Showing posts with label The Wolf of Wall Street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Wolf of Wall Street. Show all posts

Saturday, 17 December 2016

Birthday's to share this week : 18th-24th December 2016.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Jonah Hill does on 20th December - check out my tribute to this Birthday Lad turning 33, at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 18th December
  • Katie Holmes - Born 1978, turns 38 - Actress | Producer | Singer | Director
  • Rachel Griffiths - Born 1968, turns 48 - Actress | Writer | Director | Producer
  • Keith Richards - Born 1943, turns 73 - Singer | Songwriter | Producer | Actor
  • Steven Spielberg - Born 1946, turns 70 - Director | Producer | Writer | Editor
  • Ray Liotta - Born 1954, turns 62 - Actor | Producer
  • Brad Pitt - Born 1963, turns 53 - Actor | Producer
  • Steve Austin - Born 1964, turns 52 - Actor | Producer
  • Robson Green - Born 1964, turns 52 - Actor | Producer | Television Personality
  • Casper Van Dien - Born 1968, turns 48 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
Monday 19th December
  • Jake Gyllenhaal - Born 1980, turns 36 - Actor | Producer
  • Jennifer Beals - Born 1963, turns 53 - Actress | Producer 
Tuesday 20th December
  • Jenny Agutter - Born 1952, turns 64 - Actress
  • Jonah Hill - Born 1983, turns 33 - Actor | Producer | Writer
  • Todd Phillips - Born 1970, turns 46 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
  • Eduardo Sanchez - Born 1968, turns 48 - Director | Producer | Writer | Editor  
Wednesday 21st December
  • Samuel L. Jackson - Born 1948, turns 68 - Actor | Producer
  • Jeffrey Katzenberg - Born 1950, turns 66 - Producer | Writer
  • Ray Romano - Born 1957, turns 59 - Actor | Producer | Writer
  • Keifer Sutherland - Born 1966, turns 50 - Actor | Producer | Director
  • Steven Yuen - Born 1983, turns 33 - Actor  
  • Jane Fonda - Born 1937, turns 79 - Actress | Producer
  • Julie Delpy - Born 1969, turns 47 - Actress | Writer | Director | Producer | Singer | Songwriter | Composer | Editor 
Thursday 22nd December
  • Vanessa Paradis - Born 1972, turns 44 - Actress | Singer
  • Ralph Fiennes - Born 1962, turns 54 - Actor | Director | Producer 
  • Hector Elizondo - Born 1936, turns 80 - Actor | Producer
Friday 23rd December
  • Nick Moran - Born 1969, turns 47 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director
  • Estella Warren - Born 1978, turns 38 - Actress
Saturday 24th December 
  • Ryan Seacrest - Born 1974, turns 42 - Producer | Writer | Actor | Television Personality
Jonah Hill Feldstein was born in Los Angeles, California, to mother Sharon Lyn Chalkin, a costume designer and fashion stylist, and father Richard Feldstein a tour accountant for rock band, Guns N' Roses. He grew up in the affluent neighbourhood of Cheviot Hills and attended The Centre for Early Education, then the Brentwood School and thereafter the Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica. Following high school he attended Bard College - a private liberal arts college in New York, then The New School in New York City and then the University of Colorado Boulder. He has a sister Beanie Feldstein, an actress, and a brother Jordan Feldstein who manages singer/songwriter Robin Thicke and pop/rock band Maroon 5.

Whilst at College, Hill started writing his own plays and performing in them too, gaining quite a following in his New York East Village neighbourhood. He was in turn befriended by Rebecca and Jake Hoffman (the children of Dustin Hoffman) who introduced the young Hill to their Dad. Dustin Hoffman persuaded Hill to audition for a part in 'I Heart Huckabees' in which Hoffman was starring, and he secured a small role in what was to be his screen debut. That was in 2004. After this he gained brief roles in Judd Apatow's Directing debut, 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin' and 'Grandma's Boy', before a more substantial role in Apatow's 'Knocked Up' with Seth Rogen. By now it was 2007 and in between time there had also been appearances in 'Click' with Adam Sandler, 'Accepted' with Justin Long, 'Evan Almighty' with Steve Carell, and '10 Items or Less' with Morgan Freeman and seven episodes on comedy television series 'Campus Ladies'. These all lead to his first lead role in the Judd Apatow Produced 'Superbad' alongside Michael Cera, Seth Rogen and Bill Hader. The film returned US$170M from its US$20M outlay and was critically praised too.

'Walk Hard : The Dewey Cox Story' followed with an uncredited role, then 'Strange Wilderness', 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall', 'Just Add Water', an uncredited appearance in 'Night at the Museum : Battle of the Smithsonian' before another outing for Judd Apatow with Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler in 'Funny People', with 'The Invention of Lying' Written, Directed and Starring Ricky Gervais. In the meantime there had been television appearances on 'Wainy Days', 'Reno 911!', and 'The Simpsons' before the decade closed out.



2010 saw 'Cyrus' for Jay and Mark Duplass, 'Get Him to the Greek' with Russell Brand, and 'Moneyball' with Brad Pitt and Philip Seymour Hoffman which garnered Hill Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations for his Supporting Role as Peter Brand in this tale of the Oakland A's baseball team. This was followed up with 'The Sitter'.


Next up was a big screen rendition of the successful 1987 television series '21 Jump Street', released in 2012. Co-Written by Hill and also starring him as one of the two lead roles opposite Channing Tatum, the film made US$222M off its US$42M budget outlay, making a sequel inevitable. That sequel came in the form of '22 Jump Street' again Co-Written and Starring Hill as Morton Schmidt once again opposite Channing Tatum's Greg Jenko. The second film in the series made US$332M off its US$50M budget. A third cross-over film is in the works mashing up 'Jump Street' with 'Men In Black' in what is so far known as 'MIB 23' in which Hill will seemingly reprise his role once more as Schmidt.

In between time there was 'The Watch' with Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn, a small role in QT's 'Django Unchained', 'This is the End' with Seth Rogen and James Franco and then his Academy Award nominated turn in the highly acclaimed and commercially successful Jordan Belfort Bio-Pioc 'The Wolf of Wall Street' opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role, and for Director Martin Scorsese. 'True Story' followed in 2015 with James Franco again.

This brings us up to this year which has seen 'Hail, Caesar' for Joel and Ethan Coen with an all star cast including George Clooney, Josh Brolin, Ralph Fiennes, Channing Tatum, Tilda Swinton and Scarlett Johansson, and then the Todd Phillips Co-Written and Directed 'War Dogs' with Miles Teller and Bradley Cooper, with Hill starring as real life US Army contract arms dealer Efraim Diveroli.

Over the years too Hill has lent his voice talents to several film characters including on 'Horton Hears a Who!' in 2008, 'How to Train Your Dragon' as Snotlout in 2010 and again in 'HTTYD 2' in 2014, 'Megamind' as Tighten, in 2010, 'The Lego Movie' as Green Lantern in 2014 and in this years 'Sausage Party' as Carl. He will reprise his Snotlout voice work in 'How to Train Your Dragon 3' due in 2019 and currently in pre-production.

All up Hill has 52 Acting credits to his name, eight as Producer, and six as Writer. He has garnered two Academy Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations and one BAFTA nomination together with 53 other award nods and five wins so far. He made a concerted effort to lose weight to secure better roles and subsequently did, in more serious roles gaining acclaim along the way. He took the role in 'The Wolf of Wall Street' for nothing, just to have the opportunity to work with Martin Scorsese - his 'favourite filmmaker of all time', and he would do it again in a second!

Jonah Hill - Screenwriter, Comedian, Actor, Producer; as equally committed to piling on the weight as to getting it off for his roles; plays is funny, plays it serious; and has become more watchable as his talent has matured and his star has risen - Happy Birthday to you Jonah, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online- 

Saturday, 27 June 2015

Birthday's to share this week : 28th June - 4th July 2015.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Margot Robbie does on 2nd July - check out the tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 25, at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 28th June
  • John Cusack - Born 1966, turns 49 - Actor | Producer | Writer
  • Mel Brooks - Born 1926, turns 89 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Singer | Songwriter
  • Bruce Davidson - Born 1946, turns 69 - Actor | Director
  • Kathy Bates - Born 1948, turns 67 - Actress | Director
  • Mary Stuart Masterson - Born 1966, turns 49 - Actress | Producer | Director
Monday 29th June
  • Nicole Scherzinger - Born 1978, turns 37 - Actress | Singer
  • Gary Busey - Born 1944, turns 71 - Actor
Tuesday 30th June
  • Vincent D'Onofrio - Born 1959, turns 56 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
Wednesday 1st July
  • David Gulpilil - Born 1953, turns 62 - Actor | Writer
  • Dan Aykroyd - Born 1952, turns 63 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer
  • David Prowse - Born 1935, turns 80 - Actor
  • Trevor Eve - Born 1951, turns 64 - Actor | Producer
  • Liv Tyler - Born 1977, turns 38 - Actress
  • Pamela Anderson - Born 1967, turns 48 - Actress | Producer
  • Genevieve Bujold - Born 1942, turns 73 - Actress | Writer
Thursday 2nd July
  • Margot Robbie - Born 1990, turns 25 - Actress
  • Lindsay Lohan - Born 1986, turns 29 - Actress | Producer
Friday 3rd July 
  • Connie Nielsen - Born 1965, turns 50 - Actress
  • Tom Cruise - Born 1962, turns 53 - Actor | Producer
Saturday 4th July
  • Gina Lollobrigida - Born 1927, turns 88 - Actress | Producer | Writer | Director
  • Eva Marie Saint - Born 1924, turns 91 - Actress
Margot Elise Robbie was born in Dalby, Queensland, Australia to mother Sarie Kessler, a physiotherapist, and her father a former farm owner. She was raised by her single mother on Queensland's Gold Coast with her sister and two brothers, spending her childhood between the beach on the Gold Coast and her grandparents farm in Dalby. She attended the private Somerset College in Mudgeeraba on the Gold Coast where she studied drama, and after graduating in 2007 she moved to Melbourne to begin her professional acting career.

Within a year the young Robbie has starred in two Aash Aaron Directed films - 'Vigilante' and 'I.C.U.' From here her attentions and opportunities were drawn to television work with the initial episode of the ABC's 'Review, with Myles Barlow', and then two episodes on 'The Elephant Princess', and one on 'City Homicide' before the role that really set her on a career path with over 300 episodes of 'Neighbours' between 2008 and 2011. During this time too she appeared in various Channel Ten programmes including 'Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation'.

Leaving 'Neighbours' behind in 2011 she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career Stateside where she auditioned for the new TV Series of 'Charlie's Angels' but missed out, instead clinching ABC's 60's drama 'PanAm' with Christina Ricci. The series ran for just 14 episodes and was cancelled after its first season due to declining ratings despite its positive reviews.

From here Robbie returned to the big screen securing a role in the Richard Curtis Directed romantic comedy drama 'About Time' with Bill Nighy, Domhnall Gleeson and Rachael McAdams. The film was generally a critical success and fared well commercially bringing in US$87M off US$12M to make. In turn this led to Martin Scorsese casting her as the wife to Leonardo DiCaprio's Jordan Belfort in 'The Wolf of Wall Street' in 2013. Her role as Naomi Lapaglia was highly praised and garnered her an MTV Movie Award nomination and an Empire Award win. The film became Scorsese's biggest commercial success to date.

'Focus' came next earlier this year with co-star Will Smith playing a rookie grifter, and although the film received mixed reviews, her performance was again praised. Although released at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year 'Z for Zachariah' has yet to be released in Australia. This Sci-Fi thriller filmed in New Zealand is Directed by Craig Zobel and also stars Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Due this year too is 'Suite Francaise', a WWII drama romance Directed by Saul Dibb and co-starring Kristen Scott Thomas and Michelle Williams. Coming up too is the David Yeats big screen adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burrows 'Tarzan' with Robbie starring as Jane Porter alongside Alexander Skarsgard in the title role with Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Djimon Hounsou and John Hurt and due for a mid-2016 release. 

'The Taliban Shuffle' (aka 'The Fun House') is a comedy set within the backdrop of a war stricken Afghanistan and Pakistan and co-stars Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Tina Fey and Alfred Molina and is also due in mid-2016. Filming right now too is the DC Comics adaptation of Supervillain offering 'The Suicide Squad' as Directed by David Ayer with Robbie playing Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn - the first live action outing for this character. The film will also star Will Smith, Jared Leto, Joel Kinsman, Jai Courtney and Viola Davis and is set for August 2016. Also confirmed are her roles in 'Dangerous Odds' and 'Violent Talent' due further down the track. 

To date Robbie has 15 acting credits and a Producer credit on her early 'I.C.U.' offering. She has one award win for the 'Wolf of Wall Street' and eight other nominations including the BAFTA Rising Star Award this year.

Robbie lives in London with a bunch of mates and is romantically linked to Tom Ackerley - a British Assistant Director.

Margot Robbie - blond, blue eyed, beautiful - a star on the rise and increasingly in demand - as a little girl from country Queensland you done good! Happy Birthday to you, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Saturday, 8 November 2014

Birthday's to share this week : 9th - 15th November 2014.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week? Leonardo DiCaprio does, on 11th November - check out the tribute to this Birthday Boy at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer or Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 9th November
  • Lou Ferrigno - Born 1951, turns 63 - Actor | Bodybuilder
  • Tony Slattery - Born 1959, turns 55 - Actor | Writer | Television Personality
Monday 10th November
  • Walton Goggins - Born 1971, turns 43 - Actor | Producer
  • Roland Emmerich - Born 1955, turns 59 - Director | Producer | Writer
  • Ennio Morricone - Born 1928, turns 86 - Composer
Tuesday 11th November
  • Leonardo DiCaprio - Born 1974, turns 40 - Actor | Producer | Writer
  • Stanley Tucci - Born 1960, turns 54 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
  • Scoot McNairy - Born 1977, turns 37 - Actor | Producer
  • Demi Moore - Born 1962, turns 52 - Actress | Producer
  • Calista Flockhart - Born 1964, turns 50 - Actress
Wednesday 12th November
  • Anne Hathaway - Born 1982, turns 32 - Actress | Singer
  • Radha Mitchell - Born 1973, turns 41 - Actress | Producer
  • Ryan Gosling - Born 1980, turns 34 - Actor | Producer | Writer
  • Neil Young - Born 1945, turns 69 - Singer | Songwriter | Composer | Writer | Producer | Actor
Thursday 13th November
  • Gerard Butler - Born 1969, turns 45 - Actor | Producer
  • Steve Zahn - Born 1967, turns 47 - Actor
  • Jimmy Kimmel - Born 1967, turns 47 - Television Personality | Writer | Producer | Actor
  • Whoopi Goldberg - Born 1955, turns 59 - Actress | Producer | Writer
Friday 14th November
  • Olga Kurylenko - Born 1979, turns 35 - Actress
  • Josh Duhamel - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actor
  • Patrick Warburton - Born 1964, turns 50 - Actor
Saturday 15th November
  • Jonny Lee Miller - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actor
  • Edward Asner - Born 1929, turns 85 - Actor
  • Yaphet Kotto - Born 1939, turns 75 - Actor
  • Sam Waterston - Born 1940, turns 74 - Actor
  • Shailene Woodley - Born 1991, turns 23 - Actress
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles, California to mother Irmelin Indebirken and father George Paul Di Caprio with German/Russian ancestry on his mothers side and German/Italian on his fathers. Raised as an only child his parents divorced when he was just a year old - his father was a renowned underground comic/graphic novel artist who produced and distributed such material too, and his mother was a legal secretary.

Growing up he attended the Los Angeles Centre for Enriched Studies, then Seeds Elementary School and John Marshall High School which he dropped out of having completed his third year. Some of his childhood was spent in Germany with his maternal grandparents, and as a result he speaks fluent German. His parents recognised early on that that young Leonardo had some talent in performance art, and so signed him up with a talent agent. From this DiCaprio gained some exposure on television commercials and educational programmes. In 1990 he landed a spot on the TV Series spin-off of the movie of the same name 'Parenthood' which brought some critical acclaim and a couple of award nominations. He also gained exposure on other TV shows including 'The New Lassie', 'Roseanne' and on the short-lived soap opera 'Santa Barbara'.

His film debut came in 1993 in the direct-to-video comedy Sci-Fi horror offering 'Critters 3' which was followed by a regular stint on the short-lived ABC Sit-Com 'Growing Pains'. This in turn led to DiCaprio being singled out in a casting call by Robert De Niro to star alongside him in the 1992 film 'This Boys Life', which then gave rise to 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' in 1993 playing the mentally handicapped brother to Johnny Depp's lead character. This role brought critical acclaim and DiCaprio's first Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.

1996 brought further attention with Baz Luhrmann's modern retelling of 'Romeo+Juliet' with Claire Danes. Made for a modest US$10M it raked in almost ten times that amount, and started to polarise DiCaprio as the young heart-throb actor of the moment. This was further reinforced a year later when James Cameron cast him as the young Jack Dawson in 'Titanic' - a role he was reluctant to take on at first. Made for US$200M it grossed US$2.2B almost globally and until 2010 was the highest grossing film of all time, and turned DiCaprio into a bonafide commercial film superstar and global heart-throb phenomenon. For his role in 'Titanic' DiCaprio earned US$2.5M.

As the decade closed out starring roles followed, now that he had proved himself in the 'Titanic' blockbuster - but these were to less critical acclaim than those aforementioned, and included 'The Man in the Iron Mask' and 'The Beach'. The first half of the new century brought new and diverse roles, challenging characters, rich stories and acclaimed acting and Directing talent with which to work.  Notable outings included 'Catch Me if You Can' with Steven Spielberg in 2002, 'Gangs of New York' with Martin Scorsese that same year, 'The Aviator' in 2004 again with Scorsese, 'Blood Diamond' in 2006 with Edward Zwick and also that year 'The Departed' again with Scorsese. All of these were critically and financially successful, and garnered DiCaprio further award nominations and wins.

The years that followed brought other high profile Directors and opportunities with which to stretch his talents - 'Body of Lies' with Sir Ridley Scott, 'Revolutionary Road' with Sam Mendes, and in 2010 with Scorsese again on 'Shutter Island', and later that year with Christopher Nolan on 'Inception' - the latter turning in US$825M worldwide off a US$160M budget. Clint Eastwood also beckoned next Directing him in his Bio-Pic of J. Edgar Hoover in 'J.Edgar' in 2011, and this was followed up in 2012 with his turn as Calvin Candy in Quentin Tarrantino's 'Django Unchained', and then Baz Luhrmann once again in 2013 for 'The Great Gatsby'. These latter two were also financially successful earning US$425M and US$350M respectively. Next up was his fifth collaboration with Martin Scorsese playing Jordan Belfort in 'The Wolf of Wall Street' released early in 2014 and to date has grossed almost US$400M with further accolades bestowed. Next up is 'The Reverant' for a 2015/16 release and is filming now and Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

DiCaprio has 37 acting credits thus far to his name and 16 credits as a Producer. His other films include 'The Quick and The Dead', 'The Basketball Diaries', 'Total Eclipse', 'Marvin's Room', 'Celebrity' and 'Don's Plum'.  He has 51 worldwide awards wins and 122 other nominations, and these include : Academy Award nominations for 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape', 'The Aviator', 'Blood Diamond' and 'The Wolf of Wall Street' as well as a Best Picture nomination for 'The Wolf of Wall Street' on which he was also Producer. He won the Golden Globe Award too for 'The Wolf of Wall Street' and 'The Aviator' plus eight other nominations, and he has received to date three BAFTA nominations for 'The Wolf of Wall Street', 'The Departed' and 'The Aviator'.

He is environmentally very active advocating that global warming is 'the number one environmental challenge'. He was appointed in September this year as the United Nations Representative on Climate Change. He donated US$1M to earthquake relief in Haiti in 2010, and later that same year a further US$1M to the 'Wildlife Conservation Society'. He is also an activist for the 'Animal Legal Defence Fund' and actively supports gay rights. He is unmarried but his dating exploits with models and actresses is well documented in the media.

Starting out DiCaprio earned US$75K for 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' in 1993, compared to the US$20M price tag he received for each of 'The Beach', 'Catch Me if You Can', 'The Aviator', 'The Departed', 'Blood Diamond' and 'The Great Gatsby'. By comparison he earned all up US$59M from 'Inception'. Clearly with such a filmic pedigree, the pulling power he has to open and establish a movie, and his Production capability and earnings too he is a Hollywood force to contend with - and he turns only 40 today, on 11th November 2014.

Leonardo DiCaprio - diverse and exciting film career, huge pulling power, Scorsese collaborator, extensive emotional range, talented beyond question, and a man on an environmental mission - Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET - 28th January 2014

Saw the highly anticipated 'THE WOLF OF WALL STREET' last night, and was not disappointed.

Another Martin Scorsese/Leo DiCaprio collaboration this film is a little of a departure for Scorsese featuring none of his trademark mafioso types from Hells Kitchen, none of the seedy New York underworld, no corrupt cops or psychotic killer taxi drivers . . . in fact we explore the opposite here - the real life story of stock brokering, Wall Street and excess in just about everything garnered from it!

Leo DiCaprio plays lead as Jordan Belfort, 'The Wolf of Wall Street' and delivers this role in spades. He is all over it and genuinely looks as though he's having a great time doing so (hardly surprising given the fast cars, massive motor cruiser, naked women, drugs, alcohol and excessive lifestyle he depicts and is constantly surrounded by on screen!) DiCaprio nails this role and once again proves he is one of the finest actors of his generation, and, he is very ably supported by an excellently cast Jonah Hill as willing sidekick and stock-brokering collaborator Donny Azoff, and a fine turn at the films beginning from Matthew McConaughey as mentor to Belfort, Mark Hanna. Watch out too for 'AbFabs' Joanna Lumley as the ageing very English Aunt, and Belfort's cash 'mule'! Great casting all round!

This film has laugh out loud moments of humour, and comedy pervades the whole three hour running time as more drugs are consumed and snorted, more alcohol washed down, more prostitutes hired, and more money is made to spend on fast cars, luxury motor yachts, big houses, bitter divorces, huge expense accounts, jet set international locations and all the trappings of wealth, riches and cash in bucket loads . . . and then more, more, more still! I would say that this film features more naked flesh than any mainstream Hollywood movie since Kubrick's 'Eye's Wide Shut' and it's here in all it's full frontal glory, and the 'F' word appears in just about every single sentence spoken (over 500 times in fact in this film) . . . no holds barred here either! Gordon Gekko, depicted of the same era and in that other 'Wall Street' movie, has nothing on this guy, but the similarity is that they both went to jail for their 'crimes' but lived to tell the tale. move on and be successful in another arena - for Belfort in the public speaking circuit and selling his 'Straightline' techniques.

Be prepared for the excessive running time at three hours, but it passes quickly as you become embroiled in the excess of the late 80's/early 90's and the ever changing array of drugs, T&A, dysfunction, greed and cash before you, and, a number of stirring dialogue moments delivered especially by the Belfort and Hanna characters. A must see film - Scorsese on top form and DiCaprio delivering convincingly once again.

As a foot note this is the fifth collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio on film, with those other outings being 'GANGS OF NEW YORK' (2002); 'THE AVIATOR' (2004); 'THE DEPARTED' (2006); 'SHUTTER ISLAND' (2010) and now 'THE WOLF OF WALL STREET' (2013).



-Steve, at Odeon Online-