When Martin Scorsese teamed with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci for Goodfellas, they made movie magic, but their underrated follow-up film deserves more attention than it gets. Though he has made movies in a myriad of genres in his lengthy career, Martin Scorsese’s gangster films are truly his lasting cinematic legacy. From his humble beginnings with Mean Streets to sprawling epics like The Irishman, Scorsese has found ways to reinvent the tropes of the gangster film while embracing the fundamentally flawed characters they produce. All along the way, Robert De Niro has been his most consistent creative partner.

Starting with the aforementioned Mean Streets in 1973, De Niro would return again and again to work with Scorsese, and he was occasionally joined by Joe Pesci. The latter actor didn’t work nearly as many times with Scorsese, but films like Raging Bull and Goodfellas showed that the director/actor partnership could be just as fruitful. Following the success of Goodfellas, De Niro and Scorsese would reunite for Cape Fear, but the trio wouldn’t get back together until a few years later. Scorsese, De Niro, and Pesci came together for another amazing gangster epic in 1995, but it’s largely forgotten.

Casino Was A Worthy Follow-Up To Goodfellas

The 1995 Gangster Movie Had Big Shoes To Fill

It’s not hyperbolic to say that Goodfellas is one of the greatest gangster movies of all time. It deftly balances a huge roster of intricate characters, and earns its epic length by telling a compelling story of one man’s rise and eventual collapse. 1995’s Casino was Scorsese, De Niro, and Pesci’s next stab at the genre, and it manages to be a worthy successor to Goodfellas. Trading out one mafia haven for another, Casino shifts focus to Las Vegas and tells just one of the many interesting crime stories that built the city of sin in the early ’70s.

• Casino is now streaming on HBO Max.

Casino also features a mᴀssive ensemble and epic running time, and follows a similar plot structure about the rise and fall of one man and how it impacts the lives of those around him. There were a ton of excellent gangster movies in the 1990s, but Casino had the added benefit of Scorsese’s deft direction and strong acting from De Niro and Pesci, among many others. Casino doesn’t try to break the mold, and hits many of the same beats as its predecessor. That is perhaps why the film failed to gain the same attention and recognition as Goodfellas.

Why Does Casino Get Less Praise Than Goodfellas?

The 1995 Film Is Too Much Like Goodfellas For Its Own Good

A magic trick performed twice in a row suddenly becomes a lot less interesting, and that is likely what doomed Casino to always play second fiddle to Goodfellas. While both films are some of the best that the genre has to offer, Casino suffers because it was made after Goodfellas, and was therefore relegated to cinematic obscurity. If the movies were swapped in the timeline, Casino would probably be better remembered, though it would still be overshadowed by Goodfellas. The 1995 follow-up is a great film on its own, but it falls just short of Goodfellas in overall quality.

Scorsese had honed the gangster genre down to a fine point by 1990, and Goodfellas feels something like the closing remarks for the entire corner of cinema. Earlier gangster films like Public Enemy put their stamp on the genre, and later movies like The Godfather elevated things. Goodfellas came along later and built upon all the ideas that had evolved the gangster movie in the past, and Casino was left with nothing new to say about its own subject.

Harold Hill’s demise in Goodfellas is the archetypal rise and fall of a criminal, but Sam Rothstein’s implosion in Casino is just a little bit less interesting. Casino is just as well-made as its predecessor, if not better, but it does get somewhat tangled up in its own narrative. Both films are sprawling in their scope, but Goodfellas is more focused when compared to Casino. The script’s reach was greater than its grasp in the case of Casino, and it stumbled ever so slightly. On the flip side, Goodfellas is airтιԍнт and not a single moment is superfluous.

After This, Scorsese, De Niro & Pesci Wouldn’t Make A Movie Together Until 2019

The Trio Returned For Yet Another Movie Many Years Later

After Casino, the careers of Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci would diverge. Scorsese would shift focus to other subjects, De Niro would branch out to new roles, and Pesci would soon partially retire from acting altogether. However, they did reunite for 2019’s The Irishman, and essentially capped off their trilogy of epic gangster films that started with Goodfellas nearly 30 years earlier. The Netflix original film was the first time that Scorsese worked with Al Pacino, and the gangster movie legend fit right in with the director’s usual actors.

The trio’s gangster movies include:

The Irishman was a critical darling and a welcome return to the genre for those involved, but it clearly falls short of both Goodfellas and Casino. It has all the same parts and pieces as its two predecessors, but suffers from the same problems as the 1995 film. While The Irishman is a great film on its own, it falters in comparison to Goodfellas and even the underrated Casino.