Back Home Years Ago: The Real Casino Movie Review

Remember Scorsese's tepidly-received Casino? Well I do -- but barely.

Joseph Alexandre's Back Home Years Ago unfortunately arrives about eight years too late, long after we've forgotten the details of Casino. But if you have happened to, say, have caught the film on Showtime in the last couple of weeks, you might find a little insight in this behind the scenes look at the real people on whom Scorsese's movie was based. The rest of you will probably find the film mildly interesting but largely of little consequence.

As it turns out, all those crazy goombahs are based on real people -- and they even look like the real guys, especially that crazy Joe Pesci "Am I a clown to you?" character. Like any good mobsters (working out of Chicago) they're into violence and money and enjoy not getting caught for their deeds. That's the short of it, but you get the picture. To tell you more would ruin any surprise you might be holding out for.

Alexandre's film is largely talking heads (often in shadow) intercut with scenes and stills from Casino. The production values are just fine for a documentary -- and I'm impressed with the access Alexandre obtained with real-life mobsters, not to mention permission to excerpt scenes from a Scorsese film. He must be a made man himself (in which case, make this a five star review, baby)!