The Street Fight: The Wolf of Wall Street VS Wall Street

            VS            

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET: 2013 ++: DRAMA:  I was anticipating the arrival of this movie for some time.  Not only is it a subject matter that I find interesting, but it’s directed by all-time great, Martin Scorsese.  Many movies have been devoted to Wall Street and the life of a stock broker.  I've reviewed a couple and already compared them (See the Boiler Room vs Wall Street post).  I indicated that Wall Street was the clear winner in that comparison, although at times it was close.  Overall, Wall Street was just the better movie.  How does the Wolf of Wall Street compare to Oliver Stone’s masterpiece? 


From the beginning of The Wolf of Wall Street, it's obvious that Scorsese is keeping his Oscar winning formula intact as demonstrated in Casio and Goodfellas.  The beginning starts some point in the future with the narrator and main character summing up his life, and then reverts into the past with a long flashback treatment.  Leonardo DiCaprio even sounds like Ray Liotta from Goodfellas.  His tone, cadence, and accent, were very similar.   I don’t know if this was a coincidence or intentional but it makes the movie feel very “Scorsese-esque” which is of course, a good thing!

This movie had the “Scorsese buzz” in which the scenes meld together with the clever use of music in the background.  The first 40 minutes of the movie had music all throughout.  It's almost subliminal because it is softly playing in the background and you can hardly hear it.  It makes the scenes more memorable and even helps build the characters’ personalities.  Jonah Hill’s character Donnie Azoff is a good example.  Incidentally, he reminds me of the pharmacist Mort in "Family Guy"! 

The music  personifies his character because it’s somewhat annoying and brash.  One of my favorite scenes and one of the scenes in the preview is when he asks Jordan what he does for a living.  The music is playing in this scene and doesn’t stop until they are eating dinner later in another scene. 

  = 
What do you do for a living?  Is he the pharmacist in Family Guy?

This omittance of music helps give other parts significance as demonstrated when Jordan proposes to his second wife.  The music dies down and the silence really makes you tune into the scene.  Again, it’s almost subliminal but Scorsese uses it often, as seen in Goodfellas. 


Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill both put on excellent performances and break away from their previous roles.  As mentioned, for some reason, Leonardo sounded a lot like Ray Liotta.  At times, his voice changed so dramatically, that I had a hard time believing it was him.  This is especially true in the scenes where he is heavily intoxicated like in the airplane.  He was actually coached on how to act “high” by the original Jordan Belfort to great effect. 

What kind of dancing is this?  Blame it on the "substances"..

The cursing was often times gratuitous, especially with some of the female roles.  Not that females in movies shouldn’t curse, but Jordan’s wife, played by Margot Robbie, literally curses in every line that she has after they get married.  Scorsese will probably defend this by saying that it’s how people from that area talk, but it was just overkill.  Wall Street had cursing, but not to this extent.  At that point, it just creates caricatures instead of characters.

She's charming now, but later she overdoses on F Bombs

No doubt my favorite parts are when he is trying to drive his Lamborghini Countach completely wasted, when he's fighting with Donnie on the floor because they are both wasted, when he tells off the FBI agents, when he gives his various speeches, especially the one at the end, and of course, when he gets arrested while doing an infomercial.

Don't take too many too quickly..

Watching Leonardo dancing in the wedding is also hilarious.  I never thought I would see the actor from Inception dancing like Chris Brown.  Who knows, maybe they had the same dance coach.  Oh, and he was also high at that point.  Listen, Wall Street had drugs in it.  How can you have a Wall Street movie without it?  But at times this was over kill.  At one point, every character in the movie is doing lines. 

However, there were some extremely memorable scenes, which is something that Wall Street lacked at times except for the infamous “greed is good” speech.  Scorsese knows how to make a scene bounce off the screen.  I loved the scene in the country club and when he watches the Popeye show on TV, while doing drugs.  I also liked when they were strapping money to one of the accomplices to get it to Switzerland.

So what Wolf had were some amazing scenes, great characters, cameos ( Rob Riner and Matthew Mcconaughey), great music, and an excellent delivery.  At times it was brash, but in essence that personifies Jordan Belfort to a tee.

 

Wall Street is untouchable and dealt with the bigger issues on Wall Street such as insider trading, hostile take overs, and the ultimate price of greed.  I can’t say that Wolf was better because it just wasn’t.  It was close.  They both had some similarities, as in the last scene where the FBI comes in.  Wall Street just delivered the plot better and had more real conflict that climaxed extremely well.  Scorsese movies often end on an odd or sour note.  Perhaps it’s that he takes you on such a roller coaster ride that at the end the momentum just has to die.  Perhaps it symbolizes the peaking on substances as portrayed in Wolf.  After the climax, you have nothing to look forward to but a harsh crash .  Wall Street wins.  Soon I will compare it to Glenn Gary Glenn Ross.   Wolf of Wall Street::::89%

The End of Jordan Belfort's Wall Street days..