MOVIE REVIEW - The Wolf Of Wall Street

The new Martin Scorsese directed flick, The Wolf Of Wall Street is here, and is his latest flick starring his favorite actor and buddy, Leonardo DiCaprio.

This is based on a true story of Jordan Belfort in the late 1980's into the 1990's and his shady Wall Street company and his dealings.  That ultimately lead to his arrest by the FBI and the legal deal he strikes. That is not a spoiler, you know the whole time this is where it is going.  Sadly, that is about the only place it goes.  I was ready to really like this movie, and I am still ready, but there are too many problems.

This is far, far too long, clocking in at 3 hours.  40 minutes of it could have been edited out as the same point is made hour after hour.  These are bad guys in this movie. They are crooks, and they do drugs every minute of their lives.   For some reason they want to make sure you really are aware they do every drug you have ever heard of.  And they tell you scene after scene that they are really bad guys.  You get it after the first hour or so.

This movie is a good example of all these big names getting together and deciding that since they are all there, they might was well practice as much self-indulgent behavior as they can in a movie making sense.  This has many good points to it, but it also is so in love with itself in so many regards it forgot somewhere along the line that people other than themselves were going to watch it.

The story of Belfort is an interesting one at its core.  He is this young stockbroker that by his late 20's is stinking rich with his brokerage company by selling worthless stock to people who really can't afford it.  As they grow, they hit the big time and go on to make millions of dollars daily and with outrageous commissions for the brokers and themselves. Most of it illegal.

But this movie stalls out after the point is made.  It doesn't really have the guts to say anything.  Are they saying that is is terrible to be rich?  Not really.  Are they saying that Wall Street is corrupt?  Sort of, at least in this brokerage.  Are they saying you should or should not invest your money?  No. The only thing they really say is that this guy and his traveling troupe of entitled, selfish, drug addict, dirt bag, young people are total scum bags. And after a while you are numb to it.

You are also numb to the record setting use of the F-word in this movie, breaking Martin Scorsese's own Goodfellas record from 25 years ago.  There is plenty of  immensely crude language for all to enjoy in virtually every single sentence too.  It's not offensive, just fatiguing after 3 hours.  I have no doubt that is accurate to the story, but it is numbing. And in case you haven't seen your weekly allotted share of hooker sex in the office, you can get your fill here.  Because they must think that you didn't understand this was going on a this firm after 2 and half hours of watching this.

It's a shame about this movie.  I think  Decaprio was quite good in this movie as Belfort, and Jonah Hill too as his partner. The supporting cast is strong, and much of this is very interesting movie making.  But it is so belabored, and drawn out you feel like you're watching the same scene over and over again. And you are.  The Belfort story is an relatively interesting one, but that doesn't always make for a great motion picture.  

Scorsese's movies for many are mandatory viewing, and his fans will love this movie before they ever walk in and take a bite of popcorn (of which you will need the huge tub for this movie).  So this is really not going to get an honest look by many fans and critics.  But my feeling is this will be one his most forgettable movies.

The Wolf Of Wall Street.  Disappointing.  And insanely long.