Synopsis–
In my opinion, one of the of best, most entertaining films in the last two decades was released on Blu-ray this week. Now I’ll admit, because of the hype machine during its theatrical run, I decided to not see The Wolf of Wall Street in theaters. Now I can safely say that was one of my worst choices in my history of seeing movies on the big screen. And if I may be so bold in stating, Martin Scorsese hasn’t made such a brilliant film since Goodfellas.
Without spoiling plot details, the story centers around the life of Jordon Belfort, a man who had written his autobiography before this film was made, chronicling the absurdity that was his life as a stockbroker that was ultimately convicted of stock market manipulation, fraud, serving 22 months in prison. Now, who really knows how accurate this film is in portraying what really went on in Mr. Belfort’s life, and for that matter who knows how accurate the book he wrote was? That being said, it made for great entertainment in a feature film format, and that was primarily due in part the stellar acting, great dialogue and direction on display here.
I should note that before this film I was always a little lukewarm on Leonardo DiCaprio, but he won me over with his performance as Belfort. It was intense, disturbing, sometimes hilarious, and overall just one of those roles that an actor will occasionally knock out of the park. He did just that! Additionally, Jonah Hill, who plays Belfort’s sidekick in the stockbroking world, Donnie Azoff, had arguably his best performance as an actor. Maybe it was the false teeth he had to wear, but regardless, he truly owned the part from beginning to end. The rest of the cast, including a quasi-cameo from Matthew McConaughey, were all wonderful in their respective parts. Which leads me to the flow, and direction of this movie.
Bottom line, Scorsese managed to capture the same type of vibe that was overtly present throughout his former classic, Goodfellas. No small feat. Whether it was the voice-over supplied from DiCaprio in the same vein as Ray Liotta’s from Goodfellas, or the way he shot the more chaotic scenes of Belfort’s life going to hell in a hand basket, this film had an eerily similar vibe to it. For that reason alone, I loved The Wolf of Wall Street. I mean hell, technically, a movie about the rise and fall of someone to this degree should be as depressing a time as you’d expect at the movies, but it ended up being the right mix of funny, dramatic, absurd, and just plain fun. All that being said, you may still not enjoy this flick. Perhaps the whole theme of greed, and rich getting richer will be a turn off you can’t ignore while watching everything unfold on screen. However, I doubt it. It simply works.
Video Quality-
By Blu-ray standards I found everything ship-shape with the colors, and darker lit scenes in the film. Overall, even blown up on a wall to a size of roughly 80″, the picture quality was uniformly excellent!
Audio Quality-
Overall, very good DTS track present. However, there were a couple of moments I noticed some popping from the center channel, one scene in particular this was present was when the yacht was getting hammered during the storm sequence. There’s always a chance it could have just been something irregular with my set-up, but haven’t noticed this sense.
Extras-
Well, to be blunt, they only included one extra on this initial release, a short feature entitled The Wolf Pack, and therefore I’m not going to bother reviewing that since once again Hollywood decides to go cheap with adequate extras included on their home release to fans.
Nonetheless, I give the Blu-ray a B-, and the film an A+!! Thanks for reading…
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