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 Boiler Room is a must see! This is a great film that will get most of you out there really pumped! A great movie about a small start up stock broker company called J.T Marlins and a young kid who joins this company hoping to get rich. Not knowing that there's more trouble than involved, he joins the company and realizes that there's more than he bargained for. Econ majors and stock brokers, this one's for you!
This film stands by itsself. Its not meant to be a remake of 'Wall Street.' They are both about the stock market, yes. They are both about ruthless yuppies, sure. But the similarities stop there. Boiler Room is a drama/suspense/mystery film. Its about the classic story of a son willing to do ANYTHING to prove himself to his father. Its never dull, it always keeps you guessing, and its got a 'real world' feel to it. So, again, watch this film like you would watch any other film. Don't try to hold it to the standard of 'Wall Street'. If you let the movie stand on its own, you'll be able to appeciate it!
The first half, which follows the entrance of young Seth (Giovanni Ribisi) into this "chop shop" brokerage firm J.T. Marlin, has a certain snap, crackle, and pop. The employees of this firm are like an immature gang of boys with too much money, but director Ben Younger gives them smart dialogue and a certain mischevious charm. They're the types of hip slicksters that outsiders scorn, but only with a certain amount of envy. Affleck, Ribisi, and Vin Diesel are especially good. I haven't seen much of Vin Diesel except in Saving Private Ryan, but he's a dynamic young talent. Ribisi is a unique actor. Shy, and you can't tell if beneath it all he's psychotic or a sweet young kid. Unfortunately, the second half introduces the usual manufactured Hollywood conflict and resolutions which always feel like a script doctor came in at the last minute to wrap a film up. The rocky relationship between Seth and his dad (Ron Rifkin) does not feel real. It is ironic that it is the introduction of a common theme, the strained relationship between father and son, that trips up the engrossing realism of this film. A smart audience recognizes that even young men with wonderful relationships with their fathers could be easily seduced by the promise of a quick fortune in the fraternity of J.T. Marlin. In the end, this is a film worth watching on the strength of its first half. When a few of the young brokers in the film sit around watching Wall Street, reciting Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen's lines from heart, you'll wish you knew the words too. |
I think the BIGGEST mistake people make about this film is they expect a 'gen x' version of the film Wall Street. Well, don't. 
The first half of Boiler Room is highly entertaining. True, it borrows unabashedly from Wall Street and Glengarry Glen Ross, but it pays homage to those films with flair. This story, about a shady securities firm which uses money-hungry young alpha males to push bum stocks on an unsuspecting public, is actually more true to life than most realize. I have friends who have worked at or crossed path with such firms, and many of them remind me of the young hotshots of Boiler Room. Anyone who has read the cult classic Liar's Poker will see some similar personalities in this film.
