Pretty good

Rating: 7/10 (24 January 2016)

After it won the PGA and became the front runner for the best picture Oscar, I decided to dive into the Big Short, one of the only nominees with a legitimate chance that I hadn't seen yet.
It's a pretty clever movie, and probably is deserving of best picture over the other contenders. Unlike Spotlight, which is similar in the sense that they are both about uncovering fraudulent and illegal activities and both are based on true stories that occurred during the early to mid 2000s, The Big Short uses much more clever dialogue, camera-work, soundtrack, and humor to make a story that may have seemed boring and flat and turn it into an enjoyable film watching experience.
Of course, it is not the most exciting of movies and it may be confusing at times for people who don't understand the Wall Street housing market lingo, but if you pay attention you will learn a lot of things you probably should know about, in addition to being exposed to some wisdom and inconvenient truths along the way.
I was surprised at how good the movie was since all of the Oscar buzz has been about Spotlight, which I didn't find nearly as entertaining as this, and the Revenant, which I liked but does possess some flaws that would be difficult for the academy to overlook if there was another serious contender. I highly recommend The Big Short as one of the best films of this year and one that will not disappoint, especially if you really are interested in learning about how the housing market collapse of 2007-2008 transpired and took place.
Bale gives a solid performance, Carrell is very good, the smaller roles are all fundamentally solid, and there is plenty of funny moments, lines, and humor sprinkled in so you'll get some laughs along the way too. This was a pretty great movie.
7/10