Lesser version of Goodfellas

Casino is the story of Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert de Niro) and Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) taking over Las Vegas. It describes how the italian mafia makes a huge amount of cash and how they have everyone in town in their pocket thanks to generous tips.

It is very similar to Goodfellas but it has flaws than the original masterpiece doesn't. This kind of comparaison might be unfair to Casino as it would be hard to equal such a great film but these two being so similar and from the same director, I can't help but do it.
First, it's unnecessarily long. All the elements to make the plot progress are in place pretty quickly, and there's not much of a twist, but the film still progresses slowly and the ending takes forever. Nowadays, you don't see a 3h long movie anymore, this film didn't specially make me regret that. When I check my watch and there's still an hour remaining, it's not a good sign.
Secondly, it has a lot less energy and rhythm. The edit and the soundtrack accompanying it is much less dynamic.
Thirdly, Joe Pesci as a narrator in voice over just doesn't work for me.

What I liked was the transition from first to second act, the feeling of ineluctability starts shaping itself when de Niro gets married and Joe Pesci starts getting bolder, you see where this is heading, and there's no escape from it. Time after time, a chance at redemption is given and denied only to descent further into trouble.
The character that I found particularly good was Ace's wife Ginger. She's greedy like the others but more important, more dangerous, she's irrational. She feels entitled to everything in the world and will flip the tables at the first sign that she won't get what she believe is rightfully hers. She's a warning to us. There's a lot of irrational people out there and they will flip the table before you can react because they have a lot less patience than you do.