The Wolf of Wall Street (Wolf) will be hated by many – yet loved by a small but loyal following. Marty and I can not recommend the movie one way or the other so we will give you the negatives and the positives.

I’ll start with the negatives because they will be really negative for many viewers. Marty gave Wolf a D because of the language. There is more general cursing, use of the F word and the finger than any movie I’ve ever seen in a public theater. I never thought I would see a film with more cursing than Al Pacino’s “Scarface” but I was wrong.

As a “guy” I’ll confess to the sin of enjoying looking at women’s bodies. Wolf had enough flesh to please any voyeur and as many simulated sex scenes as we have seen in a public theater. Neither Marty or I could figure out how this movie got an “R” rating. Double R or X would seem more appropriate for language and sexual content.

It was longer than long. Wolf ran one minute short of three hours – 2:59! The Director’s ego got in the way of good film editing. There were five or six blocks of time that were totally useless. This could have easily been a 2:19 flick.

On the positive side there was the acting by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill. I’ll be surprised if DiCaprio is not nominated for Leading Actor and Hill for Supporting Actor. Sadly the roles of the women in the film were stereotypes and not anywhere near close to strong opportunities for the female actors. The “quality” the Casting Director was looking for started and ended with a great body.

One other draw is for people like Uncle Larry who were in the Securities Industry in the Seventies and Eighties who either saw or were aware of this type of shady/illegal hustling of “penny stocks” and IPO manipulation. Much of the film “borrows” from the classic “Boiler Room” of 2000 with rousing sales leadership from DiCaprio.

If you decide to see this film you will not miss anything if you wait for the smaller screen.

Larry