Good, not great

Rating: 6/10 (22 February 2015)

Having just recently watched this film after hearing so many great things about it, I was left a little disappointed.
It started off great. A young guy who starts off with nothing and ends up becoming a multi-millionaire blah blah blah...don't get me wrong, there is some very motivational stuff in there but by the end of the movie it left me thinking one thing. This has been done before - I know it's a biography that is based on the famous Stockbroker Jordan Belfort, but did we really need this movie? There have been many "Jordan Belfort's" in past movies - Wall Street (both), Boiler Room and to some extent Glengarry Glen Ross that have very similar based characters.
The characters in the film were very good. Leo was great as usual, Jonah Hill also did a great job and I was very impressed with Margot Robbie (who played Jordan's wife Naomi) who with every scene almost stole the limelight from her much better known co stars.
I've always liked Leo as an actor, and I've always thought that he would become the next big mega-star, like a De Niro or a Pacino but I'm not so sure any more. There is one thing that keeps bugging me about him - he looks the same in every movie I can remember him in! (Apart from his earlier work of course.) I just saw Inception earlier in the week and although they are 2 completely different movies, he could have easily walked into each set without getting changed or fixing his hair! Then I also remembered The Great Gatsby etc etc. (I know there are other recent films that he doesn't look the same, but I'm just trying to make a point.)
This brings me to my final thought about the film. Matthew McConaughey, who played Stockbroker Mark Hanna at the start of the movie would have played a great (and I think better) Jordan Belfort than Leo. Although he wasn't in the movie for very long at all, his performance was outstanding, and to be honest I was left a little disappointed when he stopped featuring...
So, to sum up, good movie (not great), entertained throughout even if it did go for almost 3 hours, but it's been done before.