeah. Cause like when I think of Vegas, I think about this meme that's like, it's the funniest thing to me. Dude, dude's be like, dude's be like Vegas ain't ready for us. Like Vegas ain't never seen four dudes in a Macy's button down, split a room at the golden nugget and wait three hours in the club line just to drink Bud Light, post a story and then lose $35 on a blackjack table on the way back to the room. It's so fucking true, dude. Now granted, like we stayed at Airbnb. Now granted, like it's almost like there's kind of like, it's like two groups of friends going all at the same time. We could talk about this later, obviously, but we definitely do some patron about our Vegas stories. But, um, but I'll tell you that look that meme is not far off most people. But no, like the intro is great. But it also has one thing that's glaring to me about this movie in particular from Martin Scorsese. And it feels like, like there are aspects of this movie that feel very much like a stage production. And the moment where you see the car blow and you know, you can clearly see like this, the change over, you know what I mean? It's one of those things that like, are they doing this on purpose? Because it almost feels like they're doing it on purpose. I think so. I really do. I really think he's the kind of filmmaker because like with also a film, a schoonmaker editing this and editing mostly all of his movies. Um, I think they're in on like, just like it's cinema and the kind of like, we're telling the kind of scrappy nature of it. There's a lot of like, you know, continuity and consistencies from cut to cut because this movie is just so busy, you know, but Vegas is so busy. Exactly. So well, this whole intro is fucking amazing because we don't get like a whole backstory or anything like that. We get the backstory through being set up and through our experience in the casino and like Robert De Niro and like the multiple voiceovers is really cool too. We only got the one in Goodfellas, I think. You know, I don't know. This whole thing is, this whole setup is absolutely fucking riveting and so impressive how it's just like, you don't need to know much, but we get just enough like where he's like, yeah, back home and De Niro was like a shark there and but Erdon for Ganji. Um, I don't know, man. It really works for me. I can, I can go on record here and say, you know, everybody talks about the Goodfellas Warner and the club made man. Sean said he was a made man on the podcast. Whoa, whoa, whoa. But like that this Warner into the vault room and then immediately followed by a Warner back home. Like I think these are almost better than the Goodfellas ones when they're walking in and you're getting all this quick paced action, but then we get these Warner shots and you're, it's so weird seeing rolls of quarters. Yeah. You know, like that does not test well nowadays because like you would never bring quarters to a casino and it took me a second to be like, why? You just get credits on a card now. Yes. Oh, duh. People actually came and actually physically put quarters in there and money was valued much differently. But dude, this is a, this is why I like this movie is the whole first 30 to 45 minutes. I agree with you. My favorite part of this movie. It's so much, it's so much fun. Like these are the moot. This is the way that they really get you engrossed into a three hour long movie. And it's by showing you, it's by getting that quick intro and that all happening, but then showing you why we're here. I mean, and it is, it's these bright lights. It's the suits. It's the characters. And then I love how they, like these talk back or like the overdub or whatever. The narration, I love how it cuts back to like the Midwest mob bosses. It's whoever they need. At the end, Tommy or Nikki's right hand man, when he was like getting interviewed, like they, he's never done a voiceover on this entire movie, but they needed one. So he got to do one. It's just, what do we need right now? Okay, we need a voiceover from him. Bam, put it in there. And you get that later on too. And it's like randomly Dominic is walking through the restaurant. Right? I think, I think, and he even, he might have one. I think it is. I think it's him or might, might have been DeNiro, but him and like, yeah, random guys get like a quick little narration. It's funny. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I think it's really telling to, I mean, obviously I think that this movie is telling sorts of different motifs of like reality of like the structure of a mob running a casino, they say, not really like we, Philip Green, who is a, that's our boy, Kevin Pollock, Kevin Pollock. He's the teamsters leader. And he's like, not, he's not really running it. He's just, we just put dumbasses in place of who's actually running it. So that's our country. There he goes. Okay. Okay. It totally is though. I mean, he, it's, it's pretty kind of on the nose, but he doesn't care. He either is to take a line from DeNiro. He's either too stupid to know that he doesn't actually run anything or he's completely in on it. Like either way, it doesn't matter. Yeah. 100% like this, the seamless nature of, of jumping from jumping around in time, especially in this intro, it's just so seamlessly done. And you're never lost. No, like you're never like trying to play catch up. And you could easily get lost with so much information. There's a lot. Yeah. And it's, it, yeah, like you said, you just, you're never lost in this. Yeah. Let's take, let's take one second to talk about Joe Pesci. It's way day at Wayfair. From April 25th through the 27th, you can score the best deals for in and around your home guys, like up to 80% off with free shipping on everything. Wayfair makes it super easy guys to find exactly what fits your style and your needs from furniture and decor to home improvement and outdoor essentials. And it's all on sale during way day. 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Capital at risk, marketing material, BlackRock Investment Management UK Limited, authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The first time I ever saw Joe Pesci on screen was Home Alone. Of course. And Home Alone 2. And I do remember my dad even saying something about like, oh, wow, Joe Pesci. And I was like, whatever. I don't know who that guy is. Yeah. This was the first time that I actually saw him other than a Home Alone movie. The first time I saw Casino. And it hurt a little bit. It was kind of like, my God, who is this man that took Harry from Home Alone and went to the next level? It's how I'm viewing it. But I'll tell you what, man, him, I don't know if he's ever been better. Like, I think I do like him best in this role more than any other thing he's done. Him killing people to obscure Rolling Stones songs is literal perfection to me. And we'll talk a bunch about his quotes, but I think he's got the best dialogue in the movie. You motherfucker, you. You motherfucker, you. The 10 years. 10 years. The 10 years. This one in particular, when he says, there's a lot of holes in the desert and a lot of problems are buried in those holes. But you got to do it right. I mean, you got to have the hole already dug before you show up with the package in the trunk. Otherwise, you're talking about a half hour to 45 minutes worth of digging. And who knows who's going to come along in that time? Pretty soon, you got to dig a few more holes. You could be there all fucking night. Like, He's efficient. Holy shit. Because and it's, it's like, who cares? He's just like, I want to get the whole dug ahead of time so that I can move back on to my business. But I don't give a shit about killing people. It's just going to take more time. Yes. It's just ruthless in this subtle way of him describing that. I just fucking love it. The fact of like them being buddies too is really fun. Oh, God. In this way. Childhood kid friends. Because even got, got you. He's like, you make a lot of money for us. Yeah. But you watch out for that boy right there. And then he like walks in the bar and the guy with the pen, you know, is this your pen? And he just fucking stabs him however many times with the pen. Just goes out. And he's, DeNiro's voiceover is like, I was just trying to find out what the guy was talking about. Nicky just fucking hit him. Yeah. But he, the amount of time it took me to figure out what he was even saying to me, Nicky stabbed him with the pen. He's like, you beat Nicky with fists, you come back with a bat. You beat Nicky with a bat, he'll, you come back and come back with a knife. You come with a gun, you better kill him because he'll come back. Yeah. Sets the tone. We know everything we need to know about Nicky. This is kind of like where we kind of, it is my Joe Pesci almost, because this is probably his most, most ruthless, even more so than good fellas. I think so. Yeah. And, and, and he does it so well. And they talk about how him compared to Spilatra, the, the actual guy. Like there was a moment where they were walking through some of the casinos and some of the old employees, original employees who, who knew about these guys, the actual guys, saw him and freaked out because they thought he was back. They thought he was coming through the casino again. And they, some people literally like were terrified because they saw him and he looked so much like him and he carried himself. The name was the aunt, the real guy. Yeah. Anthony Spilatra, I believe is his name. But they, apparently aunt came from Piss Aunt. They called him a Piss Aunt, but you couldn't print that in the paper. So the paper just printed aunt. Oh man, like, Jesus. He's apparently a perfect casting for, I mean, like if you look at a picture of Spilatra, it's, and I did, and it's dead on. And like a lot of people's gripes about this is, it's just another good fellas. And this is actually why it's, we're in sequel month. This is my pick. We're getting to sequel month. We're getting to sequel month. This is a spiritual sequel to good fellas. That's why, I mean, I think so. It is 100%. But yeah, like with the real life kind of things here, Frank Colotto was his right hand man in real life. And that's played by Frank Vincent, who is, who plays Frank, or no, played by Frank Marino, plays Frank. I don't know. There's so many Franks. Frank. But he's in witness protection. So I think that's why they had to say adapted from a true story to protect some of the people who are literally in witness protection. Yeah. But most of this is actually true. We'll get to a lot of the events, but even the little details here and there are actually like very, very accurate along with good fellas. Damn. I really like Don Rickles in this too. I don't want to skip over him because he knows all about this life. Yeah. Don Rickles, like he kind of lived some of this life. He saw, he was, he's like, I mean, I took my character. I just combined a lot of guys I knew like in this life. What's great about Don Rickles is he's probably the quickest, most talkative person on this cast and he has probably the least amount of lines. And I love the fact that he's like, yeah, sounds good. That guy, have you ever listened to him in interviews and just rip people apart? Like whether it be Johnny Carson or Jimmy Fallon, man, he just goes in. He is a quick study. Apparently that, yeah, he just, anything time the cameras were not rolling, he was just, hear the Tarantino story. Dude, apparently Tarantino shows up on set one day for this movie. And dude, Rickles goes, oh, thank God, Quentin, you're here. Thank God we got a real film guy here, a real director who knows what he's talking about. This guy over here, he sucks. He doesn't know what he's pointing at Scorsese. You know, Tarantino is like, oh my God, it's Scorsese. Apparently everybody was dying laughing, but Tarantino was like, God damn it. Yeah. Fuck it. Shit. That's not what I wanted to have. That's fucking amazing. I really like to, in the Irishman comedian, Edward Norton, I think it's Edward. Comedian, Edward Norton. It is, I think it's his name. Fight clubs, Edward Norton. He's funny. Jimmy, Jim Norton, sorry, it's Jim Norton. Jim Norton. He plays Don Rickles in the Irishman of like he's performing in front of the gangsters in Vegas, I think, but just a whole funny through line of like Don Rickles probably being sort of like a consultant as well as being in the movie. That's true. Yeah, makes sense. Well, scene two, Nikki quickly draws unwanted attention from law enforcement. Meanwhile, Ace falls for Ginger McKenna, a hustler who's still emotionally tied to her conman ex, Lester Diamond. Despite her hesitation, Ace marries her and they have a daughter. Ginger continues secretly giving money to Lester, forcing Ace to have him brutally beaten. Tensions grow between Ace and Nikki as Nikki's behavior threatens the stability of the entire Vegas operation. I'll tell you, I'm going to go in on this. This is going to be a long standing thing we're going to have to talk about. Okay. I go so back and forth on Ginger and this whole movie because number one, like Ginger sucks. And we're going to talk about a lot of things that she sucks at, but also Ace is sitting here watching this girl who's straight up stealing money from someone in his casino that he sort of needs to protect this man who comes to his casino. And I'm pretty sure that taking someone else's chips and throwing them into the air on a casino floors, probably not allowed, especially with someone named Ace Rothstein running this place. I just don't think you're supposed to do that, but then here we are. Just, I love her, man. Yeah. Something about her, she just came across a certain woman and I just thought I fell in love right then and there. He's basically looking at a Facebook page of inmate photos going, I could fix her. I could fix her. Exactly. That's exactly what he's doing. That's what he says basically when he says, I want to marry you. She says to him, I'm a piece of shit. I don't feel that way about you. I don't want to marry you. And he coerces her. I'm like, people give her a lot of shit and she deserves it. Yes. But she knows who she is and told him, don't do this. She gave him the warning. Ace is fucking conversation to her about, well, you know, being in love is more like being, you know, trusting someone. You just have to be the, the trust has got to be there. And as long as we're friends, maybe we could grow into some sort of love and respect. What? No, dude. This is not how this works. This is, this is my biggest problem in the movie. And it's like, because it is one of those things that you're just like, this shouldn't be a thing, brother. You're so powerful and rich. What do we do? You are like a king in this town, you know, with so much going for you and you're on your way up. And then you kind of pull this. It's like, he just wanted to put this final piece of what he, his dream was of having like the queen on your arm kind of a thing that everybody wants, but he got. And it's, it's his fault. In the end, this is, it is, it's, it's all his fault because he didn't listen to her and he didn't listen to his gut, honestly, about who she was and what he obviously saw throughout all the way leading up to them getting married. AJ, we're spending this entire movie learning how unbelievably smart and calculated Sam Rothstein is. Yes. The, everything he does is like calculated and to the T and what is the best decision. So the fact that he actually even wants to marry Ginger blows my mind. I mean, we just saw her throw in the things everywhere from date number one. She needs money just to go to the bathroom. He gives her 50 bucks and she's like, gives her 50 more. It's like to go to the bathroom. He finds out that she has the absolute shit bag of shit bag pimps that she somehow loves. And like you said, Sean, she's like, I listen, I like you, but this is not, I don't have feelings for you. And he's like, we're going to do this. That'll come. Yeah, you'll learn to love me. It's like, that's not really how it works. Most people fall immediately love and then learn to fall out of love. It's usually different. Yeah. The other way. It's this like sort of unspoken transaction that they both have going on and the relationship because he wants, he knows that she only wants and he even says that he's like, she only wants diamonds. That's her, that's her real friend. Lesser diamond. Lesser diamond. Talk about him. James was so good in this. I know. But there's that and like she wants that too, but he also wants another level of that, of like the family. You know, as long as I give you diamonds, you give me the family and the trust and the stability and everything. It's like she's completely unstable person, but it's never like spoken. And that's where this comes to a head of like, she always knew what she was. She's, you know, she's a hustler. She's a working girl, you know. And he tried to take that away from her and it's like, he just can't, you know. But like this scene when he's like, he sees her, the whole chips thing, he looks at her and like the dirty dancing song comes in. He looks at her and he's like, this might be trouble, but I think it might be worth it. I love how the camera and Scorsese is just like giving you the kind of trope nature of like a falling in love scene. Like, uh-oh, I'm in trouble. It is real trouble. He's going, you know, I think I'll take this risk. It's like, it's like he can't fight the calculations. It's like he, it's like he's trying to do all the calculations and he keeps getting interrupted, you know, but it's just like somebody keeps bugging it and you just can't get it done. To me, if I was going to look at this and just like kind of my final thought on it is like, if, if, if we know who this guy is and what he's all about and it's, it's that he needs somebody to get this backup plan in place, right? Because the whole idea behind this, like and him doing with everything with her, finding a woman who he can do this with really trust, as he keeps saying, is to have this backup plan, the two million in the bank and all the jewelry and stuff like that. And that's got to be put away. It's got to be in a safe place. It's my backup plan. It's my get the hell out of town, you know, card. And it's like he's kind of rushing this idea to have this. That's the only thing I can think of. And he doesn't want to do that with somebody who maybe can't handle the life that he is in. You know what I mean? It's a tough balance. You can't have some nice sweet girl who's going to, you know, fall the first time a cop questions her. She's got to have somebody who's a tough, tough girl who's been through it and can maybe stand up to some of this pressure, but. You get to the end of this movie and she's such a dirtbag, but she ultimately still doesn't actually talk to the cops. Even after all this. So he was right in that calculation. Yeah. And that's, I think that's the big takeaway from this, even though I still believe it was, it's obviously his biggest mistake. Yeah. Yeah. And Sharon Stone being the only nominated person in this movie, like it's crazy, but deservedly so. Like she's incredible in this. Come in. We obviously making a star making turn and basic instinct. Like the shot. Yeah. But like it's deservedly. I mean, it's like this is a dream role that like any actress, whatever, any actor, whatever want. And she absolutely nails it. Like I couldn't see anybody else in this movie. I think, I think she is the reason that I keep coming back to this movie for sure. Sean, I think everybody's so perfect. Like DeNiro, DeNiro shines in this movie, man. I know. That scene. I love these type of Vegas movies when they're showing you how things are done. And this is the scene where they catch the two cheaters. Such a great, like to watch him go, uh-huh. Yep. Uh-huh. Nope. I'm going to go over here. I'm going to look up. Yep. Got it. Like I very, and I guess they did a lot of research. They had, they had trouble getting people to tell them how stuff was done because they didn't want to give away secrets. But a lot of this was like how things were actually being done. Yeah. And what was weird to me is that they do let that one guy go. I always thought that that was kind of shitty. They break the hand of the guy. The nerd gets to basically walk away with no money, but tell all his friends. In the credits, that guy is credited as winner. So I don't know if they felt that way. Like basically there was a winner and a loser in that situation. I was going to say, what's the other guy credited as loser? It said like cheat or something like that. Hand broken guy. Broken hand guy. I just couldn't believe that he got off scot-free and was named winner in the cast. He comes through and it's, you know what, and what a, what another like kind of through line of Scorsese movies, if we think back to like the departed, he's like, I thought it was nice of you to ask him what hand he jerked off with. You know what I mean? It's like, can you do that with both hands? It's all about it, like taking an eye for an eye or a hand for a hand, I guess. But, but that moment though, I thought it was going to get even worse because they start out with a saw. Yeah. Like a, like, isn't it like a circular saw or something? And they're like cops. Ah, Jesus. Yeah, I was really nervous. I love how this is shot of him, like realizing what's happening too. It's the, like he bends down to like whatever, you know, Pick up some gum or something. Pick something up and he like looks over this way and looks over that way. Then we get like the top down shot of him doing that. And he's like, these guys are professional. Sometimes they like change your noses, change your hair. And I love, we get so many of these when he just gets on the phone. He's like operator, give me this guy. And they just all come running. I need happy. I need happy right away. Yeah. The happy birthday cake comes over. Yeah. This is all, I love behind the scenes shit like that all day long. Jeff Beck's song is playing behind this. It's, it's so good. And like this, a lot of these like punishments that they did, especially like this incident in particular, actually happened with left, left heroes and all the actual guy. You have to, but yeah, I mean, he's money in the hammer. You can walk out here and I love his lines here. He's like, we don't do things like that here. We don't fuck around here. He's so fucking good. Okay. So what did he say? He had about $110,000 in cash and winnings in 1970, something like that. What is that equivalent like about 300, 400. Okay. Yeah. So maybe more 400. I might, I might let him take my left hand for that kind of money. I might too. You get your hands smashed for, I mean. I would counter back. I'd say, well, can I pick the hand? Yeah. It's like, can I, it's like, which hand? You're gonna go left hand? I'll let you, I'll let you hit that. You're a drummer, Mike. I could, dude, I had a broken, I had an immobilized thumb for four months and I drummed just with one arm. That was a pretty good baby. All right. Wow. But if you take my right hand, I'm fucked. All right. See, I mean, I'm a lefty. So I mean, honestly, if they did it to end up doing it to my right hand, and that's, man, that sucked. All right, guys, have you ever just accidentally caught your finger with a hammer? Come on. I did putting up this neighborhood beer sign and no one can see. It's there, but you just can't see it. Worth it. You know what I do like about Scorsese a lot is, I don't know, some, some, something about the way he portrays the 70s for me. When, when you see that, because Nicky's now kind of banned from, and he's starting to open his, his different places, his gold rush and his leaning tower restaurant, something about that proper 70s American Italian restaurant. The sandwich that he spits in, even with the spit, I'm like, I don't know. That looks like a good sandwich. That sandwich, that's like prosciutto. I probably veggies look good. I was like, for all I know, that's from the tomato. Yeah. He walks through the restaurant and it's just, it just looks like a proper good time. Yeah. I mean, especially like when he's hanging out with the show girls and Frank's like, Hey, this is whoever. And he's like, well, I'm going to go show you the back. And he's just talking to her about like, yeah, you want this kind of prosciutto. I fly this shit. Is the way you like cut this and just gets his dick sucked, which is a weird motif that actually happens a lot in this movie. I'm imagining that he continues. Part of me wants to say that he stops talking once the mouth goes around the peen. I don't know. But I think he keeps going. I think he keeps going. He's like, he's like, you know, we let us rest for two days. You know, you don't really get that you got to get a pretty classy joint for that to happen. And he's like, and then our bread. Oh, let me tell you about our bread. Bread is key in the Italian. Oh, yeah. We don't outsource for our bread. We got old moms were. Man, it's. Yeah. Special swath. You mother fucking you. You mother, you clock suck it. Don't make a fuck out of me. God, it's so good. This is like the record of like how many swears at the time. It said at the time. So there were in total 435 uses of the F word, including the narration. That's 2.4 times a minute. The film held the record for the most uses of the word until the release of summer of Sam in 1999, which reportedly was also 435. And the record was later broken by Martin Scorsese's own. Depotted wolf of Wall Street. That's right. 600 times in Wolf of Wall Street. I really love that because he abandoned a script. Scorsese has abandoned his script for some. I forget what the movie's called, but he gave it to Spike Lee, who, who did that movie. And so he and Scorsese did this and summer Sam was a Spike Lee movie. Okay. So they're kind of battling back and forth. That's really fun. I did not know that. Nice. There was the touch on. It's kind of, you kind of see it in here, but the touch on them being good dads. I really like, I really like that comment because you get this scene where Nicky's literally being one of the worst people on the planet. And they talk about how no matter what he was doing, he was always home by six a.m. to make his son breakfast. You could totally see some, I mean, I know it's not like he was that sort of character in Home Alone, but like the kind of more tame Pesci, not swearing Pesci. You can see some of the Home Alone stuff when he's interacting with that kid. Dude. He's like, just a little bit about it, right? He's like, why? He's like, is it a claw yard? Or he's like, that's my smart boy. I love you. Look at you. I love you. All righty. When he's very sweet, it's so like jarring to see that. Yeah. It's, it's, it's very opposite and especially Ace God, my son involved with the little league. He's like, the other guy was actually a Metro police. And they're like, he's talking to the Metro police. He's like, I don't understand. He's like, he doesn't have to be like a home, home run every single time. Every time he swings the bat, it's going to be of her home. That's why I told him. That's why I keep telling him. He's like, hey, you know, they're so excited. It's just like just being dads, being dads in the seventies. Sam is like that too. Sam's very like a couple of times, ginger comes home. It's like, where's Amy? He's like, I put her to bed. Like it's her bedtime. I, I did it. I did this thing. I took care of her. I do, I do appreciate that little undertone. They don't dwell on it, but it's nice. I will say that like, I think maybe Nikki being a shit bag and probably out, God knows how long, you know, is maybe a better father than Sam. Because Sam has that, the housekeeper take care of him mostly. But he's still home. Yeah. Yeah. Still there. He still wants to be involved. You could see, but you're right. Nikki's going home every single time and like, I don't know. They both do, they're both doing what they can, Sean. They're carrying with what they would give it. That's right. All right. I mean, we've got a lot of work to do in that town. I mean, listen, Nikki, he is coming home every morning, but I just, we got to make sure he's been washing his hands though, because you've got the head vise seen here. Oh, God. Which my friends, I don't know how I saw it because it definitely wasn't on television. No. But I saw it somehow when I was younger and this fucked me up. Yeah. I thought head vises, like heads in a vice would be a bigger problem in life. Yes. In some sort of bigger torture, but this is fucking terrifying, especially because they finally twist him and he finally like the eyeball kind of pops out and their blood spread and he finally goes, what name does he give up? Charlie M or Charlie M? Charlie M? Charlie M, you did this all for Charlie M. And I love how he's like, kill me. And Nikki just twists it one more time just to get one more fucking. Do him a fucking favor. And then they kill him like fucking disgusting and ruthless. Oh my God. Charlie M, you made me pop your eye out for Charlie M. You motherfucker. This is another real detail. Like he actually did this to somebody. Disgusting. And Scorsese only added this because he knew that the MPAA was going to be all over his ass about other shit. That's right. And he only added this so they could focus on this because it was, if you've seen like the outtakes of this, they go further with like the eye popping and he wanted them to basically tell him to cut the scene. And he's like, okay, I'll cut it as long as you don't make me cut the rest. Yes. But they let it, they let it. They're like, yeah, it's fine. It's like a sacrifice. He's like, Jesus. We're going to do this. It's my sacrifice. It's like, you know, throw it to the sacrificial lamb of a scene, if you will. Don't make me do cut other stuff. Filmmakers do that all the time, especially horror filmmakers. They'll throw in like a really, really brutal thing and be like, You're going to cut that? No, don't cut it. And then, yeah, and then they'll be, the rest will seem tame because this is the most tame. Look at me drop this phone. You fuck are you. You fuck are you. Listen up. That means you. Yes, you. We know you're pointing at yourself. When it comes to party power games, we've got a place made for all sorts. From the experts to the drama queens. It's me, the JC. The finance bros. Look at those stokes, lads. We'll stick with slots. It's what we're good at. And not forgetting you. Yes, you, the one listening. Because at party power games, we've got all sorts of games for all sorts of trickles. Eligibility rules in terms of conditions apply. Please come for responsibly. ATEM Plus, CamelAware.org. All right, scene three, Ace makes a political enemy when he refuses to reinstate a corrupt official's incompetent relative, triggering retaliation that gets his license denied. Ace goes on television to publicly accuse local officials of corruption, angering the mob bosses who prefer silence over attention. At the same time, the bosses install Artie Poscano to oversee the skim, drawing attention to the FBI. Ace tries to distance himself from Nikki, blaming him for the heat, but their friendship deteriorates in own to open hostility. This is kind of, this is kind of interesting to me. It really paints a picture of Sam's just over obsessive nature, right? So he's, he's got this guy. He's been wanting to fire this guy forever because he sucks at his job. Three huge jackpots come in. The things clearly been tampered with. He's got a great point. He said, you're either too dumb to know that it's happening or you're in on it. Either way, you're out. But it's crazy to me because he's talking to, what's the main, what's the guy above him technically? Jacob or the cowboy guy? No, no, no. So the guy that technically runs the casino, Kevin Pollock's character. Philip Green. He's talking to him and he's so obsessed over this guy and he's so fired up that this guy just lost, he lost him millions of dollars, which, which is going to be a huge problem because they lost money, but also now he's fired him, which is going to be a huge problem because he knows this guy is going to be coming down on him, this commissioner. But then in that moment, he sees a muffin that doesn't have enough blueberries in it and completely goes flips completely. And now is obsessing over this enough to where he's leaves the table, goes to the chef to deal with it. Like this man is so obsessive over every single thing he does. Honestly, it's the most upsetting and relatable moment of this entire movie. Yeah. Like it's not having a fucking blueberries in my fucking muffin. Or too many. I got a, I mean, would you rather have not enough or do you think he was pissed just because of the disparity or, or because he didn't have enough between those two muffins? There is a good medium. There is a good medium. Yes. Absolutely. Preferred medium. But you know what? Not having enough blueberries is a major fucking problem and it's worth going to talk to a chef about. But the fact that that became more important than the mega problem he was just dealing with is what is crazy about it. Well, he is technically food and drink. GM. Okay. Okay. Not at this point. They reinstate him. Oh, I thought he was that now. They do reinstate him. They, he says maybe food and drink and then he goes to entertainment. Right. Ward is a slots manager. That's Joe Bob Briggs, host of Last Drive In on GMT back in the day. Cool to see him in here. And, but like, yeah, the way he interacts with them is relatable, I guess, in a way, because he had already talked to him about like these machines need to be down here. Yeah, these machines need to be down here. These are winners. Like, what are you doing? He's like, you're right, Sam Roth's Mr. Rothstein. Sorry. Yeah, Mr. Rothstein, I'm sorry. He's, he got, he has to go. And I think like the blueberry saying he's just like, this is a done deal. Like that guy's gone. I'm sorry. Like he's already done. He can't work here. Yeah. And this is just another thing of he is kind of right though. Like, let's not skimp out on all the, all the, like the, let's, let's make this place like the best. The best. You know, and this is real too. The, the blue, the blueberry muffins thing is what the actual guy did. Rosenthal did. But yeah, like I totally agree. It's, but it's also kind of like the, the conundrum of this character because he's there for a reason. And that's for the mob. But he gets sort of in his head about like, he's really good at this though. Like this is like kind of his passion and he really wants to run a joint like this, like very much so. And so I think he, there's a level of like wanting to be in the spotlight. Like he kind of accidentally maybe not falls into of like, no, this is not right. Like I, I'm the guy. Like I'm this is, I am the reason this place is running. He wants that kind of notoriety. So there's the different, there's like the juxtaposition or like the turmoil within him of like, I'm super good at this. I kind of want the world to know now, but the bosses back home do not want that. So I think there's that like, and I think it's really well portrayed of, of that sort of dichotomy within Rothstein to like have this sort of complex that he's dealing with, you know, it's done really, really well. He, he wants, he even says it, you know, in, I think as we kind of get a little bit further along. He even says, I just want a legit joint. I want to run a real place, a legit place and my way and do it. Right. But the problem is, is that isn't why he's there anyways. It's like he thinks they're going to go like, you know what, no more mob ties, man. You go out on your own. It's never going to happen. Truthfully, what he's asking for is to get out. Like, you know, they always talk about like, I want out of the mob life. That's kind of what he's essentially, that's what he's essentially asking for is I want to get out of that life. Well, that's why you're there and you're there to keep it, keep our dirty business clean. That's what you're there to do. And by you firing this guy that you know is connected to somebody up, like the county commissioner's office, well, then now you're fucking that up for us. And that becomes a problem. Even though he is justified, you still have to, that's the game you're playing, Sam. Okay. That's the game you're playing. So you've got to figure out something rather than just, you know, you're right. His, I think his ego is there now and is in play now. And he's like, you can't be fucking this up for me. You're making me look bad. And that's why he's upset. Yeah. As well as like on top of all of this shit, he's got, he has to deal with ginger still. And now we get more of Lester here where she is once $25,000 and he's like, can I trust you? Like, she's like, yeah, you can trust me. He's good. So you can tell me what the fucking money's for. Like she sucks. And then she goes to Lester and this whole meetup is so good because he has Nikki follow her, which is another dichotomy of like, he wants to distance himself from her, but also uses him when he is deemed necessary. Yes. Following his fucking wife. Right. But this, I think a lot of where James Woods shines is in Lester too because Being a piece of shit. God. He gets tuned up here, but DeNiro, DeNiro, he goes, here, here, take mine. Yeah. You know, that's my fucking wife, right? Get out of your fucking piece of shit. Yeah. It's so good. And they, and they tune him up and Well, he looks around to be like, can I get out of here? Nope. I can't. No. Okay. Also shot so well. I just like the kind of behind the shoulder rush in. And he's like, yeah, yeah. Can't hurt his pants to both of them. So good. God. There's, there's, I do want to talk just a minute about James Woods because his character, the way he does this is literally perfect. And he, he, you know, was chomping at the bit to be able to work with Scorsese when he found out like he was, you know, there was that option or there's an opportunity. And then, but for him to be cast in this, I wouldn't have thought it. I forgot he was in this movie, to be honest. And then him playing this role and he's like on the phone with Ginger and he's like getting, he's like, you know, I love you. No, I understand. That's what you got to do. It's the best thing for your life. And he's got the other girl behind him and he's just like, yeah, you know, I love you. Right. You know, you're my special girl. Yeah. You know, he's just like, he's just saying bullshit. He doesn't care. He doesn't love. How like, I think that is just a, a masterclass of like, of just dual personalities working, you know, and portraying that. He's just so fucking good. Watching him be a piece of shit is amazing. I love hating him. Hit it. If we were on a train to go punch a face, I'm on board. That's what I'm talking about. I think it's a little too obvious to want to punch James Woods. Lester. I think Ginger, although we believe in equal opportunity, like I do not think she's 100% the problem, like Jenny, maybe. But I got two nominees here. First of all, Pisano, the guy that basically brings down the whole thing, how he complains already. Yeah. How he's the new one that has to go out and do the skim. Yeah. And he's complaining about like how he's going to start keeping records and he needs reimbursement. Fuck you. Fuck you. But I think my number one guys, the fucker that takes his shoes off and puts it on the blackjack table. Yeah. Like don't take your shoes off ever in public around anyone. Like on an airplane, like that kind of shit. Yeah. You can't do that. And he's the kind of guy that has the audacity to like say, fuck you, F word. Yes. The other F word. Yeah. It's just like that's the kind of piece of shit that needs to get there to open the door with their head. Oh God, I love when they open and open this door, open the door with his fucking head. With his fucking head. Yeah. Yeah. And on top of that, when you're the person who is entitled enough to do everything you guys just said, but then on top of it say, do you know who I am or who I'm with? It's like using that is like just the cherry on top of why he just needs it so bad. Absolutely. And I'm kind of, I'm glad. It's like the one justified thing that Nikki does. You know what I mean? Yes. Like as far as ass kicking skill. My punchable face is one of the mob bosses. He's got that like red see-through neck lage as he's talking to Artie and he's got the voices like, Artie, I need you. I need you. No records, Artie. You can't keep records. This just goes to my like, I think I said it in Goodfellas where Martin Scorsese makes like last podcast does with serial killers. They bring them down on a human level for you to understand and it kind of makes them more understandable in the way that they're just super flawed pieces of shit. These mob bosses can all get it. They're so fucking stupid and ridiculous of just like. He's making a bunch of money for us. Go kill that guy. You gotta talk to him somehow. The main dude sucks more than all. He's like, go tell him to be a little bit more quiet this time. Do a little better this time. Do a little better? I hate these guys, but this is where Scorsese shines with his gangster movies is he brings them down on such a human level where they are just normal people. Like if you read them, even Nicholas Pellejie is kind of guilty of this in a way of like, he was a writer and did all these crime stories. I think he did it better than a lot of other people, but mostly what you would read about these guys in real time is that like, wow, yeah, Nikki Santoro was just the biggest crime boss or head honcho kind of head hunter pretty much of the whole crew and just notorious. There is some truth to that, but he's also fucking other people's girls. All these people are just so flawed. This is my favorite thing about Scorsese gangster movies in particular is you understand these people at such a human level and it brings them down on a level that you're like, well, no, this is all just kids in the sandbox bullshit. They're making them like, oh, they're skimming? We're the ones doing the skimming. They can't skim from such a fucking ridiculous, like you're making money doing nothing. Who cares if these guys got to get their peace? And in fact, there's a scene where, is that Scorsese's mom in the grocery store? She skims. There's a quick shot where she takes a dollar, she takes like $100 billion slides it underneath an envelope. Like it's just subtle touch where they all fucking suck. They're all skimming. Who cares if that guy takes some? You're making millions for doing nothing. Everybody's skimming from every level of this scheme. And you see it in every aspect when Nikki's doing his side gigs and robbing people and people are, he's, you know, everybody got a cut, as they said. And it's the same thing. That money trail, there's dollars falling out every single step of the way. So like, what do you expect? You know, I just, that's, that is again, that's, that's one of the big problems I have with like the crime family, the mob movies. Look how smart we are. Yeah, everything's so smart. It's like everything was tight as a drum. Except it wasn't. Yeah. And it blew up in our face. Okay. One of the real aspects of this is the Anna Scott thing of Sue's Philip Green for like the the, the, the steak and the Tangiers. Yep. And then she gets murdered. That was a real, real thing. But that's like the first chink in the chain that like kind of brought all this down. And that's where this movie like really takes a turn because he like Philip Green, he's coming off the plane and they ask him, what do you know about the murder of Anna Scott? He's like, what do you think? What do you think about him? I don't think he knew. And I think, I think he legit, he's smart enough to know that he did not want her to get killed. But now he's like, well, we're fucked. Yeah. I think he knew that right, that in there. It's too obvious. Too obvious. It's too obvious. Like those, those things are already out in the world. Like, and it's, it's borderline public knowledge that there's animosity there. So it's too obvious to just have that happen. They're idiots. Yeah. And then that sets in the chain. I like how you say that almost Anna Scott appearing on screen is like almost the end of all this. Because then it's, then the commissioner comes by and dude, brought Sam just get him. He's basically saying, can he be a janitor? And Sam's like, nope, nope, I can't do it. I don't know, man. Like I kind of agree with him though. But we agree with him, but you know what's worse. I guess, I guess you're right. Yes. Just let, let things kind of just be the way it is. Yeah, I guess you're losing your, your, your losing battles to win the war. But now you're losing, now you're, now you're winning this, this ego battle to, and you're going to lose your war. Because I forgot about this, this fair hearing that he was promised. Like this kind of made me gasp again to be like, holy fucking shit. Like, you know, you just got fucked royally. And I love how just off the wall he is at this point, because he finally realized that he had maybe made a mistake, but also that they're not playing fair anymore. Because the minute they're like, we have all this evidence, we're ready. Wait, time out. We're, we guys ready to rule? Bop, bop, bop, bop. And as the senator we see earlier, That he sets him up with, who's fucking one of the show girls or anything. Did you, did you not, just tell me that I was at that meeting. Just tell me how you might have been in the room. It's like, yes, you were at that dinner. Thanks. Thanks for not calling me a fucking liar. It's like, it's, did I not compute? Did I not? Fair, what's a fair? Like, yeah, it's, it's bullshit. But also then we're siding with a man who's been illegally running a casino and giving money to mob bosses in Kansas City. Correct. It's so weird how you, you have to take a side sometimes. But that's, that's where like the, the interesting dichotomy comes in, because I, like I said, I think he, at this point is like, wants to be the, the clean kind of casino runner, you know, he wants to be the Phillip Green. It's like he knows he's never going to be that now. But exactly. Yes. He's, he can't, he can't get away from back home. Yes. Back home. And then back home is like, listen, no matter what, get him a new job, but no matter what he's going to do, make it a, make sure it's quiet. Make sure it's quiet. Boom. Ace's high television show. All this fucking glitzing glamour. I just, I love that because he's, he's on a different mode now. He's like, fuck this shit. Yeah. I am, I am going scorched earth on this place. Yeah. He's like, he's like, quiet. Me? No, not anymore. Because you know, we all, we, I tried to tell Nicky to be quiet. What did he do? You know? Yeah. So this is my way of, of saying, you know, fuck you and cracking skulls. Out of all these trajectories of our main characters, obviously there's Nicky and Sam are like most, we're following them mostly. We cut back to them seamlessly as well. But then when they come together, it's great because when Nicky comes to his house to discuss his, with his bank guy, the office space guy, the jump to conclusions, dude. Yeah. Uh, uh. I can't remember his name. Isn't he one of the Richard Raleigh, Thomas Mckowski? It's Richard Raleigh. He's not, he's not related to anybody that I was even thinking of at all. But, um, jump to conclusions. Exactly. Yeah. The office space guy. But, um, this whole thing too, like, I think their interaction because he kind of tells him, he's like, uh, you get my money or I'll put your fucking brain to sleep kind of thing. And he walks out, but then they're arguing back and forth. This is all, uh, improvised by those, by those two. Did, they said most of them, most of the scenes between those two, they said, here's a start and an end point. The big, the big kind of fall off scenes, definitely. Like the one in the desert as well. Oh my god. And we'll talk about that. But the, um, they, they shot him like they did with De Niro and Al Pacino in heat. They, they set up two cameras because they just didn't want to miss anything. And obviously that's the way to go. But it seems so real. These guys have so much history, not as like in real life too, because being De Niro and Pesci, but as in these, uh, friends, in the movie, Sam Rostin and, uh, Nikki Santoro, it just works so well. It's, it's just, it's obvious casting, but it's, there's no other casting at this point for this movie. And this is where the movie shines the most is when these two are having disagreements, I think it's just, it's so cinematic. And it's just two people talking. Speaking of cinematic, when they get to the desert, I mean that shot of, of them arguing back and forth and Sam basically being like, I gave myself a 50 fit shot because he said 100, 100 yards further. But like when that car, you motherfucker, you car drives away, dirt flies right into Sam. Like that, talk about cinematic dude. Yeah. What a shot. You're fucking warned. Don't ever go over my fucking head again. It's, he thought he was good. Like he said 50, 50 shot. He might have been killed or not. They still do love each other because anybody else, they probably would have killed each other, but they're like, listen, we're not friends anymore, but I'm not going to kill you. Yeah. Just don't do that again. You fucking asshole. Yeah. You went to the bosses above my head. Like, yeah, this is a shitty thing, but he's again, the argument is, is so good. And Robert Richardson, the cinematographer had trouble lighting this because they did do two cameras. Oh, okay. And it's just so harsh of daylight. He had to have backlight on one of them and only one of them because you can't have like the other shot encroaching on the other shot. So he bounced it off of Joe Pesci instead of De Niro because he was a little shorter in the frame and that's why they got away with it. So like just above screen is like some backlight. Oh, okay. But just to play these out, it's like I said, these are the best scenes in my opinion of just them two arguing back and forth because that's how you argue with a really, really good friend. Like when you're trying to get to the same place, but just in different ways, that's how you argue. It's so good. So you can't write any of this. Yeah. It's like there's one thing about it that is just, you only get with these two and it's the way that they kind of like repeat each other, repeat themselves, but also repeat each other. Exactly. And like kind of what you're saying, you're getting to the same place, but in different ways. And he's like, I'm not trying to tell you, I'm just letting you know. It's not how they do things around it. Oh, that's not how they do things. He's like, I'm just letting you know. Don't say I didn't warn you about nothing. Oh, don't say I didn't warn you. Don't say I didn't know you about nothing. Because if you're going to go around doing that, then I don't want any part of it. Okay. Oh, you don't want any part of it. Don't leave my name out of it. You leave my name out of it. Okay. I'll leave your name out of it. Yeah, you leave my name out of it. And then we're going to go on. That's trying to run a quiet, clean business. Is this quiet? He brings up the article. Is this quiet? I'm the boss. That's quiet to you. That's taken out of context. All right. It's not what I meant. It's not what I said. It's just what they put in their papers. Okay. It's just, it's this kind of like, you know, a deniro has that, you know, just constant thing. And Pesci just knows how to escalate deniro. You know what I mean? It's, it's very interesting to watch. We'll see in Ford, Ginger's addiction to alcohol and drugs worsen and she attempts to flee with her daughter and lester before Ace intervenes. Their marriage collapses further when Ginger begins an affair with Nikki. Ginger attempts to manipulate both men, but is ultimately abandoned by Nikki as well. In desperation, she steals money from their bank account, but is arrested by the FBI. So Ginger has had been talking, had been confiding in Nikki throughout this. And you get the kind of inkling that they might come together. She's trying to use Nikki against Sam in this way. But then after this whole scene is Nikki's kind of spiraling down as well. Oh yeah. And I love the scene where he goes to the Tangiers. Dude, don't even give me that. And how he treats all the dealers is so fucking funny. Okay. So first of all, we got a lettuce moment on our hands here. Okay. Lettuce moment. Anybody out there is in the breakfast club. That piece of lettuce falls off his sandwich. Moments you can't plan on. We got it one take because it's never going to happen again. When he fucking throws that king back at the dealer and it gets stuck in his button. Dude, get out of here, man. You cannot plan that if you try this fucking butte. Because it's fucking beautiful. Do you know who this guy is? Look at him again. Yeah. Yeah. Look back at him. Yeah. Make sure. This fucker, this guy's name is Nick Mozola, the blackjack dealer. He, I guess he might have just been a Vegas blackjack dealer because he has been in three movies as a dealer. No way. Three famous movies. He was the same blackjack dealer for Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in Rain Man. Okay. He was the blackjack dealer here for Nikki in Casino. And he was the war dealer to Chevy Chase and Vegas vacation. Holy shit. Same fucking guy. That's fantastic. That is a, that's maybe a confusing for lifetime achievement. Hell yeah. That's like a Darla level. Oh man. That's a Darla level thing. Lifetime achievement. How about we give a Darla award out? Darla award. Even like D level like actors. And you can only play the same character in three or more movies. Basically. Yeah. Same character but not. Yep. Fuck and love that. Yeah. Dude, Sean, great call. That is just when he's unhinged here. It's just pure perfection. Yeah. Because nobody's fucking with this guy. No. You could never do this no matter who you are anywhere in the world except for Nikki. Ten and that's it. Ten and that's it. Fuck. I want the 50. Yeah. Like this is, this is like the, now we're just in the phases of just testing like what people can get away with. Yep. Nobody gives a shit anymore. It's becoming chaos and it's becoming the wild west that Nikki wants. He just wants to walk through any place he wants, do whatever he wants. But I do want to bring this up though. Upon second watch here, like this is where the movie also gets a little bit boring for me in a way. And I think it's just my personal take on like I don't like watching toxic relationships. I don't like watching it in public in real life. I don't like watching it on movies. And it's, it's, this is, this whole next like 30 minutes is basically about Ginger and Sam being so not right for each other and, and not being able to walk away from it. I mean, you've got, you had that scene we talked about earlier where she's asking for money at breakfast. Why are you making me feel bad? Why am I making you feel bad to just ask where this money's going? She says the, you can't trust a snake about him when she's the fucking dumb bitch. He takes her back after she tries to leave with her kid. Like then they pay Lester money just to get them back. Fucking stupid. Still brings her in. He throws her out that one night. She comes back and he still lets her in. Eventually she ties up their child and to her bed and leaves the house to fuck around on him with his best friend who he's at war with. And Sam's first thing to her is don't ever do that again. What do you mean don't ever do that again? This is, this is over. What are we doing? It annoys me, man. It's his struggle of wanting the normal life. He's wanting to be out of the mob kind of connections and everything. It's, it's that same sort of struggle. He wants to keep, he wants to keep her there because yeah, it is the mother of his child who she apparently hates. The scenes between the child and James Woods are so fucking funny. It's like, oh, I'm gonna fucking, didn't Sharon Stone direct her to be like, hey, try to piss him off at every scene? Oh, I don't know. I read that somewhere along the line, they wanted the kid to be pissed off at Lester and make Lester mad at him. She said, she said, you should annoy James Woods. Any chance you get, not even Lester, like James Woods. You should just do what you can to annoy him. It's so good. Because it does help create, it must have helped create that animosity of that, that that irritation that you feel between them without any hesitation. She's on the phone, the phone booth in the background. She's just like fucking with his face in the car. That keep getting pulled from this is Insane and Sam's like with another girl, right? He's basically with the it's sort of implied that he's kind of dating this mistress his Andy Richter pretty much Basically who by the way was Joe Pesci's wife in real life. Yeah until she apparently went off the deep end and like tried to kill someone and Oh boy, awesome. But yeah, like so what the fuck does Sam care? Just never understand when when that relationship is so toxic that we still have to hang on to it I think he's just in this mode of like he's just trying to keep what he can together Like and just trying to keep you know, it's it's like having that That nuclear family dream or something, you know, you just get this idea of the way things are supposed to be and Like, you know, I can bring it all back together as long as I got my girl Yeah, and I got my you know my car. Yeah, like that kind of shit, but in the end it's like No, dude, like this is you gotta you gotta let this go and take take what you take what's important And at this point, you know, it's your daughter. You got it The moment if I walk if you walked in like let's not even play that out Like if you walked in like that scorched earth even even with no side like you've been perfect for 20 years But then you slip up and tie my kid up and go out and get and get drunk. Yeah, that's there's no It's all it's done with my friend who I'm at war with it is done the the political nature to just to bring this up as well, but like casino the Tangiers being America motif a President, you know would want to keep a squeaky clean kind of record of like I have my nuclear family I believe in the Bible. I am a Christian man Christian man. I'm straight squeak. I'm definitely straight Yes, don't even imply that I'm I just good, but like that's the kind of that's what he's like That's what America's been built up to be your you you're a straight white man And you can you can be in charge of shit, you know That's what this whole kind of thing is and that's what he wants, you know, that's that's the American dream But that that implied to of With with Amy the child It's obviously not that because his wife is so unhinged and now involved deeply deep-throatedly with Nikki, you know Like this is a big big problem God when he takes it It's probably smaller problem He takes her back that one time and and basically like kind of sides with her once she's like yeah, Nick He's the one I went to he's like fuck, you know now. Yeah, babe We're gonna figure this out because this you went to the wrong one It's like then you said then she goes to fix it gets railed again by was like, oh my god This is how she fixes problems. Yeah Fucking crazy, man. It's just yeah, it's like this whole thing is again We said we said it earlier that that was the biggest mistake and the fact that he just can't let it go He can't let it go at the all at the same time Frankie is the liaison and and like the Sort of story guy like what's going on in Vegas Frank Frank's the that guy and telling Remo and lying to him And that's when he we get his little his voice over is like I had to lie to him I don't know if I was gonna come in there with less and less I don't know if he's gonna kill me or kiss me, you know that kind of thing But that's important to and one more anecdote on that real life character Frank Cal Caluto Calado or something he was in witness protection. He was a kind of an informant or like yeah, well he was a Consultant for the movie. Okay. Okay. They went to him a lot and so they had him on set a lot and speaking of Joe Pesci's real wife He introduced her to like the whole crew and Frank Calado was there and She introduced him to him and he's like, yeah, this is a Frank Calado. He's a big fucking rat snitch Like kind of out of context everywhere and that's like a big no-no in in their world Yeah, and he took Joe Pesci aside. He's like you ever call me that again. I'm gonna fucking kill you He's like, okay. Yeah, I'm really really sorry kind of got like a culture shock Yeah, within this and I think kind of informed his character as well. That makes sense Fucking great Claudia Harrow is that is her name? She was married from Pesci to 80 from 88 to 92 in 2000 she filed from divorce from her second husband and Attempt and then tried to murder him basically and she spent 12 years and four months in prison starting in April 2012 Goodness, so she might have just got out of prison watch out fellas Look at look out Claudia. Get you. She'll get man Final scene the FBI's investigation fueled by Pisono's records lead to the indictments of the mob bosses and the collapse of the casino Skim operation to prevent anyone from testifying the bosses order a series of hits on those involved Ginger dies of a drug overdose in Los Angeles. Nikki and his brother are wicked Probably whacked is probably probably yeah Well, I don't know what that means a narrowly survives a car bombing and returns to sports betting in San Diego Reflecting on how everything ultimately came full circle once again I really kind of want to point out was the outside of the gold rush is Nikki and Frank talking with each other with like their mouths brother You mean like the final one where they hired Like people to look to read their mouths. Yes. Oh, dude, then they're like where are these fuckers? I'd like the motel over here someone and that's what they're supposed to be I do think that they filmed this scene without without the actors Knowing where the camera was going to be because they end up being sort of out of frame. I think they actually like Film this without them knowing they just said come out of the thing and do these lines stay within these boundaries Yeah, and we'll sit we'll just even the guy walking by I don't think they planned on because like who's it? Who's this guy? Who's this mid conversation? He goes who the fuck is this guy? Oh, he's a nobody Okay, I think they just did this completely under cover, which is so cool. You can kind of tell what a great scene I also want to hit this button. Oh, here's a prop I went off the wall on this one guys when they start when people start dying in this movie you see blue We don't know much about blue, but he does come out of his house and he gets gunned down the cops Think he's got a gun and but he's actually got a sandwich I gotta think that was gonna be one of the greatest sandwiches. No, man. Oh, it's new. It's 1249 here I haven't even eaten today. So I'm excited for lunch. I think that sandwich might have been one of the greatest sandwiches We should go to Jimmy John's Yeah, you know, you know what, you know, we should do we should is there we got to get a gondola Oh, gotta go to Zeo John's. Yeah, that's the one we need to get a gondola. All right, just real Italian sandwiches Oh, yeah, that's my prop um a gondola. Yeah, okay great prop Man, there's so many suits that deniro has and the orange one sick I just I want his I just want his cigarette Just the cigarette holder I don't and I just have it yeah, I don't smoke But I would just have that in my mouth. Yes. Yeah What a great character thing to always be smoking and always like kind of have it at like his kind of medium shot Like right here just always it's just so good What do I want man? I don't know maybe like some tangiers chips. Oh that'd be pretty dope the fictional tangiers And years. Yeah, I think that'd be sick A couple yeah, dude, maybe the vice. I don't know the vice the bloody vice You had talked to AJ about a little bit about How everybody said Pesci's portrayal over mafia members like one of the most he said Michael Franz Zessey Said it is one of the most realistic he'd ever seen in this movie and also like compared to anything else Pesci appeared in but Michael Franz sees was also a consultant on good fellas He's got a YouTube channel about like he breaks down mob movies because he was actually in the mob. Sorry. No, no That's that's exactly what I'm trying to talk about here Yeah, we think Pesci was so good in this But do you think so of the four movies that Scorsese directed Joe Pesci? He was in Raging Bull Casino good fellows in the Irishman Casino is the only one Pesci did not receive an Academy Award nomination for and that's interesting to me because I I Think he's incredible in this movie I do too. I do think it was fatigue Okay, okay, I think it was like the comparison to good fellas Okay, and and Main Street's to be honest of like well Scorsese is just gonna do these movies I guess like we can't give him one again. We can't nominate all of them I guess I do think it was fatigue and this is also the year of Braveheart and That just kind of took everything over shit Yeah, that's fair like you're watching the end of this movie how he's becoming unraveled how he can barely Fight the guy now without sitting down. He's burning the candle in both ends. I Forgot how kind of brutal his ending is in this him and his brother Oh, dude, it's brutal because like we don't necessarily like this guy like this is not a good man But I just feel so terrible. This is the worst death of the movie like I feel It feels so bad for him and his brother in this moment. It's I don't know how they did it It's like it's one of those things of It's so it's so finite and you are just disappearing, you know what? I mean, it's like you're done reminds me of Like the first episode of Ozark Did you guys have watched that? Yes, and like they basically they they're killing people they kill two people and then put them in barrels And they're just gonna be gone. They're just they're just gone. They're just disappearing. There's nothing There's no remnants of the opening scene of episode one. Yes. Yes, and so no Spoilers there obviously well, you know, maybe but That all being said this is the same way and you're just like they make him watch his brother that he brought into this all Just basically get beaten to death knowing that's going to happen to him Yeah, and then you know they bury him when he's still breathing you can hear him You can see him breathing the dirt out But he just they just bury him buried him alive alive basically this is I mean This is the whole house of the rising sun killings like that's what the song's playing It's basically with good fellows the Layla killings. Oh God that Everybody goes down the the kind of guy who got deniro into The Tangiers is gunned down and that's the whole like behind the court meeting of like guy He's a good guy. He's stand-up guy and then everybody said no no let him live gets to gotcha. He's like why take a chance and I mean These are all real too like this all this all actually happened I mean, I think Nikki and his brother that wasn't a cornfield. It was like a base. They were found in a cornfield They were killed and they were right to death in a basement But nonetheless, you're totally right. It's it's terrifying and Especially Frank Vincent being there as well as his buddy who went through him this whole thing He's the one that hit him first. Yeah, it's it's it's just this seems like real gangland killing portrayed on screen And I think it's the most realistic. Oh, yeah sort of gangland killing that's ever been portrayed And yeah, even like the the effects the animatronics like you say he's breathing out dirt and stuff and they buried him alive It's just it's so brutal, but then like this is also the nature of How Scorsese does this thing is because it's all for naught, you know because they're already in jail They're just cleaning up a little little details It's just so they don't get more time, you know, okay. Yeah, they're not gonna make it through but let's just make sure yeah You know, yeah, let's just try to clean it up a little bit and ginger like the whole the whole scene where they have their whole blow up and she's trying to get her money out of the bank and everything and She gets tied up and like we heard demise is she was just she spent all the money in like two weeks Yeah, yeah, all she had left was 3,600 like gold coins. Yeah Yep It just it's borderline. I mean it's poetic it is at that point because You know, that's what that's where the destiny was and she tried to warn him. Mm-hmm. She totally did Yeah, some people you just you just some people just shouldn't win the lottery man Okay, so people just shouldn't win the lottery. She almost maybe she was even thinking like I'm a hustler And I should probably stay at this level if I marry you That's gonna fuck me up because of the riches, you know She did try to warn but also like fuck you. I'm glad to see you go down I'm glad to see most of these guys go down I don't like the happy ending kind of wish Sam would have maybe got it too Because you're expecting that he does get it, but he does survive and at the same time you're like well We're back to where we started with Sam and I don't know Yeah, it's tough to say on that one doubling back to see what happens in the car and like his explanation of it is Is really cool. It's a really nice like reminder. It's like oh, yeah, that did happen. Oh, okay So he did get out and it wasn't a hit from the mobsters like this was like a side hit from someone because The the mob bosses didn't want to actually kill him apparently I mean if they wanted to kill the the guy where got you was like why why take a chance? Yeah, I think he was equivalent of why take a chance, so But he was still working for him in the end like he was still apparently giving him money when all was said and done Yeah, and why you know if it was a mob hit then why not just do what they're doing to some of the other guys like Literally just walking up behind them cap cap cap cap cap cap and then you're gone You know what I mean, so who was this you think I think it was Somewhere in like the the not in any law enforcement, but government agencies of the of law rival crews Remember there was some rival crew action there somebody trying to get him out of it Yeah, he knows things like cuz I I agree with the agent. I think if they wanted him dead He'd be dead. Yeah, they wouldn't have tried to blow his car up, right? It wouldn't have been like such a it would have been something worse The old Vegas being demolished that kind of yeah the whole ending to this and like the fat old ladies rolling backlit fat old ladies like zombies coming into a Mall essentially dawn of the dead style. Yeah, it's so telling of just like how how corporations bought in Vegas after the mob was kind of demolished in a sense and Yeah, the political aspects are there as well everything's corporations, but it's it's it's My thinking was going through this whole movie. It's like what a good time And now this is beige, you know like these zombies walking in like yeah my vacation yeah, or a group of 12 dudes on a Vegas ain't ready for us. They're ready for this baby It's like you guys are way too smoked out because I like to go do anything. Do I smell axe body spray? Yeah, the fuck is going on look out. Oh We go baby, but it makes me Want to have visited old Vegas I agree with you when we went when me and Molly went we went to like a real off the strip really old-time Dinner theater type place where they had all the Sinatra stuff and yeah It was the closest I felt to it, but it wasn't it wasn't it You know yeah, yeah You can get down there on like Fremont and stuff and some of that stuff is still has the vibe But yeah, I know like this is the Tangiers Specifically the way that they have this hotel portrayed Is just I want to go back to that yeah, you know that one specifically it seems special and it seems like a bygone era where this movie I think was rightly so compared to like sort of Scorsese's Western Yeah, like they're you know It's it's basically red dead too of like trying to keep that the old ways of things going But time is just crushing these people. Yeah, you know and this this this sort of crime this sort of Money-making scheme is not going to work in modern times and that's what that's what their demise is ultimately yeah Hey time still undefeated man. Yeah sure. There you go. Well my friends. We have dissected casino seen by scene It's time to give it our modern ratings So be etched in stone you can see our ratings of all movies. We've done at confused breakfast calm You can also support this show directly by going to patreon.com Confused breakfast tons of great perks like voting on upcoming episodes Direct access to us in discord weekly bonus audio and the top tier little Lebowski urban achiever tier gets your review Red on air before we drop our modern-day scores AJ anybody in the private little Lebowski chat today Do they got a review for us? Yes, we do we've got some little Lebowski urban achievers in here Walter Fielding Oh, you mean good fellas too Casino feels like you yeah, the closest Scorsese could ever have come to a money grab While we don't have a Ray Leota Joe Pesci is back crazy as ever among the red velvet and neon lights of old Vegas Love this movie De Niro and Sharon Stone put in really solid performances and James Woods cameos As the most punchable face in the history of cinema Well played It's epic artful and cinematic, but it always but it will always feel like a companion piece to good fellas spiritual sequel spiritual thank you very much. Yes and then NYC welder as well We've got let's see the first hour focuses on on the casino and the skim the second hour focuses on the glory days and The final hour shows the chaos of the fall the last hour is one of the craziest most entertaining hours ever filmed It's a roller coaster that goes up and down up and down and falls like a stone Oh, sorry goes up and up and falls like a stone This movie is not the greatest movie Scorsese is ever made But I think it's safe to say it is the perfect example of how Scorsese chooses to craft his movies Focusing on settings and characters and then painting them with a soundtrack that makes you feel what the author is intending Didn't talk much about the soundtrack, but it's it's what do you say it may be better than good fellas to be honest I think it's Scorsese to a tee. I mean, you know, yeah obscure stone songs. Please just put them in your movie. Yeah Gimme shelter go. That's not obscure. Okay. Okay sweet Virginia. Yeah sweet Virginia Sweet Virginia This was Joe Pesci's greatest role. He was set up as a formidable opponent his dialogue was sharp and brutal You both hate him and love him you root for him, but you also don't get upset when he is eventually killed And in a way that benefits his character That's an actor at his peak. I love this movie as much as the first time I saw it scores across the board nine point out. Yeah Well, Sean, what are your thoughts after the confused breakfast treatment? What are you getting rate this thing? I always thought that I kind of went back and forth on this on my first watch is Specifically for this review. I thought I might like this better than good fellas I gave good fellas a nine point seven on the second watch. However, I don't think that I can say that I think good fellas is just one of those movies. It's just it's it's the pinnacle of Scorsese gangster films even though I I love the Irishman as you can tell on our 50 most rewatchable, but I Think that all three of these movies are in are in conversation with one another I think watching especially maybe mean streets to a lesser extent is maybe like the the prelude to all of these Starting with good fellas then casino then Irishman is such a great trajectory of pretty cool because they're all aging Yep, along with it. It's so much fun to watch but casino in particular Man, this movie just moves so well and it's two hours and 58 minutes Does not feel like it whatsoever I I can this is one actually one of the most rewatchable movies of this era in my opinion I rewatch it almost once every year The performances all around obviously are top tier Scorsese at his finest at his most manic That it should be We talk about movies Portraying a particular sort of city or state in a great way. This is a great Las Vegas movie Like I just said, I want to visit old Vegas really really bad Can't yeah, you're right but Yeah, of Scorsese's movies This is one that I return to most often and I can't say that I like it better than good fellas I think good fellas is a complete complete masterpiece But this is very very close I think I'm I think it was NC NYC welder I think I'm with him and saying that this is a 9.0 for me I'm glad that you're gonna give it a 9 because I struggled a little with bit on the confused breakfast treatment here I went into it going ho ho ho fucking here. We go. It's gonna crack our top ten probably and then I kind of went Yeah, I just don't know I love so many aspects of it some of these best performances of some of these actors in this movie But ultimately that last half hour that last hour of like the toxic relationship Just wore on me so much the first time and then the second time I was basically like Almost fast-forwarding through it to just go like get first first hour amazing last hour I don't know kind of boring to me, but ultimately this is still an incredible movie. I love the soundtrack I'm gonna give it a flat out eight. I'm glad you did a nine, but I'm falling lower than I thought I would have AJ What about you? It's it's tough for me because I've gone into this saying that I think that this is a better film that I enjoy Watching this more than I enjoy watching good fellas the problem I have with it is like I've I'm able to watch the entirety of good fellas probably easier than I am With this for the obvious reason of the time But there are some slow moments in this it doesn't feel like a three-hour movie So I'm not I don't want it to come across like that. It feels like a two and a half hour long movie But I think why I think I just have like the I just have like such a soft spot for like the way that Movies portray Vegas and Scorsese just does it so wonderfully especially when you're talking about 70s 80s kind of vibes And so I went back and forth and back and forth on how I felt about this compared to good fellas and and What each one gave us and they both give us I think a lot of the same and They are very much spiritual sequels and I don't think I can tell you that one is actually better than the other I truly think that they are both wonderful movies. I think that good fellas Just gets a I think it just got a little bit more into the niche and a little bit more of the family and mobside that we liked That Scorsese just does so well whereas this just talked more about Not so much the mob side just like Kind of like they're they're like cowboys man. They are they're like cowboys in the wild west and That being said I have to say I like I love a Western as much As a mob movie I am going to give this the same score as good fellas that I gave and that is a 9.05 damn sons we got to go to executive producer Starling He says okay fine casino is not about the founding of Las Vegas so much as it is about Vegas in the 70s and 80s a gloriously tacky era that looks like it smells faintly of cigarettes money and scotch and honestly that part works the Movie luxuriates excess the same way Vegas always has an eighths Rothstein moving through this world that is able to carve out for himself Is very compelling this is without question the most deniro movie I have ever actually watched and it clicks why he's here who else could play this role same goes for Pesci Who shows up doing what Pesci does best like a little stick of dynamite and scenes the only casting that feels surprising is Sharon Stone Not because she's bad she isn't but because when the movie came out She was the reigning sex symbol of the 90s a land and landing a Scorsese role was a very big deal Here's the thing though casino feels like the kind of movie that only exists because Scorsese is Scorsese and deniro is Deniro it's nearly three hours long and it earns that runtime mostly through reputation This is what I'd call a Sunday Sunday afternoon movie put it on relax on the couch And if you drift off for five minutes here and there who cares doesn't matter totally agree Yeah, it has a pace and energy doesn't it has a pace it and energy doesn't warrant you to be alert This is not a Friday night after a long work week. There are great scenes But there's also not a lot happening stretch genuine generously across its runtime That's Scorsese gets to take advantage of having you don't really care because if you love deniro You're getting three straight hours of the movie is almost entirely from his perspective Which is both its strength and its limitation we understand that ace wants to do a good job running the casino We understand that he wants to love ginger. We absolutely understand why Nikki drives him insane What we don't really get is who ginger or Nikki are as people they function more like chaotic plot devices than fully realize people Pesci's Nikki is introduced as a scoundrel and a perpetual shit stirrer and he remains that way for three hours But why is he like this? We never really know He's fun especially at first but when a character exists solely to implode every situation on contact Eventually the throw wears off that said all-time great death scenes no notes Stone ginger fairs worth. She's a hustler sure but her addiction and overall messiness consume any other Characterization she might have by the end. She's left. She's less tragic femme fatale and more exhausting cautionary tale She had this charm at the beginning where she flowed through rooms and that vanishes eventually she posts Even post addiction who is she I would have preferred her to be colder more calculating a true gold digger Rather than simply a chaotic drunk hemorrhaging money to be clear This is a good movie, but it's carried almost entirely by three performances two of which are replaceable The movie absolutely needed to Nero and no one but Pesci should ever play Nikki stone is very good But probably replaceable Ironically when ginger finally spirals out of control the movie gets the jolt of energy It's sorely needed in its final stretch and even then you start wondering how many scenes of drunk coked out self-destruction One movie really needs the ending gestures towards how corporate America ultimately flattened Vegas into the version We recognize today presumably the death of Vegas, but that's the movie. I wanted to watch I would love to see how the mob transitioned after MGM built that big lion's head and the theme was the Wizard of Oz So yes excellent craftsmanship iconic performances rewatchable not really for me 7.25 so he's gonna bring us down a tiny little bit, but guys we are still in 8.33 On the grand scheme of things and that's gonna bring this movie all the way to number 44 tied with Uncle Buck Not as good as Terminator Rocky and Star Wars a new hope, but it is better than diehard Donnie Darko and Forrest Gump Okay, wow our top 50 to 60 are just Doesn't matter it doesn't matter what the number is behind it damn near. What do you do with that? Yeah? Honestly, yeah, here but here more about this. There's so much more to talk about With a patreon we should just do this right after yeah, but yeah, what a great movie I mean even if it even ends on like the MGM sort of like pyramid kind of thing Yeah, that's of course easy saying like yeah, that's the the indie kind of dying Yeah Production companies taking over. Yeah, well, we hope you enjoyed the episode. Thanks for being here tune in next week We hit clueless Followed by a month of sequels starting with diehard with a vengeance and if you're new to this episode go back this time last year fight club Yeah, baby. I mean very much similar to casino my friends Finchern's gross easy I think Ed Norton is a spiritual next of kin to deniro's performances There you go do it. Thanks to Logan on the controls here at upload media group and Cedar Rapids learn more at upload media group dot com and Check out our network cloud 10 learn more at cloud 10 FM. That is it for us. We'll catch you later my friends and that's that Can you imagine Sam Rothstein? Saying like and subscribe on his TV show now. I can now I sure can right a lot of mobsters have YouTube channels It's really fucking weird. All right. All right It's way day way fair from April 25th through the 27th You can score the best deals for in and around your home guys like up to 80% off with free shipping on Everything way fair makes it super easy guys to find exactly what fits your style and your needs from furniture and decor to home Improvement and outdoor essentials and it's all on sale during way day So it's easy to upgrade your space with quality pieces that work within your budget and the best part again Everything is shipping fast and free during way day plus my favorite part of this you can shop with a way fair verified Aka your shortcut to the good stuff. 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