10 reasons why 'Casino' may be Scorsese's most underrated movie

Casino often gets a bad rap.

It's compared unfavorably to GoodFellas. It gets beat up for being too long. And because it's the last collaboration (to date) between De Niro and Scorsese it's sometimes erroneously faulted for breaking up that legendary partnership.

These are any number of reasons why I personally believe these perceptions are wrong.

There are some striking similarities between GoodFellas and Casino, including the casting of De Niro and the great Joe Pesci in lead roles. But they are also wildly different films with a different message.

One is about the seduction of being a gangster and the other is about the excess of Vegas. The movie is long but it's not boring. De Niro and Scorsese have nearly collaborated several times since but scheduling difficulties got in the way.

As I've said before, Martin Scorsese is my favorite director. So perhaps I'm a little biased. But there is more interesting and fun stuff in Casino than in most of the other movies released that year (no offense to Babe).

I got to revisit the film on the big screen during a Brooklyn Academy of Music series on the work of Scorsese, and although I yet again had to contend with an obnoxious hipster crowd (I hate when an authentic piece of period fashion gets dumb obvious laughs), I really had a great time with this sprawling epic.

Here are 10 reasons why I feel this film deserves masterpiece consideration alongside Scorsese's more celebrated films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Mean Streets and yes, GoodFellas:

1) This is one of Scorsese's funniest movies. There's all these little touches like when someone talks about "back home years ago" in voiceover narration and the text 'Back Home Years Ago' appears over the flashback. Or the awkward byplay between De Niro and a police officer (apparently a real cop, not an actor) as they settle a domestic dispute with this wife. Casino is just filled with these hilarious incidental moments.

2) The use of music in this film is brilliant. Wild swings from Devo's "I Can't Get No (Satisfaction)" to the theme from Godard's Contempt somehow make sense in a film that is purposefully grand and excessive. The use of "Love Is Strange" when De Niro spots Sharon Stone's character for the first time is just perfection.

3) Speaking of Sharon Stone, she is really quite terrific in this movie. It's not an easy role. She has to be hysterical and wasted throughout much of it and not particularly likable either (late in the film she nonchalantly ties her own child to a bed so she can go out and leave the girl at home). But she totally throws herself into the part and holds her own alongside heavyweights like Pesci, De Niro and James Woods. It's a shame her off-screen antics have sidetracked her career.

Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci in Casino

4) I am always so impressed with how much information is in this movie. It's not just entertainment, it's an education on how Las Vegas actually worked when the mob ran the show. And the film isn't afraid to go off on tangents to really illustrate things like how cheaters were caught and dealt with or how skimming worked.

5) De Niro plays a really neurotic out-of-character part. His Ace Rothstein, despite his bluster, is not a tough guy. He never beats anyone up and if anything he gets bullied by the Stone and Pesci characters. His perfectionism and arrogance is his downfall. The scene where he flips out over the lack of blueberry distribution in his muffin is priceless.

6) Joe Pesci gives my favorite performance in the movie. Only he could make a short, overweight, middle aged man such a figure of menace. I regularly site the scene where he has a guy's head in a vice as one of my all time favorite black comic moments. And he has a truly compelling speech about how he doesn't fear prison, which is what essentially makes his character a badass.

7) The outfits that De Niro wears are somehow both incredibly cool and totally ludicrous. He has such swagger that I found myself both admiring the way he looks at times and then being so amused by how willing an actor of his stature is to look silly.

8) I am a huge fan of actors playing against type (think Albert Brooks in Drive) and this film is filled with unexpected dramatic turns from legendary comedic actors like Dick Smothers, Don Rickles and Alan King. These colorful characters add so much flavor to the story and enhance its authenticity.

9) While he doesn't beat you over the head with it, Scorsese works some smart socio-political commentary into his film as well. The gaming industry powers-that-be are no less corrupt and unsavory than the gangsters. There is no shortage of anti-Semitism rampant in this world and this film doesn't shy away from it.

10) I love the movie's use of voice-over and violence. Neither of which are over-used and when they are utilized it's totally necessary. This movie does something I've never seen before -- it cuts off someone's voice-over mid sentence when they're brutally murdered, such an audacious choice. And the movie's violence, while occasionally gruesome, makes you feel its impact, which I think is important.

Casino is not Scorsese's best film and it's definitely not for everyone's taste. But it deserves further consideration and I think will ultimately go down as one of this celebrated director's classic works.