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Wolf of Wall Street. Terrible.

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LoBagola

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I haven't watched a movie for nearly 2 years, and this was the first. I walked out after less than an hour. Within that hour there was fuck fuck fuck, money, money, cocaine, hot bitches. Great. Real entertaining. Did anyone here like this? Why?

 

What a rough re-entry into movie watching. Exact description of the movie.It is just comical. That is all your brain takes away from watching that movie, "man, there was a lot of fucking, coke, hot bitches, pissing away money". 

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The movie was over about an hour in, the rest was just repeat; sex, drugs, alcohol, sex, drugs, cars, etc. Rehashed screenplay, weak dialogue, and weaker character development. Nothing too grandiose besides the budget. Both Scorsese and DiCaprio have done better. Not to mention the atrocious character of Jonah Hill to bring unnecessary levity to every scene. 

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The Wolf of Wall Street looked like Hollywood's mantra of "business bad" so I avoided it like the plague.  Ever sense the laughably poor Avatar I’ve given up on any business themes from arts and entertainment. 

 

I find some of the best films to be the cartoons or the Marvel films.  I watched Brave recently and found it wonderful on several levels.  The theme was about free will (choosing our own fate) and the story was about the love between a daughter and her mother.  Simple and good. 

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I haven't watched a movie for nearly 2 years, and this was the first. I walked out after less than an hour. Within that hour there was fuck fuck fuck, money, money, cocaine, hot bitches. Great. Real entertaining. Did anyone here like this? Why?

 

The movie was over about an hour in, the rest was just repeat; sex, drugs, alcohol, sex, drugs, cars, etc. Rehashed screenplay, weak dialogue, and weaker character development. Nothing too grandiose besides the budget. Both Scorsese and DiCaprio have done better. Not to mention the atrocious character of Jonah Hill to bring unnecessary levity to every scene. 

 

Yeah, the movie definitely wasn't over an hour in, and if you walked out at that point you basically missed the point of the movie.

 

 ****SPOILERS FOLLOW.******

 

The theme of the movie, in my view, was the fantasy of 'something for nothing,' played out in its most extreme form.  DiCaprio's character (Jordan Belfort) basically walks into a stock trading firm and figures out a way to make millions of dollars with nothing more than smooth talk (and fraud).  For a lot of people, this is basically their ideal life, and the movie certainly indulges in showing this fantasy brought to life on the big screen (for most of the movie, in fact).  DiCaprio effortlessly makes millions of dollars, sleeps around endlessly, takes every drug known to man, and soon 'trades up' from his original wife to a supermodel.  The culture at his trading firm is animalistic, based around the employees indulging every base urge while being 'predators' with regards to their clients.  Indeed, much of the mileage and all of the comedy in the movie comes from indulging in this scenario.  Inevitably, however, it is revealed as the fantasy it is and all comes crashing down.  By the end of the movie, he has lost his wife and his kids, his trading firm, and spent years in prison.  Indeed, I remember being surprised at just how dark it got, with his character socking his wife in the gut at one point and trying to kidnap his daughter.

 

The basic question asked of the audience is 'Would you want to have this life for yourself?' The movie holds nothing back when showing the 'attractive' side of this life (the women, the drugs, the consequence-free world).  However, despite all this, once the movie has come full circle, few of us would trade places with Jordan Belfort.  Although this character doesn't get much screentime, the foil to Belfort is the FBI agent who ultimately catches him.  This guy spends his life chasing Wall Street traders that become ultra-rich from defrauding others, all the while himself making crap pay and taking the bus to work (which Belfort taunts him with just before attempting to bribe him).  This is a man that could easily be envious of the rich assholes that he busts, but he isn't.  He does his job and likes it, and the last scene of the movie (I think it's the last scene, it's definitely his last scene) shows him taking the bus to work after busting Belfort, and we see a small smile of satisfaction.  Ultimately, we see that he knows something about life that Belfort didn't, which is why things work out for him.

 

I can certainly understand getting tired of the movie's indulgence in the fantasy of Belfort's life, but that's not the ultimate point of the story, whether Belfort himself realizes it or not.

Edited by Dante
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