Lots of people have sung the praises of this movie, assigning to it great depth and meaning as a cautionary tale. It isn't. No, this movie is an excuse to show 2-1/2 hours of debauchery. Seriously. There's no cautionary tale here. Leonardo Di Caprio is Jordan Belfort, a gifted and highly driven stockbroker who, after being laid off, forms his own company and immediately begins cutting corners and committing fraud to be successful. And it works. Big time. What follows are years of drugs, prostitutes, binges of all types, massive profits, and wild living. And it's pretty much all true (except the part about people calling Belfort "wolf" or "wolfie" as a nickname - didn't happen). Di Caprio is magnificent in this, commanding every scene with incredible charisma. But that deeper meaning and cautionary tale stuff? Nah. What's the cautionary tale? That you get massively rich and marry a scorching hot woman, while ripping off people? Sure, Belfort gets his comeuppance - sort of. He loses his wife, serves a couple years in a country club prison, wrote a really successful book, and is now a successful motivational speaker. Hell, the real Belfort is even in this movie. It's not like he's broke and he's not paying back the $110m fine he owes. So, no, this ain't a cautionary tale. It's 2-1/2 hours of constant profanity and mayhem. And it's really entertaining. But let's not assign some deep meaning to it that ain't there to try and make ourselves feel better for enjoying watching a movie about a guy who destroyed a whole lot of lives. 7/10.
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