Martin Scorsese’s Casino is one of the best films of the 1990s. It took some of the basic formulas from Goodfellas and applied them to another type of story – instead of telling about the blue collar gangsters that controlled NYC, Casino is about the guys who ran Vegas. And it’s a great tale of power, greed, and betrayal.

The movie starts off with a brilliant sequence that plays like a behind the scenes look at a real casino. The camera moves around the room with a style that recalls a prowling Steadicam from Goodfellas. The scene then cuts to the inner circle of mobsters where the money counting is done. There is a certain art to skimming money off of slot machines and food service, and the movie shows how that adds up over time.

From there the movie moves to a more traditional narrative structure. The characters get proper send offs, which add more tragedy to their downfall. It also focuses on the relationships between people in this world of lust and deceit. The feisty Ginger and Ace are both compelling characters and Sharon Stone gives one of the finest performances of her career.

There is plenty of action and drama, but the movie doesn’t feel over the top or melodramatic. It also avoids the overly obvious violence and a popped eyeball and a baseball bat beating that some of Scorsese’s movies can be guilty of. Casino is a great film and should be seen by anyone who loves gambling, mobsters, or just good movies.