Wolf of Wall Street

Wolf of Wall Street could have been brilliant. It could have been the Scarface of our generation: a depiction of greed to the ultimate excess with a character arc that took you for a ride from an arrogant man with nothing all the way through to the total destruction of him and everything around him. Instead we got an over indulgent, love letter to having lots of money and spending that on drugs, sex and material things. This film makes no point and has nothing to say about this excess wealth, the consequences for the means with which he obtained it, the pain and suffering he brought on the world, to his own family or himself. It simply says that what he did is possible, that you could do it, that anyone can do it really, and that if you do all you need to do at the end is serve a little prison time and pay a $110 million dollar fine. (Which he had enough money to pay, WTF!?!?)

I'm actually really disappointed in this movie. There was so much potential, and so many great parts to the first half of this movie, I thought I was going to get to see one of the biggest fall from graces ever to be seen in film. Instead I get asked to sell him a pen. What a cop out. What were you thinking Marty? Im not sure what happened during the making of this flick, but you seemed to lose your way  and to end up not making a point about anything in 3+ hour movie is just bad filmmaking.

In fact I would probably put this movie right down the bottom somewhere of Marty's movies. Its nothing profound, its nothing edgy or stylish, its just disappointing.

The good of the film is surely Leo DiCaprio acting his arse off. He really does some amazingly graphic, slapstick, crazy stuff in this movie and goes for it in full, all the way, all the time. He is by far the best thing of the movie and would have had to have come close to Matthew McConaughey winning Best Actor for this year (who also has a great cameo in this flick). I find it quite amazing he agreed to do some of the things he did in this film actually, and that Marty could ask such a big A list cast member to do them. He is thoroughly entertaining throughout.

Jonah Hill is the other stand out. He plays this perfect mix of totally crazy, over the top, fake try hard brilliantly and I'm finding myself starting to like his acting more and more. He is a really interesting guy picking very different roles and bringing something new to them each time so it'll be good to see what he moves on to from this (now that Scorcese, like, totally thinks he is awesome).

The other point to note is that I didn't know you could show as much sex related stuff in a movie these days and not get it censored off to a padded cell somewhere never to be seen again. Its weird that the excessive amount of totally naked girls, full on sex scenes and innuendo has been approved for this movie, yet in other films has been censored so much more? Maybe its a changing time, maybe its just the weight Marty has in Hollywood, but its interesting in its difference.

This movie is well worth a watch for some of the crazy events and funny scenes that take place, but, you wont be amazed, learn anything or even feel the need to go back and watch it again. Except maybe for the scenes where the Quaaludes kick in! Steeeeevvvveeee Maaaaaaaaadddeeeeeeennnnnnnnnn, haha.

IMDB Info for Wolf of Wall Street

SCORE: 7/10

Jobs

I've always enjoyed films about real life success stories - they are motivating and inspiring.  Even better when people come from nothing to reach the highest levels of success - such was the case for Steve Jobs and Apple computers.

Obviously a lot has changed since but I remember back in school the I.T types like myself were divided into two groups - Microsoft and Mac.   Oh how we mocked the 'Mac' crowd yet how proudly  and stubbornly they defended their beloved Macintosh.  If I remember correctly there was also a strong connection with the Apple lovers and Star Trek compared to the Microsoft crowd and Star Wars.  We waged nerd war!

Anyway, that's enough down memory lane. Back to the movie...

Jobs was a really enjoyable film.  Reading up after watching it there is a lot of hate out there for it.  "Terrible casting!" , "Terrible Acting" , "Glorifying a man made rich by exploiting his employees and their ideas".

I don't agree.

I thought Kutcher was decent as Steve Jobs.  Definitely one of the most in depth roles in his career.  And as for the man himself I think they showed well his darker sides and did not glorify him at all.  He was portrayed as an extremely dedicated and obsessive visionary who would use whoever and whatever to achieve his goals.   As with all entrepreneurs he relied on the technical genius of colleagues to create his products but he was the man with the grand vision.  This tends to be how our world works as the technically minded lack the ability to think on the large scale.  It is a symbiotic relationship.

I really enjoyed watching how the company was built,  starting with manually building boards in his parents garage to creating a global empire.  Would have been an exciting time in those early days.  The first keyboard, the first mouse, the first PC.   An incredible journey.

Jobs may have been an obsessive and cruel prick, so much so he even left behind the original apple founders who started it all with him. However I don't think Apple would exist today if he was not.  He never gave up on his vision. Never lowered his expectations on what they could achieve and always ensured his products were driving the next level of innovation. Anyone who thinks he was not a huge factor in Apple's success is crazy.  The company nearly went to ruin when he was kicked off the board and upon his return he brought it back to an absolute super power again.

Overall, an enjoyable movie about a very interesting guy!

7/10

IMDB Info