The true story of Jordan Belfort, who came to be called the Wolf of Wall Street, from his self-penned memoir of the same name: a 3-hour full-throttle drama/comedy spectacular about his time as a 1980's penny stock fraudster and the outrageous excess he and his company engaged in at that time. There are Caligula-like scenes (perhaps 1 or 2 too many) of big office debauchery of such scope and dimension that one expects them exaggerated but wonders how Scorsese so successfully choreographed them, as well as funny and imaginative lower-key scenes that some may choose to revisit. The Scorsese Midas Touch has created another unique masterwork with an accomplished cast performing bravely and sometimes hilariously at the top of their game; the eye-popping camerawork and spot-on soundtrack keep pace with the excess of the subject matter, keeping you pinned to your seat and barrelling along for the ride.

However, unlike Ray Liotta's likeable bad guy Henry Hill in Scorcese's Goodfellas, Belfort is NOT a likeable bad guy and elicits no sympathy. Yet you stay with it riding shotgun despite this, or perhaps because of it, as the story relentlessly propels you forward in anticipation for the whole thing to implode, with a well-deserved denouement for Belfort, which would have made me happier had it come 15 minutes or so sooner.

Just disgusting, with no redeeming value, other than to suggest what the new Washington DC is driven by. Martin S is obviously still overwhelmingly obsessed with boyhood sex fantasies that he can't get out of his system, mistaking nudity for artistic effort. Sex is sex, drugs are drugs and we all make our choices about what we chose to pursue. And yes, I realize he based this on a real person's book. My question is why?
We decide as we go through life what we value and where our moral compass points. How important money is in the scheme of things. Is the 'lesson' to be learned if you cheat, lie, trample and steal from hard working people, get caught, go to jail...its all OK if you are rich. And even if you aren't caught, its still OK because you are rich? Also, if you are rich, that is the reward, doesn't matter how you got there?
The oceans are dying, our climate is changing beyond the worst possible predictions, oceans are rising and threaten some of the largest cities in the world, animal populations are disappearing. I think we have to turn our critical eye away from a 19th century fixated Martin S., to others with value statements that really matter, reflect our times, and are really making important statements about our outliers.

In the hands of Martin Scorsese, Wall St. Legend Jordan Belfort’s tell-all autobiography is turned into drug-fuelled frat boy’s fantasy which is as repulsive as it is morbidly fascinating. Starting as a manic comedy, Leonardo DiCaprio’s standout performance paints Belfort as a naif with great expectations who is quickly seduced by dollar-grabbing mentor Matthew McConaughey. But as the 180-minute epic proceeds he becomes a charismatic modern day Don Giovanni only too eager to sell his soul for earthly comforts and the power to control a stable full of greedy meathead brokers who would cheat their own grandmother’s out of their pensions in order to receive his approving nod. Earning a record for the most swear words in a film (almost 700 instances) as well as being banned or censored in several countries for its pervasive sex, nudity, and drug use—at one point a cloud of cocaine drifts over a mass of writhing bodies, at another point a dangerously stoned Belfort crawls towards his Lamborghini on all fours—Scorsese’s hedonistic, often brutal look at one man’s glorious self-destruct is a master class in cinematic hyperbole with DiCaprio routinely breaking the fourth wall to address his audience directly. Even the cameras seem stoked on crystal meth as they swoop and spin, barely keeping up with DiCaprio’s manic energy right up until the final fall. Jonah Hill puts in an Oscar calibre performance as Belfort’s right hand man, a schmuck in way over his head, while Margot Robbie plays his trophy wife and Kyle Chandler puts those clean-cut good looks to use as the g-man intent on crashing the whole house of cards.

The Wolf of Wall Street is tremendous fun, but be warned: It is not for the faint of heart. The levels of debauchery that surrounds Jordan is almost the stuff of legend. Hookers and wild sex, enough drugs to put Keith Richards to shame, and piles of low-down, dirty m-o-n-e-y. It is unfortunately a very long film, and despite how much I enjoyed it, it really could have been edited down from it's 3hr running time.

LOVE THIS MOVIE.

I love this movie. Its hilarious. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.

I could tell from the outset it was going to be a fun ride and even for being three hours long it was. It was enjoyable to be enlightened to the exploits of Jordan Belfort and even after the movie I found myself following up and googling Belfort, reading reviews and wanting to read his memoir. Interesting

Way too much sex scenes, worst than a XXX-rated movie and language. This is the worst way of making a movie from auto biography book. I read the book and the book has lots of interesting situations as well but it is shame that this director chose all X rated situations from the book. Only 10% of scenes are made with out sex and vulgar.
I expected high level from the great actors like DiCaprio. I think the director wanted to make a celebrity XXX movie. Very disappointing. This movie is simply worth to flush through the toilet.

Man of poor character makes money, loses money. Could have been OK with some editing ... wwwaaayyyy too long for an unremarkable story. If you have nothing better to do, it can be watched; brace for misogyny.

Way too much gratuitous sex much closer to what should be x-rated than r (imo), language, decadence. I can understand some of that was needed for the story, but it was way, way (way) too much.

Which is too bad, because if you took out 90% of the over-the-top decadence and just suggested, hinted and made clear it was there without having to show it, then it would have been a Class A movie (with a lot of GREAT acting). I think it is true that DiCaprio did his best acting job ever in this film.

Too bad it was made to entertain some imagined mass of decadent people. Very, very disappointing, but it flushed down the toilet just like the Wolf of Wall Street's life.