The relationship between these two is well depicted. In a sense Robert De Niro reprises Harvey Keitel's role in Mean Streets, while Pesci's role is similiar to De Niro's in that movie.
The story though has shades of Mean Streets a lot, two friends in crime, and one having to face problems due to his hot headed friend's criminal activities.
Often overshadowed by other Marty gangster classics like Goodfellas, Mean Streets, personally would rate this among my favorites. There is also the gold digger Ginger McKenna(Sharon Stone), a former hustler, who marries him for the money, while cheating on the side with her long time boyfriend Lester Diamond(James Woods). While he successfully manages to get the Casino into profits, he has to deal with his hot headed friend Nicky Santoro(Joe Pesci), whose own parallel criminal activites, get the attention of the law. Casino based on the book by Nicholas Pileggi, revolves around Sam Rothstein(Robert De Niro), an expert handicapper, asked to look after the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas by the Chicago Outfit.
