Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Movie Review: "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013)
I am trying to come up with the words to summarize how I feel about the movie The Wolf of Wall Street (directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio). A lot of words come to mind…debauchery, decadence, immoral, vulgar to name a few. I think the biggest one for me is…obnoxious. How this movie got nominated for a Best Picture Oscar is a total mystery to me. OK, I know why…Scorsese & DiCaprio. The last movie I saw that these two were attached to was Shutter Island which I liked because I liked the book and before that…The Departed, which I REALLY liked. Wolf? Not so much. It left me saying “Really, Martin? Really?" Fortunately, the same weekend I watched this movie, I watched 2 other Oscar-nominated movies which far surpass this one...Dallas Buyer's Club & Her.
Jordan Belfort (played by DiCaprio) narrates this film (and it’s kind of annoying). He is a stockbroker who starts working for a brokerage firm in 1987 in his early 20's and then Black Monday hits putting him out of a job. He starts looking for a new job and lands one with a small firm who specializes in trading penny stocks & essentially robbing poor people. He eventually makes it big in this industry and starts his own firm with his neighbor Donnie Azoff (played by Jonah Hill). This is when his life of corruption, money-laundering, etc. starts. As his wealth grows, so does his debaucherous lifestyle. He (along with many of his friends, business partners, etc.) do a lot of drugs (most notably Quaaludes & cocaine), hire a lot of prostitutes, throw lavish parties, etc. His first marriage falls apart, but of course he marries a beautiful model (Naomi, played by Margot Robbie) to replace her. And that falls apart as well. His life is a mess and eventually, it all comes crumbling down because the FBI is hot on his trail led by agent Denham (played by Kyle Chandler)...but he doesn't get everything that he deserves (in my opinion).
I think this movie is awful and incredibly over-the-top. Since when does 3 hours of nonstop swearing, drug use, gratuitous nudity, and other debauchery on screen constitute quality? Apparently it does nowadays since this movie has been nominated for 5 Oscars. It should be nominated for 100 Razzies instead. I think Scorsese should be embarrassed for making a movie like this as it has very few (no?) redeeming qualities. And he didn't even use good music as he usually does...sigh.
I've wasted enough time on this movie both with watching it and writing this review, so I will stop now & give my rating...2.0/10 stars
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1 comment:
I agree with most topics pointed out in your review. Being a S&D fan of the Departed and Shutter Island, I looked forward to watching WWS. I agree it was highly graphic and filled with graphic parties and mass drug use, but in essence, wasn't that the true point? To show the downfall of the "Wolf's" character and how life in excess ends in misery? I enjoyed this movie for the fact that it showed an adaptation of a true story (perhaps an X rating should have been chosen)and the rise and downward spiral drugs and cheating can only be rewarded.
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