MOVIE REVIEWS |
INTERVIEWS |
YOUTUBE |
NEWS
|
EDITORIALS | EVENTS |
AUDIO |
ESSAYS |
ARCHIVES |
CONTACT
|
PHOTOS |
COMING SOON|
EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES
||HOME
Friday, March 28, 2014
BLU-RAY REVIEW
The Wolf Of Wall Street
Big Screen Or Small, The Wolves Remain Within Us
Audience
members in Martin Scorsese's epic comedy-drama "The Wolf Of Wall Street", now on
Blu-Ray in the U.S. and Canada.
Paramount Pictures
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Friday,
March 28,
2014
"Sell me this pen," Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) says
to members of a captive audience near the end of Martin Scorsese's epic, raucous
"The
Wolf Of Wall Street". The Oscar-nominated film arrived on Blu-Ray in the
U.S. and Canada earlier this week. A few nervous souls attempt to meet
Belfort's challenge. This test is the final question Mr. Scorsese asks us:
do we have what it takes? Do we have the sales pitch and the confidence to
go with it? How would we sell something if we had to?
Mr. Scorsese's film is based on Mr. Belfort's memoir of his days of living hard
and working fraudulently, victimizing thousands in "pump-and-dump" penny stock
schemes while heading Long Island, New York broker firm Stratton Oakmont.
Filled with an excellent jazz and blues soundtrack, the three-hour film moves
quickly on Blu-Ray in a sharp, crisp 1080p HD widescreen frame. The Blu-Ray
disc, which has a 17-minute extra called "The Wolf Pack", contains a separate
DVD disc of the film, but not the "Wolf Pack" extra, which is a series of
interviews with cast and crew. A customary free streaming/digital HD copy
available for download is included as well.
"The Wolf Of Wall Street" doesn't play nice with anyone's sensibilities, and is
as tough a watch in some scenes on the small screen as it was on the big screen
just three months ago. (It was released theatrically in the U.S. on
Christmas Day last year.) Sex, drugs, money and lies dominate the New York
City landscape in "Wolf", and while the relentless hedonism and debauchery may
overwhelm or turn off some, the fervor and depth of Mr. Scorsese's typically
aggressive camera and visceral visions energize a phenomenally well-edited film
by Thelma Schoonmaker.
Mr. DiCaprio does his best work on film as Jordan Belfort in a full-force
physical display of comedy, chauvinism and cheekiness. He's as savage as
he is savvy and seductive. We laugh and cringe at him, often at the same
time. Jonah Hill is a demented treat as Donnie Azoff, Stratton's
number-two man, Belfort's enforcer pit-bull. Both actors were
Oscar-nominated in January for their work. The all-star cast, which
doesn't disappoint, features a memorable Matthew McConaughey as a mentor to
Belfort.
"The Wolf Of Wall Street" is packed with drugs, drink and sex without glorifying
any of it. This makes sense, for these pleasure vices are shown through
the eyes of a misogynist. Some people believed Mr. Scorsese was endorsing
negative treatment of women but a closer examination of the film, which I've
seen five times in theaters alone, reveals cues and clues about the moral
judgments and conflicts typically at play in Mr. Scorsese's work. Every
one in his 2013 film isn't an outright villain. Exhibit A: FBI Agent
Denham (Kyle Chandler), who doggedly pursues Belfort and his band of ne'er do
wells. Mr. DiCaprio and Mr. Chandler have a key scene halfway through, the
film's most important.
Thought provoking, painful and hilarious, "The Wolf Of Wall Street" is easily
the best film Martin Scorsese has directed since "GoodFellas". It's an
R-rated debauchery festival full of complex characters and situations not easily
forgotten on Blu-Ray.
COPYRIGHT 2014. POPCORNREEL.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
FOLLOW
MOVIE REVIEWS |
INTERVIEWS |
YOUTUBE |
NEWS
|
EDITORIALS | EVENTS |
AUDIO |
ESSAYS |
ARCHIVES |
CONTACT
| PHOTOS |
COMING SOON|
EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES
||HOME