GDClyde
Wolves of Wall Street has an interesting concept. But, that is the only interesting element in this movie.Here a Wall Street wanna-be fresh out of school and with no luck finding a position elsewhere joins a highly successful all-male Wall Street Firm whose initiation consists of transforming the new members into werewolves.Now a Wall Street werewolf may be a new concept.The concept that a werewolf is just a person in dark lighting, some blue make-up who catches his victims with his "odor" while novel is AWFUL. The reason it wasn't tried before is that it doesn't work.The werewolves in the film are supposed to be completely irresistible to women, but there is hardly any evidence of this in the film. They cut in and out repeatedly of the two or so scenes of anything remotely erotic. And, I stress REMOTELY.These werewolves are too "suave" to hunt or chase their prey. They just approach their intended victim and let their exuding natural pheromones do the rest. And other than a wet kiss on the victims' thigh, there doesn't seems to be much other damage.I did learn this though: with pheromones, a designer suit and just the right "I'm too hot for you" glance, a werewolf can even "convert" a lesbian. But, in this case, a "lesbian" is a woman the werewolf can't get any vibes from. Sounds like the guy who gets rejected at the bar!Nothing scary... No suspense... No special effects... No sex...These wolves don't even have canine teeth! If you want to see male models parading in fine suits looking smug, you will be quite pleased. The entire budget seems to be spent on clothes and bad actors, in that order.Do yourself a favor ... just pass.
Andy (film-critic)
Greed is the ultimate theme of this film, and horror (with a slice of homoeroticism) director David DeCoteau realizes this early on and decides to build a film without the costumed monsters of the normal horror genre, but instead with suit wearing professionals that look and act just like you or I. He brings this essence of realism into the film by never quite giving us the werewolf, but showing us how too much power, money, and corruption can "transform" a person just like the classic werewolf. I felt several times that I was watching a rendition of a "wolf in sheep's clothing" because we never actually see the wolves, instead we are shown the corporate suits that seem just like you and I. While DeCoteau does a great job of building the issue that greed is bad, he completely misses the target known as story. I can honestly say that this film has none to speak of.To build a good story you must first have a solid foundation. In this film there were two foundations, Jeff Allen and the Wolfe Brothers. With these two focal points firmly placed, DeCoteau attempts to build a frame and put siding on his story, but ultimately fails. After consistently unfunny "wolf" jokes, DeCoteau uses the simple technique of flashback to give us the (sorry for the pun) meat of the story. Those points that we missed because Allen was "blacking out" are shown in random, sporadic, and chaotic flash points. Most of them are hard to follow and show either too much or too little of the story. After the first set of these flashbacks, I just didn't care anymore. For this film to truly succeed, I think that it needed a linear story for the audience to follow instead of random crumbs littering the floor. This would have helped to build a stronger main character, a stronger relationship between Allen and Annabella (to explain the ending), and more sinister villains … if you can call them that. The technique was OK for the first time, but only added to a film that was quickly loosing momentum.So, we had a failing story, what else went wrong with this film? Outside of Eric Roberts, which seemed like he was in a world all his own, there just seemed to be unanswered questions littering the open spaces of the film. Annabella's ex-boyfriend's death seemed to be a fly in the pan, while her meeting with Dyson (Roberts) left me questioning her loyalty. Who, or what, were these men anyway? Were they cannibals or werewolves? I would assume by the title of this film, Wolves of Wall Street, that it would be a simple answer. I was wrong. Even with the monotonous "wolf" innuendo, I couldn't quite guess. I think the trouble that I was having was the full moon science. How could there have been a full moon every night? I know that it couldn't have been every night, but it felt like it during this film. Perhaps if DeCoteau would have focused a bit more on the science of this film (perhaps watch a couple werewolf films) and less on his male actors removing their shirts in unison revealing their heavily muscled bodies, we could have had a better film. But, I am no director, so what am I to say.Speaking of the actors, Eric Roberts went above and beyond for this film. It impresses me that he puts so much emphasis on these little films, especially knowing whom his little sister is, and by placing this emphasis he carries this film on his shoulders. This isn't hard considering whom he is working with. The actor who plays Jeff Allen, Mr. William Gregory Lee, looked like he was acting his way through this film. You could literally see the Drama 101 seeping from his sweat, and it was embarrassing. The rest of the wolves…sorry…brokers were basically eye candy for the women whose husbands picked this film up after every copy of Mona Lisa Smile was gone. Nobody helped bring this film to the next level except for Mr. Roberts. The rest were pure dribble.Finally, I would like to add that if I pay my money to see a horror film, I would actually like to see some horror. There was literally no blood in this film. You would think that with a box showing men with shadows of wolves walking down the street, blood would be second nature. This is not true. It isn't until the end that you actually see blood for the first time, and by then it is so quick (or you are so bored) that it doesn't matter. I needed some scares, some moments of genuine fright, some … dare I say it … horror for this film to work. Instead what I found were cheap actors, horrible editing with crappy flashbacks, and no actual horror as far as the eye can see.Overall, it was a disappointment. While I was not expecting anything extraordinary, I would have thought that somebody (outside Eric Roberts) would have cared about this project, but I guess I was wrong. I needed more solidity with the story and a more focused director to help guide me through the piles of mess that the actors created. I needed help, but nobody listened to my yelp.Grade: * out of *****
gazebo
I don't know whether the director wanted to make this movie a horror movie or a psychological horror movie. I guess this director couldn't make up his mind and the movie ended up full of promise but never delivers!All the actors give very good performances. Eric Roberts is a very good actor who seems to get stuck doing mediocre movies. He plays a small part in this film but he gives a very good performance with what he's given with. Heck! Eric Roberts always gives a good performance whatever movie he's in! The rest of the actors are very attractive young men or women. There is quite a bit of suggested homoeroticism in this movie, but nothing too overt. A young man comes to Wall Street in his quest to become a stockbroker. He ends up working for this strange firm that has unique ideas of what it is to be a good employee to this company. I wish they would've shown more of the material rewards of being a stockbroker, it would make the audience understand why this young man wanted to be part of this strange company.The ending of this film is unbelieveable! Not a good unbelieveable, but a bad unbelieveable! Okay, it's a good idea to arm oneself with a silver dagger to go up against werewolves, not just a silver pen! That's all I can tell you about the ending, you'll have to see it for yourself if you are curious enough to rent this two hour time waster.The director should have shown some sort of werewolf special effects. I don't know why he didn't. Then if the director is not going to show any special effects, then he should've turn this film into a psychological horror film of a young man getting sucked into the evil lifestyle of this stockbroker firm.This film just didn't work. This film showed wonderful shots of downtown Manhattan at night and Wall Street during the day and showed great actors, but the story sucked big time! This movie is an interesting failure.Watch it if you're interested in looking at hunky guys in suits or shirtless!I give this movie a D+!
Michael Bo
Of course the metaphor of stockbrokers being akin to bloodthirsty werewolves hunting in packs in trite, but having said that this is by far DeCoteau's most professionally executed film. Lots of reasonably vibrant location footage from Lower Manhattan, really good acting (quite a shock after some of DeCoteau's earlier efforts!), but the sex is less titillating than in some of his old stuff. The homosexual flirt is always at the core of a DeCoteau film and naked male flesh often seems to be the whole point of them. Not quite so here, which is why many might want to opt for a less idiosyncratic form of slasher movie.
