Casino is Better Than Goodfellas

No. It's good but not in the same league. It's not as iconic and Casino feels much longer. Goodfellas is one of the most seamless Hollwyood movies I have ever seen.

I used to say that OP after having seen Goodfellas so many times. But it's really not. Goodfellas is a near perfectly crafted film. Casino might be more entertaining but the 3rd act is too long and some of the plot line unfocused.

Op, you just like it because of the glamorous rise and fall of Sharon Stone's character with fabulous period clothing. Nothing more make Casino better.

OP is an idiot.

That's right, I said it.

[QUOTE] Op, you just like it because of the glamorous rise and fall of Sharon Stone's character with fabulous period clothing.

I couldn’t care less about either of those things, though I certainly appreciate Sharon’s performance. But the relationship between Ace and Nicky is my favorite thing about the film.

Aces High!

Casino is really the more entertaining movie, flaws and all.

[QUOTE] I used to say that OP after having seen Goodfellas so many times. But it's really not. Goodfellas is a near perfectly crafted film. Casino might be more entertaining but the 3rd act is too long and some of the plot line unfocused.

Are you kidding me? Like Goodfellas doesn’t take a steep dive off a cliff after Tommy gets wacked? Casino has a much stronger finish than Goodfellas. Joe Pesci provides the energy in both movies and Goodfellas suffers tremendously after he’s removed from the picture.

[QUOTE]Op, you just like it because of the glamorous rise and fall of Sharon Stone's character with fabulous period clothing.

Another reason I take issue with this is that I don’t sense a glamorous rise for Ginger. She was always the lowlife, druggie whore we see at the end.

After watching both movies with an open mind, willing to re-examine my opinion and change it, I still prefer Casino. But it’s hard to explain why.

It's simply not because it doesn't have the same emotional drive. In GF you care what happens to the characters. Casino is more stereotypical Scorsese where you don't care who lives or dies.

[quote]Casino is more stereotypical Scorsese where you don't care who lives or dies.

There is no such thing as "stereotypical Scorsese."

Goodfellas is one of the greatest films ever made. But I get why someone would say Casino is better simply because we know the ending of Goodfellas. It happened in real life. Casino was more character driven and the ending was unpredictable.

[quote] There is no such thing as "stereotypical Scorsese."

Ha! Darling, I went to film school.

Lorraine Bracco was robbed of her Best Supporting Oscar - by Whoopi Goldberg, no less.

Bracco is a cunt anyway. In disguise.

OP is an idiot of epic proportions.

[quote]It happened in real life.

So did Casino.

I never understood why Scorsese changed the names of the characters in the films. Both stories were already known and out there for public perusal. Most of the people were dead or in prison.

OP, I get it. You like what you like. It’s fine. I don’t think you’re an idiot.

R7, Ive always said this. But Goodfellas is a perfect film from a filmmaking point of view.

He changed the names and switched around some of their stories because of legal issues. Also, although many of the men involved were dead or in prison, their mafia crews were still active when the movie was released. Scorcese had to be careful about how he portrayed certain people in the story or he would've found himself in the trunk of a car.

The Academy Awards suffered one of their most embarrassing awards year ever when that steaming pile of dog shit that is Dances With Wolves beat out Goodfellas for both Best Director and Best Picture.

I liked The Age of Innocence more than both. Goodfellas is probably Marty's only great gangster movie. Maybe Mean Streets too. The rest of his mafia centric shit is worse than his other thematic outputs of movies about religion, mass media, and mental illness/isolation.

The stories of the main characters were well established. Paul Vario (Paulie) was dead. So was Tommy (DeVito) DeSimone. Jimmy (Conway) Burke was locked up and doing hard time when the movie came out. Anthony Spilotro (Nicky) and Gerri McGee (Ginger) were dead. Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal (Sam) got out of the game after the bomb attempt. And nobody ever sued the author of the books from which the films were made, so what did Scorsese have to fear? So it makes no sense why Scorsese changed their names.

Thanks for dropping in, R24.

I agree Robert Deniro is so hot in it. Basically the character he plays is my idea of a perfect man…except for the straight thing.

Personally prefer Goodfellas for its settings. Casino was entertaining but movies set in Vegas always fall a bit flat to me for some reason. Same with GF2, supposedly the best of the GF films. The casino scenes feel cheap (perhaps purposely?) compared with the rest of the film.

Casino is really overrated. It's fine and all, but really not great at all.

I like Don Rickles in it though, he's great.

[quote]R16 Bracco is a cunt anyway. In disguise.

Hmmm… a Stealth Cunt.

The Departed is better than Goodfellas. The Departed is his best film.

It's been years since I saw Casino but I remember enjoying the guys spying on Ginger (Stone) sleeping with Nicky (Pesci) . Also Ginger looking through all her jewelry.

I saw Casino in the theater and had a great time so OP I am with you, although I love Goodfellas too

I prefer Casino as well.

GoodFellas is a great film but I find Casino more entertaining.

And yes, Sharon Stone as Ginger McKenna was fucking fabulous.

And someone said Casino isn’t based on a true story! What!?!

When my friend went to LA, she took photos of the real Ginger’s grave. Geri McGee, she died the same exact way too.

The real Ginger:

It’s nice to see I’m not alone.

Both were amazing but I find "Casino" the better of the two.

I think it's more expansive and glamorous but not better.

No way. Casino is like the direct-to-video Disney sequel.

I agree. Goodfellas is unwatchable.

I wouldn’t call it unwatchable, R41, but certainly less enjoyable. Less eye-catching.

Stone is a terrible actress. She looks amazing but her over-enunciation is so bad she makes Bo Derek sound like a good actress. She ruined Casino for me.

Casino is more entertaining because it's truly one of the classic old school hoollywood films with 3 giant leads. And the performances are so strong. No one hams it up. And the dynamic between them is just very captivating. But it's too long and the first act is too long. Goodfellas is the better film.

I couldn't even make it through the first half hour of Goodfellas -- and I tried more than once. But I've watched Casino probably 20 times.

Then again, I'm a lesbian.

I prefer Casino to Goodfellas, also, OP.

OP, your opinion is worthless.

"Goodfellas" is a cohesive, witty, thematically complex story of "the life" with amazing images and the usual Scorcese gift for shocks and laughs.

"Casino" is a shallow and poorly written pastiche with all the depth and insightfulness of a Mississippi casino with the paint peeling off its entrance. Glitter didn't help.

I prefer "Taxi Driver" to both.

Watched it again last weekend and did not think it was better or worse than Goodfellas, because it's more of a "relationship" film than most movies in its genre. I didn't particularly care for it, but it's a good film. Goodfellas, however, is more engaging and faster paced, because it isn't bogged down by the drama scenes of a drug addict wife's histrionics.

Casino is more glamorous but GF has a better story line.

^^ I’d agree with this. The pacing in Goodfellas is better. Casino has great things in it (including Sharon Stone’s performance) but the story starts meandering and you’re not as connected.

The costume designer said Ginger’s coat is black and white in this scene because she and the marriage are really starting to fracture.

R32 I love the part where Ginger is sifting through her treasure trove of baubles as well!

The blueberry muffin scene in Casino is great!

It's a good film but Goodfellas is superior.

Why, R55?

R43, your bugging. I'm not saying she's a Glen Close but she's dam good in Casino.

Here, R57, you dropped these: "e," "n," "n."

R51, Agreed. I starting to enjoy Casino better just because I had seen Goodfellas so many times. Casino is very entertaining but it drags on. There is no scene that is unnecessary or doesn't have a purpose in Goodfellas. It's a perfect film.

I love Ginger.

She was different from similar characters like Elvira from Scarface and Penelope from Blow.

She wasn’t just a gold digger, she was a hustler and when Sam took that away from her, she started to rot away. She thought the money would make her happy but it was making money that made her happy. Cause she’d give it all to her scumbag boyfriend in the end but she thrived working for it.

Sam killed her in the end. He took away the one thing she was good at and her depression took over and she was left with nothing but escapism through drugs.

And on the other end with Sam, Ginger was his downfall. He could control everything in his life but her. I don’t think he was in love with her, he was a narcissist and she was his trophy.

R60, excellent points.

From the audiobook of how Frank met Geri, follows pretty closely to the movie.

Another excerpt

1 more video

Geri appears at 1:35. The sound cuts off once the dancing talks but its an opportunity to see the real Ginger McKenna.

Pesci has funnier material in Casino.

Agreed. But there's a lot of movies better than Goodfellas, since it's generally awful.

[quote]R60 I love Ginger. She was different from similar characters like Elvira from Scarface and Penelope from Blow.

I like her because she starts right out by telling Sam that she doesn’t love him. She’s being honest. He tells her she can leave if it doesn’t work, but then uses his money to hold her hostage.

I think what the mob did in Las Vegas is fascinating. Casino feels like a much more expansive story to me. And De Niro’s and Pesci’s characters were more interesting.

These are two of my favorite films. I think they are both great in their own way. I honestly cannot choose which one I like better. I watch them over and over again and always catch something that I didn’t notice before. I even watch them on tv, heavily edited and sounding like this……

Stuff you! STUFF YOU! 😂

Sharon made that film.

R71 obviously saw the TNT broadcast.

Many actresses either auditioned or were considered for the role of Ginger, but supposedly the actress who came closest to being cast before Sharon Stone was ex-porn star Traci Lords, who turned in a very impressive audition.

R67 Right she made her intensional clear and that she saw it as a transactional relationship and he understood that because he knew he had to work for her love. All he could provide was money.

She was absolutely right about feeling treated like a dog or a pony because that’s what she was to him.

You read comments on YouTube of these scenes and men don’t understand that at all.

[quote]The Academy Awards suffered one of their most embarrassing awards year ever when that steaming pile of dog shit that is Dances With Wolves beat out Goodfellas for both Best Director and Best Picture.

Absolutely. Goodfellas should've won, it's a brilliant film, one of the greatest ever made. Who even cares about Dances With Wolves?

And Dances With Wolves would never get made today. A "White Savior" movie - Kevin Costner coming in an saving all the Native Americans. A white woman (Mary McDonnell) playing a Native American woman. It would be a total shitshow of controversy today.

I watched Casino again last night. Everytime it ends with Ace sitting at his desk, it feels like I just finished reading a great book.

“And that’s that.” 👓

Inspired by this thread along with the recent death of Ray Liotta, I rewatched Goodfellas on HBOMax last night with the intention to follow it up with Casino in the next few days. It’s truly a powerhouse film; perfect script, perfect casting, perfect soundtrack, perfect cinematography, perfect everything more or less. Young Henry is so compelling and eerily evocative of Liotta that it’s almost unnerving, I hope that actor has had a decent career since. Also, the one day in 1980 section is absolutely hair-raising… anyone who has ever been been any level of coked up and paranoid can relate to the utter insanity and mania that this section perfectly conjures. Pesci was much more attractive and alluring than k remember (then again, I’m much closer to his age now than when I last saw the film a decade or two ago). Two missteps: the hair is a bit too 80s influenced in the 50s/60s scenes and I’m not entirely sure I agree with the decision to have the over the top “flashback” of Pesci gunning us down in the insert during the final shot of Henry in Witness Protection. At the time of its release I’m sure this was considered a coup de cinema final “fuck yeah!” as Scorsese was compelled to do, but it feels a little cheap and over the top and unnecessarily violent… but, then again, this is a FILM about people being cheap, over the top and unnecessarily violent, based on fact.

Also, I couldn’t help but laugh at the “confrontation” between Karen and “that whore” Janice Rossi as being the Italian American gangster inverse of the Jewish/Wasp other woman scenario in Crimes & Misdemeanors, with Delores’s manic “I want to speak to Miriam!” scene. Very amusing juxtaposition.

The real life Ginger and Nicky.

R74 In an interview Sharon Stone did in Vanity Fair in 1996, she said that DeNiro really pushed for Lords.

Thank God Sharon Stone got it instead.

RIP Pat Webb

Comparing Casino and Goodfellas fails because they are two different types of film.

Goodfellas is the rise and collapse of a focused individual gangster.

Casino is the rise and collapse of a broad criminal system.

Goodfellas, all fucking day long it's going to be Goodfellas.

Casino is an imitation of Goodfellas and it's not as good as Goodfellas by any stretch of the imagination. It's never been as good. It's never going to be as good.

I don’t think Casino is an imitation of anything.

its prettier than goodfellas. Lots of eye candy. Double the budget. Different cinematographer--for Casino, Scorsese worked with Robert Richardson, who knows how to capture eye popping stuff.

Richardson did most of Oliver Stone's hit films (JFK, Natural Born Killers, Platoon, Wall Street) and most of Tarantino's films (including Kill Bill).

Goodfellas was gritty. Casino was a visual buffet. But same exact style with same origin a heavily researched true story adapted by the journalist turned screenwriter. only for casino, he wrote the book at the same time he was writing the script

L.Q. Jones directed "A Boy and His Dog," which starred the young and very cute Don Johnson (1975).

Battle Cry was LQ Jones' first movie and played a Marine named LQ Jones. He thought that would look better in the credits than his real name Justus E. McQueen.

Lorainne Bracco’s narration in GF is horrible

Lorraine Bracco turned down the role of Carmela Soprano because she thought it was too similar to the role of Karen Hill.

I like Bracco as an actor but her narration is definitely horrible bordering on annoying. De Niro sounded much more like someone recounting their life story. I've seen enough of Goodfellas to last a lifetime but I'm always happy to rewatch Casino. Casino all the way.

Joe Pesci plays GF like a comedy, Casino was a better performance for him and DeNiro. Had Goodfellas never been made Casino would be seen as Gone With The Wind level and would’ve swept the Oscars. Stone was robbed by Susan. Her performance is amazing.

Indeed, R93. I always felt like Goodfellas steps on Casino’s success.

[QUOTE] Joe Pesci plays GF like a comedy, Casino was a better performance for him and DeNiro.

I’ve always said that both Pesci and De Niro had better performances in Casino than Goodfellas.

Joe Pesci still running his mouth as the mob guys were burying him in the desert made he laugh out loud. I bet it isn't very far from the truth either.

Ginger was almost like an incarnation of Vegas itself. Beautiful, glitzy, seductive, but predatory and destructive under the covers.

Casino is a very good movie. Goodfellas works on you like a drug. It became what it portrayed.

R24 is going to sleep with the fishes for that post.

[QUOTE] Joe Pesci still running his mouth as the mob guys were burying him in the desert made he laugh out loud. I bet it isn't very far from the truth either.

Nope. You couldn’t get a better portrayal of Tony Spilotro than what Pesci provided.

Took 3 months but I’m finally watching Casino for the first time this year. I love this movie!

I've always thought so, but that's for me. I never liked Goodfellas that much, even though I understand it's prestige and reputation.

“Casino” is the far superior film and Sharon Stone was robbed of the Oscar for her breathtaking and shattering performance, one of the great injustices in cinema history.

I prefer Casino, for the enhanced production value, styling, cinematography, and also for the change of setting. That period of Vegas history is the most interesting, IMO.

GFs is an amazing film, love them both, but I can always rewatch Casino, same can't be said for GFs.

[quote] Joe Pesci still running his mouth as the mob guys were burying him in the desert made he laugh out loud.

He and his brother were killed and buried in an Indiana cornfield.

[quote] I bet it isn't very far from the truth either.

Other than being a couple of thousand miles off on the location?

Crap. I thought this came from Goodfellas. It's still good:

Oh, Michael. Michael, you are blind. It wasn't a miscarriage. It was an abortion. An abortion, Michael. Just like our marriage is an abortion. Something that's unholy and evil. I didn't want your son, Michael! I wouldn't bring another one of you sons into this world! It was an abortion, Michael! It was a son Michael! A son! And I had it killed because this must all end!

Casino has House of the Rising Sun.

Winner.

Casino is too long and makes the same point too many times. E.g., in how many ways can you say DeNiro's character was a simp.

Also, Joe Pesci had an obvious fresh facelift in Casino and it was distracting.

Goodfellas had more characters, each were interesting. It was just tighter.

No way. Casino was a not nearly as successful movie that reused similar characters. Except the best one Ray Liotta. The book wasn’t nearly as good as Wise Guy (Goodfellas) either.

One of my favorite Scorsese scenes from all of his movies. Masterclass!!!

I love Casino and Goodfellas equally. Ray Liotta was gorgeous.

Don't buy wigs that come off at the wrong time.

I always assumed Ray Liotta was average/verging on pudgy based on his 90s/00s output but seeing Something Wild, one of his first big roles in the 80s, he was super fit and pretty ripped given the era… ditto Jeff Daniels (who knew?)… pleasant surprises.

Goodfellas is fascinating, Casino is not.

I love both. I hate hate Sharon Stone so that kind of hurts Casino in my book.

R13- Neither of these movies are in the same league as the Godfather and the Godfather part two.

That’s a shame, R116. It drives me nuts when great films are ruined by actors I hate. I’m not the biggest Sharon Stone fan either and I wish there was less Ginger, but I just take it in stride. It’s such a fascinating story and I love the way Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi told it.

R112 That scene is why people go to the movies.

Goodfellas is superior to Casino. It should have won Best Picture but it was given to Dances with Wolves. Almost always westerns with Costner.

Casino gave a new generation an appreciation of House of the Rising Sun.

ABSOLUTELY NOT

I think one of the reasons I like Casino more is that it gives us all De Niro and Pesci instead of having Ray Liotta get in the way. They’re the stars of the movie rather than supporting actors.

Once Upon a Time in America beats 'em all

Both are equally good, you combative cunts!

Godfather II beats them all.

That pic is horrible - how the fuck did Joe Pesci get the best angle of all 3 of them?

I hate Joe Pesci - plays the same loud character every time, then he gets lauded for playing Mafia tough guys when he used to be in the Mafia in NJ himself.

Fuck outta here, R127. You clearly haven’t seen The Irishman, a film role for which Pesci should’ve won Best Supporting Actor.

And that fucking picture is amazing. Are you kidding me? I went through a painstaking effort to choose the right photo for this thread. It’s from the Casino poster which is classic. I wish I had it hanging up on a wall somewhere.

Great review of the film: “Scorsese’s Overlooked Masterpiece“

If any other director came out with this film, it would’ve won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

I like it a lot more

I was molested in a casino. He was not a goodfella.

DeNiro in this role looks and fashion wise is nearly my perfect man

I just watched Goodfellas a couple nights ago and it made me think of this comparison. I think Nicky is a better character than Tommy. He’s more realistically menacing. And they really flesh the character out. A lot of people would refuse to entertain this because he won the Academy Award for Goodfellas but I just enjoy Pesci more in Casino.

I didn’t like anybody in “Goodfellas.” Was I supposed to feel badly when Pesci got whacked? Because his character was a psycho. And when Bracco describes how insular everything was, I felt claustrophobic.

I’m not one for many mob movies anyway.

Absolutely not. They tried a copy of Goodfellas and failed miserably.

It isn’t a copy. The differences outweigh the similarities.