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I remember it like it was yesterday. The year was 1995. I was in London, Ontario watching Casino on the big screen. The theater was packed. The movie came to the scene where Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) sticks the guy's head in the vice and starts squeezing - and I started to laugh. And, I swear, every single person in the theater turned to look at me with disgust. How could I be laughing at that?! Easily. Joe Pesci is the man... And I'm the kind of person who likes to root for the bad guy.

Martin Scorsese's Casino tells the fact-based story of the fall of Las Vegas at the hands of the mob. Okay, maybe it's not that simple, but that's the basic setup. You've got Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro). The guy's a gambling genius so it's only right that he get his own casino. Then you've got Nicky (Pesci) who's the muscle sent to protect the mob's "Ace". The problem though, is that Nicky's a badass, and he soon starts to cause a few more problems than he's solved. And, when he starts fucking around with Ace's wife Ginger (Sharon Stone) it's the beginning of the end. Really, I shouldn't have to be explaining this to you. If you haven't seen this movie already, well, you deserve to get your ass kicked by Nicky Santoro.

If you can't tell already, I'm a fan of this movie. I love Scorsese. I love De Niro. I really like Pesci. However, I hate Sharon Stone - and if I were to say that there's anything wrong with this movie, it'd be her. Sure, you're not supposed to be sympathetic towards her character, but the fact that she's played by Stone only makes it that much worse.

For this 10th Anniversary DVD we get some excellent special features. On side one, there's "Moments with Martin Scorsese, Sharon Stone, Nicholas Pileggi and more" which serves as an audio commentary - sort of. Side two first includes a series of making-of featurettes. "Casino: The Story" brings us interviews with writer Nicholas Pileggi and director Martin Scorsese about how they turned this story into a movie. Next, "Casino: The Cast and Characters" looks at the actors that made the movie, and more importantly, gives a glimpse into who the people they portrayed were in real life. (The low-point here was where Sharon Stone broke down crying talking about the opportunity to work with Scorsese. I wanted to reach into my TV screen and put her head in a vice. Did I mention that I hate Sharon Stone?) In "Casino: The Look" we look at how the filmmakers recreated the 1970s casino look. The funny part here was hearing that some place didn't want the movie being filmed inside their casino because it would distract the gamblers. Funny stuff. Next, "Casino: After the Filming" looks at the editing of the movie.

The DVD's deleted scenes are a real treat. The problem with movies today, I find, is that it almost seems that they films scenes just to include them as "deleted" on the DVD. On Casino, however, you don't really get that feel - and it makes you appreciate it that much more.

Looking for a little Vegas/mob history? Check out the next couple of features including "Vegas and the Mob", a 15 minute looks at how Vegas all started...and ended, and then "History Alive: True Crime Authors: Casino with Nicholas Pileggi" which is a 45-minute History Channel documentary focusing on Pileggi and his source material.

Over the years, Vegas may have changed, but watching this DVD made me realize just how little I've changed. I still laughed at the guy's head in the vice. I still love Scorsese, De Niro and Pesci. And I still hate Sharon Stone. But, if there's one Sharon Stone movie that I don't mind being part of my DVD collection, Casino is it.