After reading Jordan Belfort’s entertaining autobiography of the same name back in 2007, my expectations for The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) were fairly high. Then again, my expectations will always be high for any film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese. Overall, it was a pleasant viewing experience.
As I have posted before, my favorite film of all-time is Goodfellas (1990), also directed by Scorsese, and also based on a real-life story. The parallels between Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street are interesting, insofar as the cataloguing of an individual who chooses a path to criminal behavior as boys/young men and never looks back as the crimes pile up.
Whereas Goodfellas spent a bit more time fleshing out when things went awry for Henry Hill and his gang (and of course dealt with violent crimes, unlike the white collar crimes of Belfort and his crew), The Wolf of Wall Street chose to focus on the intricacies of Belfort’s cunning, extravagant and, ultimately, doomed stock-broker empire.
To be clear, I am not placing this one on the same level as Goodfellas. Much like Casino (1995), Scorsese seems to be drawing on his Goodfellas success a bit too much.
But on its own merits, The Wolf of Wall Street is a very entertaining film featuring an impressive cast, certainly worthy of a viewing even if it is over three hours long.
DiCaprio shows his acting range, once again, and asserts himself to be as estimable as any leading man in Hollywood over the past decade, despite the many snubs by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Oscars. Also impressive are Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Rob Reiner, and Kyle Chandler.
Loved the book, thought the movie was good, focused way to much on the lifestyle/decadence. It took Scorsese 5 minutes to show what a mess drugs made Henry Hill into, wish he used the time better in this one, still entertaining though.
Really? DiCaprio’s problem is he’s none to deep even Molly Bloom says he’s a puppy dog at the table compared to that Tobey McQuire weasel, yeah Spiderman with chutzpah, too funny.
Liked this movie. Watched it on the transatlantic to London after giving the Secret Life of Wilford Brimley or whatever the hell it was all of 30 second before I decided it sucked. I turned this on and before I knew it… 3 hours later.