I really enjoyed The Wolf of Wall Street, even though it is a very long movie.  There are far too many movies these days where the directors feel that to make a statement or tell a story they need 3 hours and I honestly do believe that in many cases justice could be done in the normal 90 to 100 minutes.  I am glad that Leonardo di Capprio has been nominated for an Oscar as a result of his role in this movie – it is once again a superb performance by him and overall a good movie – especially for those who like watching others live a life of excess and take, in many case, the wrong path in life.  

It is a true story, no doubt exaggerated somewhat, about a company involved in fraudulent share dealings and selling on any stocks to unsuspecting investors who suffered losses, according the research I did, of approximately $120 million through these dealings.  The company eventually even got a main street designer to let them take their products to the market in an IPO, in the form of Steve Madden, a designer of shoes, and he eventually went to jail for four years for some of his activities while involved with this particular stockbroking firm. The recipe they had, as detailed in the movie, was not to bother, initially at least, trying to sell things to rich people eventually because they said rich people were too clever to go and buy rubbish shares and shares selling for small amounts of money and that that is typically something that appeals to poor people who are more keen to try and take a chance.  The profits were spent on all the usual things one read’s about – cocaine, hookers, strippers and eventually a new wife and it is certainly worth seeing if crooked business people, and what they spend the money on, interest you.  I don’t think it is going to win any Oscars, but I do think that it is a good movie and worth seeing.