‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, directed by Martin Scorsese, is the true story of New York Stockbroker, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), who in the late 1980’s goes from selling penny stocks and IPO’s to a life of total corruption.
Jordan found success in his early 20’s, as the founder of the brokerage firm, Stratton Oakmont…It’s there that he got the title, The Wolf of Wall Street.
His life was all about money, power, women, sex and drugs…Lots and lots of drugs including Qualudes, coke, and crack.
Jordan became so wealthy that nothing was out of his reach, as long as it had a price tag. But no matter how rich he became, it was never enough to satisfy his insatiable appetite.
Jordan was basically a immoral dude…He didn’t care how many people he hurt…He’d wipe out his own grandmother, if it meant putting money in his pocket….Sound familiar? That’s right. There is absolutely no difference between Belcort and all the Bernie Madoffs that almost destroyed our economy, as well as the lives of so many people.
Speaking of people…The only people Jordan was loyal to were the men in his inner circle, including, his right hand guy and fellow crook, Donnie Azoff, (Jonah Hill, who’s never been better)
Jordan can’t even be honest with his beautiful, hot, sexy wife, Naomi, (Australian actress, the very talented Margo Robbie) who he professes to love more than anything on earth.
The film is outrageously funny…From DeCaprio’s and Hill’s brilliant demonstration of what it’s like to overdose on Quaaludes and to the over the top naked orgies, there’s nothing Belcort and his crew wouldn’t do to have a little fun and spend their millions.
In my not so humble opinion, ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’ is one of Scorsese’s best films in a long time.
Yes, it’s a comedy, but ultimately, it’s the story about a man, that becomes so addicted to power, that he actually believes, he’s unstoppable and that no one, especially the FBI, could ever bring him down. In the end, there’s nothing funny about that.
Leonard DiCaprio is absolutely brilliant, capturing all of Jordan’s layers…His charm, his sense of entitlement, and most importantly, thanks to a brilliant scene with Matthew McConaughey, where he learned how to sell anything to anyone.
Rounding out the cast is Rob Reiner as DiCaprio’s father, Kyle Chandler as the FBI agent, who makes it his mission to destroy Jordan and his empire, and Jean Dujardin (‘the Artist’) as a Swiss banker, who is kind enough to help Belcort hide his many millions.
‘The Wolf of Wall Street, written by Terence Winter, (‘The Sopranos’, ‘Boardwalk Empire’) based on Belfort’s autobiography, is definitely my favorite film of the year, with ‘American Hustle’ right behind it.
So of course, I gave ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’, which opens in theatres, Christmas Day, December 25, 2013, five bagels out of five, with everything on them..
Check out our video for more of my thoughts and what I think John’s bagel rating would have been.
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