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| Casino [HD DVD] | ![Casino [HD DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zPANlypUL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Martin Scorsese
Actors: Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods, Frank Vincent
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $4.48
You Save: $15.50 (78%)
New (30) Used (17) from $2.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 2341
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: HD DVD
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 178
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 5.3 x 0.4
MPN: 31063
UPC: 025193106322
EAN: 0025193106322
ASIN: B000JJSJR8
Theatrical Release Date: November 22, 1995
Release Date: December 19, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Universal Casino - HD-DVD
Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci star in director Martin Scorsese's riveting look at how blind ambition, white-hot passion and 24-karat greed toppled an empire. Las Vegas 1973 is the setting for this fact-based story about the Mob's multi-million dollar casino operation where fortunes and lives were made and lost with aroll of the dice.
Amazon.com
Director Martin Scorsese reunites with members of his GoodFellas gang (writer Nicholas Pileggi; actors Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Frank Vincent) for a three-hour epic about the rise and fall of mobster Sam "Ace" Rothstein (De Niro), a character based on real-life gangster Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal. (It's modeled after on Wiseguy and GoodFellas and Pileggi's true crime book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas.) Through Rothstein, the picture tells the story of how the Mafia seized, and finally lost control of, Las Vegas gambling. The first hour plays like a fascinating documentary, intricately detailing the inner workings of Vegas casinos. Sharon Stone is the stand out among the actors; she nabbed an Oscar nomination for her role as the voracious Ginger, the glitzy call girl who becomes Rothstein's wife. The film is not as fast paced or gripping as Scorsese's earlier gangster pictures (Mean Streets and GoodFellas), but it's still absorbing. And, hey--it's Scorsese! --Jim Emerson
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| Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...
 Truly Amazing Picture Qualiy January 10, 2007
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
The movie is without doubt a perfect union with mean streets and goodfellas. But let's face it, why do we click into a certian HD DVD on amazon, we know whether or not we like the movie, right? We want the goods on the picture quality! Let me tell you something even if you can't take the needed violence in this movie, get it. Even if you can't stand all the foul language, get it. Even if you think Sharon Stone got her acting degree out of a cereal box, get it! Let me tell you something, this three hour epic looks mind numbingly stunning. I literally sat in awe at the sheer beauty of it, I mean what could possibly show of HD DVD picture quality than vegas' bright lights and scorsese' masterful direction? Casino, that's what. Do yourself a favor and get this disc right now because if you don't; Nicky will come back with a bat and if you beat him with a bat, he'll come back with a knife and you beat him with a knife, he'll come back with a gun and if you beat him with a gun, you better kill him because he'll keep comin' back, and back until one of you is dead.
 What a picture ! February 18, 2007
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I mean that statement in two ways. First, in my humble opinion, this is Martin Scorcese at his finest. This is better than Goodfellas by a wide margin. All of the regulars give awesome performances in this (even Sharon Stone, who I can't stand!). If you like mafia pictures, this is the BEST one to own. I also mean that it's a great picture due to the fact that it's on HD-DVD. The picture is astonishingly vivid and clear and the lights of Las Vegas really jump out of the television. It's almost 3-D ! The extras are ample, but I'd say adequate. That's the reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5. There is the obligitory commentary, deleted scenes, and a couple featurettes. It's all whipped cream and a cherry on top of an excellent sundae ! I do like that you can watch the extras and the movie at the same time with commentary running. This and Batman Begins are the reasons you should own an HD DVD player ! Note: I have the HD DVD drive attached to my Xbox 360 and it works brilliantly !
Is it just me... April 27, 2007
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
...or is this the darkest black comedy ever made? I just find Casino so amusing and funny that I hardly even notice the grim violence and harrowing drama. I also think that Casino is far, far superior to the over-rated Goodfellas. Even though it's longer, it passes in a breeze. Casino is just so colorful, multi-layered and intricate despite it's apparent simplicity. The film has three different characters narrating the story but none of it feels like exposition and it's never over-bearing.
Adapted from a true story, the film focuses on the fictional Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. The boss is Sam 'Ace' Rothstein, his wife, volatile hustler Ginger and his psychotic 'friend' Nicky Santoro. All they needed to do was to keep the cash-flow at the Casino steady to satisfy the bosses back home. But it was just never meant to be. And everything implodes at the end.
Casino is filled with dozens of sub-plots, tangent stories and brilliant side-characters. James Woods is especially funny as a lowlife con-man who can't even win a fight with a ten-year-old girl. Vinny Vella also amuses as long-suffering Artie Piscano. But it's Sharon Stone who walks away with the movie. Despite starring opposite loads of well-established male lead actors she owns Casino. She was absolutely robbed at the Academy Awards when they gave the Oscar to Susan Sarandon. Stone delivered a performance so authentic that it's truly unfair the amount of criticism she gets for her other, less-important films.
The violence will satisfy gore fans. In this lovely film we have a dope with his head in a vice (after getting icepicks in his balls), a truly brutal beating with baseball bats, some moron getting a pen shoved into his neck and a cheater getting his hand mashed by a hammer. Don't let this put you off, that was the old Vegas. Nowadays you just get told not to come back.
I know most people will call it sacrilege to condemn Goodfellas but Casino is just the better film of the two, plain and simple. Better lighting, far more impressive cinematography and more entertaining characters. It just has so much going for it that Goodfellas did not.
The 1080p HD DVD is absolutely stunning and is surely reference quality stuff. The Dolby Digital+ sound is also amazing and there are plenty of extras. A total must-have.
Casino - Blu-ray Info October 8, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Version: U.S.A / Region A, B, C
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
VC-1 BD-50
Running time: 2:58:20
Movie size: 44,74 GB
Disc size: 48,10 GB
Average video bit rate: 19.23 Mbps
DTS-HD Master Audio English 4165 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 4165kbps (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 1536kbps)
DTS Audio French 768 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 768kbps
DTS Audio German 768 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 768kbps
DTS Audio Italian 768 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 768kbps
DTS Audio Japanese 768 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 768kbps
DTS Audio Spanish 768 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 768kbps
DTS Audio Spanish 768 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 24-bit / 768kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48kHz / 192kbps
DTS English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48kHz / 192kbps
Subtitles: English SDH / Chinese / Danish / Dutch / Finnish / French / German / Italian / Japanese / Korean / Norwegian / Spanish / Swedish
Number of chapters: 16
#Audio Commentary
#TV Specials (SD - 56 minutes)
#Deleted Scenes (SD - 5 minutes)
#U-Control - BonusView - Picture-in-Picture
 A good performance from Sharon April 23, 2007
5 out of 14 found this review helpful
At 178 minutes long, I was expecting to be bored throughout this film, despite everyone raves about this film, along with Goodfellas. And although I did get a bit restless during it, I did find myself sucked into the film and actually trying to work out what was going to come next.
It starts off with a shocking scene, and then is told in retrospective (or so you think), from ten years previously. I certainly sat up straight up when the film started, as this is the scene you're not expecting. Although when it's repeated towards the end, it does tend to go OTT, by showing it from every angle, and showing the viewer what exactly happened.
Visually, the film is very bright, with the neon lights of the casino, and Robert De Niro's colour blinding suits (who puts pink & orange together?!) Honestly when he first walked onto the screen, I thought his wardrobe was made up by a colour-blind person, as most of his suits were OTT bright, or clashed severely. The brightness of the casino is so well done in HD, you almost start to feel like you're there, it's so real, and captures the bright lights of Vegas perfectly.
I thought Sharon Stone's role was the best out of the entire film, as her character goes through such a journey during the film, and the physical changes in her character are shocking. Her character of Ginger is an ex-hooker, who marries Robert De Niro's character, despite not loving him in the slightest. I think she was seeing dollar signs before her eyes. She becomes a mother, and also turns to drink, which ultimately, leads to a shocking end.
This film is definitely not for the fainthearted. There's a closeup scene of someone snorting cocaine, and Sharon's character, Ginger, snorts some in front of her daughter. The F word is said a grand total of 422 times, a bit unnecessary, including in the narration, which makes it a total of 2.4 times per MINUTE on average. The chain smoking is quite harsh as well, as Robert De Niro constantly had a cigarette in his hand in nearly every single scene. (I pity any non-smoking crew on set.) It was necessary to portray what it was like in those days, when smoking was considered classy, and not frowned upon as it is today. I expected there to be some continuity problems that accompanies a chain-smoking character but Robert always held his cigarettes the same distance from the lit end so that their lengths never appear to change.
This film impressed me, and I can imagine it looks so much better in HD, so it would definitely be better than the old regular DVD. But everyone lumping it along with Goodfellas doesn't bode well, cos everyone HAS to like Goodfellas it seems. It's definitely one to watch on HD, and with a TV that's more like a cinema screen would be good too!
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