Posts tagged Welker White
“The Wolf of Wall Street” an Exercise in Excessive Excess
Jan 13th
“Exercise in Excessive Excess”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Wolf of Wall Street was directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio based on a 2007 memoir of the same name written by Jordan Belfort.
DiCaprio plays Belfort himself.
Right at the beginning of the movie Jordan says, “I always wanted to be rich,” and we see him at the start of his career as a licensed stockbroker for a big firm on Wall Street.
Matthew McConaughey plays his mentor at the firm, and he tells Jordan, “The name of the game is to move the money from your clients’ pockets into your pocket.”
Unfortunately, Jordan’s first day as a broker was October 19, 1987, the biggest plummet of the stock market since the 1929 crash, and Jordan was out of a job before he even got started.
Jordan believes that Wall Street swallowed him up, but he finds a job with a tiny firm that sells penny stocks and is surprised to learn that he receives a 50% commission on his sales whereas his previous job would have paid him only 1%.
So, Jordan is selling garbage to garbagemen, as he puts it, and he begins making money hand over fist, so much so that one day in a restaurant he attracts the attention of Donnie Azoff, played by Jonah Hill, and Donnie tells Jordan that if Jordan can prove how much money he is making, Donnie will quit his job right there over the phone and come work for Jordan.
Donnie does, they start their own company with some misfit salesmen, and Jordan teaches them how to sell penny stocks to rich people.
The firm becomes highly successful from practices that are not always entirely legal, Jordan meets and marries a beautiful woman named Naomi, and drugs, wild parties, prostitutes, and naked women become a large part of everyone’s lives in and away from the firm.
And, of course, they attract the attention of the FBI, which starts investigating Jordan, Donnie, and their brokerage firm.
So, the merry band of brokers go through the intricate and illegal process of moving their money into Swiss bank accounts, but of course everything doesn’t go according to plan.
Nothing ever does in the movies, does it?
The Wolf of Wall Street might be too rough for many people’s taste and is just an exercise in excessive excess.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
The Wolf of Wall Street – Movie Trailer
Jan 1st
Martin Scorsese directs the story of New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort. From the American dream to corporate greed, Belfort goes from penny stocks and righteousness to IPOs and a life of corruption in the late 80s. Excess success and affluence in his early twenties as founder of the brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont warranted Belfort the title “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
“Cedar Rapids” Two Bags of Peanuts Up
Feb 28th
“Two Bags of Peanuts Up”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
CEDAR RAPIDS is a pretty good comedy about a weekend at the annual convention for Midwest insurance salesmen that takes place in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
I know what you’re thinking.
“Cedar Rapids is large enough to handle a convention?”
It stars Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, who seems to appear in all comedies of this sort, and Anne Heche, who should appear in more comedies of this sort.
Helms plays Tim Lippe, an insurance salesman who lives and works in Brown Valley, Wisconsin, and Tim is so naive that he has never been on an airplane before the one that takes him to Cedar Rapids for the convention.
On the other hand, back in Brown Valley, Tim is having sex with the recently divorced Macy Vanderhei, played by Sigourney Weaver, who just happened to have been Tim’s seventh-grade teacher.
And yet Tim is so naive that one time after sex, Tim tells Macy that he used to look at her in class and think dirty things, and then he says, “Did you ever used to look at me and think dirty things?”
Anyway, when the star salesman in Tim’s insurance company suddenly dies, Tim is chosen by the boss to go to the convention instead, and the boss warns Tim to avoid another salesman named Dean Ziegler “like the plague.”
Of course, Tim is so naive that he calls Macy when he arrives to describe the hotel to her, but then guess who ends up sharing a hotel room with Tim.
Right. Dean Ziegler!
Dean is played by John C. Reilly, and he takes it upon himself to show Tim how to have fun at a convention, so to speak.
Another experienced conventioneer is Joan, played by Anne Heche, and she joins them for a lot of extra-convention activities, as well, but Tim is so naive that when they all go skinny-dipping, Tim goes Skivvies-dipping.
Tim thinks that insurance agents get a bum rap, but then he discovers how the star salesman he replaced managed to win the Two Diamond Award at the last two conventions, which his boss ordered him to win this year on his own.
Tim is so naive that two bags of peanuts on the airplane cause him to say “Awesome.”
CEDAR RAPIDS is funny, and I give it Two Bags of Peanuts up.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
