So long as Casino stays focused on the excesses -- of language, of violence, of ambition -- in the life-styles of the rich and infamous, it remains a smart, knowing, if often repetitive, spectacle.
Scorsese may be flailing here, but Scorsese flailing is more formidable than most directors at the top of their form.
Common Sense Media
January 01, 2011
Violent story of vice and virtue not for kids.
Variety
May 16, 2008
Martin Scorsese's intimate epic about money, sex and brute force is a grandly conceived study of what happens to goodfellas from the mean streets when they outstrip their wildest dreams and achieve the pinnacle of wealth and power.
Newsweek
March 31, 2008
It's not the actors' fault that no one is able to break through the film's gorgeous but chilly surface. You watch Casino with respect and appreciation, reveling in its documentary sense of detail.
[Stone] seems to be trying to enter a more passionate movie, where a neurotic gold digger could at least have a good time. By the end of Casino, for all its craftsmanly bravura, you may want to join her.