Matty's Movies: 'The Wolf of Wall Street'

Leonardo DiCaprio. Did you ever think he could achieve anything greater than "Growing Pains"?

Of course you did! With his dashing good looks, his salon quality hair, and his penchant for taking characters from a script and breathing extrordinary life into them, how could you not think he had a blockbuster future on the big screen?

And that is exactly what Leo has done with his career. He has taken roles, worked his acting magic, and made his characters into larger than life phenoms. Just look at Jack Dawson, Titanic's doomed hero. You can't say the name Jack Dawson around a group of ladies without them getting all weak in the knees. Hell, when I go out to pick up dames I always use the fake name "Jack Dawson". Chicks dig it. But once they get to know me I quickly become "Jack Goff".

Anyways, enough about me, let's talk Leo.

Has he been in many good movies? Hmm, lets see. He's been the star of "The Basketball Diaries, Romeo and Juliet, Catch Me If You Can, The Aviator, The Beach, The Man In The Iron Mask, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Gang's of New York, Blood Diamond, The Departed, Shutter Island, Inception, and Django Unchained."

Yes, I think he's been in a few good films... But just so you don't think I'm polishing this guy's trophy, I'll say right now that I wasn't a huge fan of "The Great Gatsby", or "J. Edgar" (Snoozer).

Every role he takes I seem to be drawn to. When he played Amsterdam Vallon in "Gangs of New York", I liked him so much I wanted to go out and join the Dead Rabbits Society. (He was a good ol' Irish boy.)

And in "The Beach", what man wouldn't want to do what he did and just throw everything away, swim out to a deserted island, eat mushrooms and live in paradise for a few years? Sign me up.

And in "Django Unchained"? Well, there's ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that drew me to his character in that film! But what attracted me to that character was the fact that he had to be such a vile, savage and bloodthirsty slave owner. You never really see Mr. DiCaprio playing a villain, and to take the role of Calvin Candy, the cruelest villain since Vader, and then to nail the part, well, it takes a certain quality of actor to pull that off.

Mr. DiCaprio is the cream of the crop when it comes to actors of this generation.

And guess what? Leo has a new film out right now.... and we're going to review it.

But it's not just Leo's film. He is back again (for the fifth time) with director Martin Scorsese in the powerhouse epic "The Wolf of Wall Street".

"Wolf" is the story of Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio), a stockbroker who who made his hay in the 90's by scamming people out of millions of dollars.

But it's so much more than that. The story (or at least how I took it) is about a man living way out of control. As a matter of fact, This movie could've just as easily been called "The Wolf". You really didn't need to see how he made his fortune, just so long as he had his fortune. As a matter of fact, Scorsese sort of plays it off that way. He has DiCaprio talk to the camera and explain to us (the audience) how the money was being made, then halfway through the explanation he would say "this is the boring stuff, it doesn't really matter how we made the money, just as long that we made the money."

I like the way Scorsese did this. I didn't need to hear all the minutia that goes along with Wall Street. I care about the character who is destroying himself and everyone around him in the process. I enjoy the roller coaster ride that Jordan Belfort created for himself. I enjoy watching a man totally self destruct right in front of me on the big screen. And I like the naked women that were in this film.

This movie was about a man who was destroying himself with booze and drugs, and women... And everything was to excess. Everything. He needed to have the biggest yacht. He needed the prettiest wife. He needed the freakiest sex. And he needed quaaludes, but not just one quaalude, he needed a handful of quaaludes, and he needed them often.

It was fun to watch. But it was sad too. To see a man totally destroy himself and his family also? Just sad.

To me, this film depicted Jordan Belfort as a cool man, but in reality he wasn't. He was a rat, just like Matt Damon in "The Departed". The thing is, DiCaprio made me like him. I guess that's how they wanted him portrayed in the film. But let's all remember here, this guy swindled a lot of people out of their money, and lived the Life of Riley on their dime.

This film had some great actors in it. Matthew McConaughey had a great little role as Belfort's mentor, and Jonah Hill was fabulous also. But the story really follows DiCaprio's character, and DiCaprio was the story. To me, HE made the movie.

About the director, Martin Scorsese. You could feel it as you sat in the theatre that his stamp was all over this film. I could feel minor details in this film that I have felt when watching his other movies. To me, that makes a great director. I have always loved Scorsese's films.

One little thing I should let you know. This movie is three hours long and is filled with nudity and cussing. Total amount of F-Bombs dropped in the film: 506... So don't bring your children. (Yeah, I saw two different families with their children in the theatre on opening night. They got up and left early on into the film. What were they thinking? It's DiCaprio, it's Scorsese, it's Rated R for crying out loud! Smarten up dummies!)

In closing, if you're looking to see a film like "Trading Places" or "Wall Street", you're putting your money in the wrong stock, but if you want to be entertained by the best actor in Hollywood, you have to go see "Wolf of Wall Street".

It's worth its weight in porkbellies.

Matty W. Kelley, A Seat Apart Productions, reporting.

Fun Fact: The five films DiCaprio and Scorsese have collaborated on are "Gangs of New York, Shutter Island, The Departed, The Avaitor, and The Wolf of Wall Street".

Fun Matty Fact: I never done quaaludes.... Surprised?