Don't be Conned into Seeing This

Rating: 1/10 (1 February 2014)

This film was so bad that it finally drove me to writing an IMDb review. Supposedly an expose of the criminal activities that lurk behind the facade of Wall Street, this film is nothing but a glorification of dishonesty, sex and drugs.
Jordan Belfort's swindles are portrayed in depth as a manual for those who wish to be happy and gain a standing in life, while honest dealers are despised and ridiculed.
There is nothing funny about this film. The reviewer who found it "A comedic epic" must have a poor sense of humour which finds a few gross jokes and the sight of a grown man pissing into a paper basket funny.
The only epic thing about this film are the scenes of drug-taking and debauchery on the scale of Roman orgies which are made out to be an almost normal way of life. Had the foul language, sex and drug-taking not been so over the top, the film would have had much more credibility, but they were so gratuitous and repetitive that they became boring! How could Scorsese have stooped so low - is this all he could come up with to draw the viewers?
Within the first half hour the pattern is set. By the end of the first hour we were bored and wondering when the film would come to the point but another hour of torture took us no where. 8/10ths of the film was spent drumming in the message that the only way to succeed and be happy in life is through sleaze. Finally the law catches up with the hero, but he sneaks on his friends and gets away with a smack on the wrist.
The film lacks characterisation; all the characters are one-dimensional. I can't understand how Di Caprio could have been awarded a best actor award when his role was so one-sided - even when he was down, Jordan was totally unrepentant. Not a single victim is featured to show the effects of Jordan's fraud. Even the jail looks more like a hotel and the final scene shows Jordan re-inventing himself, as successful as ever with little price paid to society. Similarly, the script required little effort since 70% is a repetition of the same speeches in which the F word is every third word.
The hypocrisy of this film is staggering. One would expect some sort of message from Scorsese but there is none other than the mind-numbing adulation of money and its trappings.