The Wolf of Wall Street (18) ****
One of the most underrated actors of his generation, Leo Di Caprio carries his fifth film with Scorcese as an all-round douche bag who became notorious for dodgy trading on the stockmarket - and spent much of his riches on cocaine and prostitutes.
The story of Belfort’s outrageous exploits is entertaining stuff, even if the legendary director’s determination to keep the tone cranked up to “hedonistic” throughout does sometimes prove tiresome.
The movie suffers, too, from a bloated running time. Coming in at a minute shy of three hours, it could have benefited from more snipping at the hands of Scorcese’s long-term editor, Thelma Schoonmaker.
The movie sees Jordan Belfort take on a job as a young stockbroker just as the massive Wall Street crash of 1987 takes hold.
McConaughey, enjoying something of a career resurgence after years of iffy rom-coms, plays his boss and mentor, who advises him that sex, cocaine and alcohol are the wisest ways to survive and thrive on the stock market.
After the Crash, Belfort moves to a small company that trades in penny stocks - worthless companies that serious traders don’t deal in. It’s not long before he’s using his charm to hoodwink small time clients and making a fortune, putting him into contact with a new business partner (Jonah Hill).
Riches, drugs, debauchery and a hot new wife (Margot Robbie) follow, but when he discovers the FBI are firmly on his case, Belfort needs to hide his riches, and fast, using more dodgy dealings and the Swiss banking system.
It’s a well-made, sometimes entertaining movie as you’d expect - Scorcese is one of the all-time greats after all. But the film’s overcooked tone and lengthy running time, in which a series of obnoxious characters come over all wild and shouty for three hours, ends up being quite grating.
Scorcese’s film comes dangerously close to being as shallow as the characters he depicts - but it’s saved by Di Caprio’s bravado performance.
Devil’s Due (15A) **
Allison Miller and Zach Gilford play a young newlywed couple who have that annoying habit of documenting every event throughout their romance on their web camera.
It means we see much of the movie’s action unfold through their shaky hand-held camera style that’s so prevalent in horror films these days.
Following a lost night on their honeymoon in an exotic island where they’re brought to a local nightclub by a friendly taxi driver, the couple return to married life. .
Whereas last year’s The Conjuring took the familiar and breathed new life into it very effectively, too many horror movies rely on tried and tested formulas to bring on the scares.
In the case of The Devil’s Due, it’s the whole demon baby storyline mixed with a bit of found footage. The two leads do their best to be gradually more spooked and there are a few decent frights. But we’ve been here too many times before.
