Joe Pesci is Nicky Santoro, another mobster who is trying to keep his Las Vegas mobster employers sweet, and Sharon Stone, in what is thought to be her best role, is Ginger, De Niro’s cheating and devious wife.

The most engrossing thing about the movie is that the characters all relate to actual persons running the Strip at that time. The rags to riches to rags tale tells the story of De Niro’s character, ‘Ace’ Rothstein’s rise to success and back to failure over the course of a decade.

Often horrific, sexually explicit, and with more bad language then any movies up to that point in time, it is far from a family movie. The final scenes are sure to turn one’s stomach, in a retelling of one of the US Mafia’s most infamous deeds.

The movie is exceptionally well written, and the three hour duration glides by. Robert de Niro’s screen wife, Sharon Stone was awarded the Golden Globe for best supporting actress and nominated for an Oscar that year.

The film Casino will be remembered as one of the great, if not the greatest casino movies of all time. All three of the lead character’s performances are of the finest quality, with Robert De Niro turning in another career defining one, and Pesci, as in Goodfellas before, turning in a genuinely believable performance as a mobster in a desperate situation.

The Robert De Niro movie Casino must be seen, but be prepared to wince and grimace at its very real and disturbing content.