2001's Blow by way of 2000's Boiler Room

Rating: 6/10 (5 September 2016)

I can't believe I'm about to say this about a Scorsese work, but this film was utterly UNNECESSARY. It was also predictable - OK, it was a true story, so not much you can do about that - except NOT MAKE THE FILM! This is the basic problem I have with it: it simply didn't need to be made. Why? Because it's ALREADY BEEN MADE. More than once. It's basically an uncannily blow-by-blow retelling of Blow, 2001's biopic of George Jung (a similarly "right place at the right time" true figure who changed everything in a massive business sector), merely replacing cocaine with stocks, cartels with brokerage firms, the DEA with the FBI, and Johnny Depp with Leonardo DiCaprio. Everything else is exactly the same, from the loser, unversed friends becoming ever slicker, to the fast success to the crazy excess, to the pretty wife, the huge, beautiful mansion and non-stop party lifestyle, to the later disastrous business decisions and the inevitable downfall and prison time, right down to the very young progeny (also a daughter) trapped in a situation she cannot yet understand, fought over by both parents. It's basically Blow mixed with Boiler Room (2000) mixed with Wall Street and a tiny bit of The Company Men (2010) and Too Big to Fail (2011) for the casual, irresponsible attitude to big financial moves with huge repercussions for many people (both the latter films are about the 2007- 2008 credit crisis), plus a fair bit of another Depp film, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) for some of the the drug madness, though Fear was a much more fun and interesting film.
Lest you think so, I did not mind the length of the film at all. I'm actually a fan of a film that takes its time to cover everything, if it's technically well made (which this was), and if the story bears it - which it sort of did, but as I said, the main problem is I've already seen this film half a dozen times, or at least 98% of its separate components, even before I sat down to watch it, so I was left utterly cold by it. The ONLY part I enjoyed in the entire film, hand on heart, was the scene where Belfort experiences the delayed effect of the "super-'ludes", that entire scene was very funny, his "interactions" with Donny in particular, and the reveal of what had actually happened to the Lambo on his short 1 mile return trip - incidentally, the only bit that I did not see coming. And that was pretty much IT! Oh, and if I had still been 14, I would have also gone a bit ga-ga over seeing the gorgeous Margot Robbie in her birthday suit. As it was, I still liked it, but even the fairly charged scene with the nanny-cam bear barely raised a twinge. Shame.
So, IF you have never seen Blow, Boiler Room, Wall Street and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I can understand you being wowed or at least appreciating this film, BUT for all other people who watch a lot of films, who are over 30 and who follow the news, this film will have been a disappointment for the same reason it was a disappointment to me.