New in Theaters
(Playing at the Durango Stadium 9)
The Wolf of Wall Street
Digging into deep-pocket gluttony, Martin Scorsese’s dark comedy “The Wolf of Wall Street” highlights a world rich in drugs, fast cars and private jets. The American dream is amplified, yet those indulging in it are never satisfied.
In the film’s opening segment, trading tycoon Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, declares, “Money is the best drug. It makes you a better person.” This was the motto fueling a host of hustling stockbrokers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and it sets the tone for Scorsese’s commentary on the extravagance of our twisted financial culture.
As we’ve seen in his films “Goodfellas” and “Casino,” Scorsese is keen on illuminating power struggles among a brutal backdrop. But in “Wolf,” swindling is the central vice, while violence is pale.
Adapted by Terrence Winter (“The Sopranos”), “Wolf” is based on a memoir by the real Jordan Belfort, who became a multi-millionaire at 26 and served 22 months in prison for securities fraud and money-laundering before becoming a best-selling author and motivational speaker.
As Jordan, DiCaprio, snorts cocaine off hookers, receives oral sex while speeding in his Miami Vice-esq Ferrari and nearly crashes his helicopter. His excessive antics carry over into his office, where brokers indulge in trysts with prostitutes and pop pills daily.
In a flashback, we discover Jordan’s road to being a kingpin started in 1987 when he was a broker-in-training under the ardent Mark Hanna (played by Matthew McConaughey, who has never been funnier). David takes Jordan under his wing and advises him to devour blow to survive in the fast-paced trading industry. But when the market crashes on Black Monday, Jordan is sent back to his humble beginnings in Long Island, where he finds a job at a local penny stocks firm and quickly makes a killing earning 50 percent commission.
Still living in a mediocre apartment, Jordan’s flashy car catches the attention of his neighbor Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), who must learn the secret to his success. Soon Jordan, with Donnie as his No. 2, goes into business for himself, starting the firm Stratton Oakmont. Pulling together a hilarious crew of goons and underachievers, Jordan trains them to become successful brokers.
But our hero is hard to root for. He’s a master manipulator who harbors only a slight glint of humility, as he never leaves his accomplices behind. But he is quick to put his own needs before others, which is made clear when he uses the British aunt (Joanna Lumley of “Absolutely Fabulous” fame) of his trophy wife, Naomi (scene-stealing Australian newcomer Margot Robbie), to set up an offshore account and jeopardizes the safety of his adolescent daughter in an especially cringing scene.
However, none of his doings are ever severely punished. After a crackdown led by FBI agent Patrick Denham (an excellently placid Kyle Chandler), Jordan strikes a deal with the feds requiring him to snitch on his associates in order to reduce his sentence. But DiCaprio, with his occasional first-person narration, is exceptionally charismatic in his fifth Scorsese collaboration. And though the actor’s skillset is usually best suited for campy roles, he strikes an ideal balance in “Wolf,” as he seamlessly shifts between wild and collected.
At nearly three hours, Scorsese’s manic masterpiece is a surplus of extravagance. But the extra minutes give way for the film’s funniest sequence: Jordan and Donnie crawl on the floor attempting to fight despite their impaired speech and motor skills due to a delayed reaction to a batch of old Quaaludes. The heavy humor finds the endlessly hilarious Hill securing his place in Hollywood and sees DiCaprio reaching new comedic heights.
“The Wolf of Wall Street,” a Paramount Pictures release, is rated R for “sequences of strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language throughout, and for some violence.” Running time: 179 minutes. HHH½ out of four.
JESSICA HERNDON, AP Film Writer
47 Ronin (In standard format and digital 3-D with surcharge)
In Japan, the story of the 47 ronin is so central to the country’s national identity that a special word exists for the act of retelling it: Chushingura. But despite this long tradition of flexible reinterpretation, the Hollywood-backed “47 Ronin” takes such liberties with the underlying legend that a different term comes to mind, one better suited to American actor Keanu Reeves’ involvement: “bogus.” So far, Japanese audiences have been slow to embrace a CG-heavy version of the story that offers Keanu as a previously unsung “half-breed” accomplice. Meanwhile, domestic crowds are being deliberately misled to think he’s the star – a high-stakes bait-and-switch sure to backfire on this narratively stiff but compositionally dazzling production.
In theory, director Carl Rinsch’s considerable visual talents should have been the draw, with the expectation that the first-time director would deliver on the promise of his dazzling short film “The Gift.” Sure enough, in his hands, “47 Ronin” rivals the epic martial-arts films of Tsui Hark or Zhang Yimou in terms of sheer spectacle.
But as the budget crept ever skyward, reportedly reaching as high as $225 million, Universal’s marketing department shifted into panic mode, opting to disguise the fact that the true heroes of this epic Japanese legend were themselves Japanese, and positioning Reeves’ character – described as the shameful “love of one night” between an English sailor and a local peasant girl – as a superficial ploy to attract international crowds.
Like all Chushingura, “47 Ronin” recounts the tragic Ako incident (spoilers ahead), during which Lord Asano (Min Tanaka) was forced to commit seppuku after illegally striking an unarmed royal guest, leaving the 47 samurai who had been under his command without a master. After more than a year adrift, these ronin (as disgraced samurai are known) returned, staging a daring night raid in which they took their revenge, vindicated their master and were ultimately forced to sacrifice their own lives in punishment.
Sanada plays Oishi, leader of the desperate group of ronin, who turns to mysterious stranger Kai (Reeves) for help when planning his coup. With three writers credited (Chris Morgan and Walter Hamada for story, “Drive” scribe Hossein Amini and Morgan for the script itself), the project resists easy reverse-engineering, though given Reeves’ international profile, it’s no surprise that he was given the film’s romantic subplot. Kai’s love is star-crossed for multiple reasons – not least of which that nearly all the male leads end up dead, either in battle or by ritual suicide – though it doesn’t help matters that the object of his affection is Asano’s daughter, Mika (an unremarkable Kou Shibasaki), already promised to Oishi.
Perhaps it is this connection that inspires Kai, whose lowly class separates him from the esteemed samurai, to repeatedly risk his life for Asano’s honor. Though Rinsch shows no great strength in working with actors, he can build a setpiece on par with those of directors decades more experienced, and long before Asano has been given the chance to publicly disembowel himself (an act that, like so much of the bloodletting, is “tastefully” left offscreen), Kai has already slain a rampaging CG monstrosity and faced off against a 10-foot silver-armored samurai.
The key difference between most Chushingura comes in the speculated motives behind Asano’s initial attack upon his rival in the palace – the act that sets the entire tragedy in motion. To this fantasy-infused telling, Rinsch introduces the notion of witchcraft, casting Rinko Kikuchi as a deliciously evil witch with ambiguous powers. Basically, anything that might look cool when rendered by the industry’s finest effects houses is fair game, whether that means the witch conjuring iridescent spiders out of thin air or transforming herself into a three-dimensional dragon. As impressive as these visual elements prove to be, the film struggles to grab and maintain audiences’ interest, whether or not they know the underlying legend by heart.
“47 Ronin,” a Universal release, is rated PG-13 for “intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, and thematic elements.” Running time: 119 minutes.
PETER DEBRUGE, Variety
Grudge Match
Sylvester Stallone returns to the well of fan fiction by teaming with his onetime iconic-onscreen-pugilist rival, Robert De Niro, in “Grudge Match.” Essentially recasting “Grumpy Old Men” with the senescent specters of Rocky Balboa and Jake LaMotta, the result is sporadically amusing, with some chuckles, sight gags and crowd-pleasing supporting turns from Alan Arkin and Kevin Hart. Yet it’s all so overcooked that it defeats its own purpose.
Hollywood frequently rummaging through its creative dumpster for never-ending sequels and remakes, but the latter-day careers of Stallone and De Niro are special cases indeed, with the two stars - 67 and 70, respectively - essaying a series of roles that are not only informed by, but practically senseless without, knowledge of their filmographies. This tendency toward lazily coasting on familiarity hits a pinnacle for both in “Grudge Match,” where the stunt casting is far funnier in theory than in execution.
As a Jim Lampley-narrated mini-documentary informs us at the outset, Henry “Razor” Sharp (Stallone) and Billy “the Kid” McDonnen (De Niro) were once the fiercest rivals in boxing, with McDonnen beating Sharp in a classic bout, and Sharp taking the spoils against an out-of-shape McDonnen in the rematch. A third, score-settling grudge match was scheduled to take place 30 years ago, but Sharp abruptly retired from boxing shortly before the opening bell.
Since then, the soft-spoken Sharp has retreated into life as a foundry-floor factotum in the scrappier outskirts of Pittsburgh, while the peacocking McDonnen has parlayed his waning fame into a chain of steakhouses and car dealerships. In need of money to keep his aging trainer (Arkin) in a nursing home, Sharp agrees to throw some punches in a motion-capture suit for a videogame, leading to a confrontation with the similarly green-suited McDonnen in the studio. A ludicrous brawl breaks out between the two, and camera-phone footage of the punch-up goes viral.
Sensing an opportunity, fast-talking aspiring fight promoter Dante Slate Jr. (Hart) convinces the two paunchy punchers to finally reschedule their “Grudgement Day” bout, a televised spectacle that falls somewhere between “Celebrity Boxing” and Ali vs. Inoki on the dignity scale.
Ostentatious callbacks to “Rocky” and “Raging Bull” take the form of Stallone quaffing raw eggs and strolling through a meat locker, while De Niro performs a chintzy nightclub comedy act. As it turns out, Sharp’s abrupt retirement was sparked by McDonnen’s dalliances with his then-girlfriend (Kim Basinger), who abruptly reappears on the scene three decades later precisely as McDonnen’s estranged son, B.J. (Jon Bernthal), emerges to connect with his old man, quickly becoming his trainer.
The rest of the film (directed by Peter Segal from a script by Tim Kelleher and Rodney Rothman) ambles forward with a series of training montages interrupted by old-man-falls-down slapstick interrupted by sappy drama, with hit-and-miss set pieces occasionally compensating for the pic’s dreary lack of narrative propulsion. Considering how much of “Rocky V” and “Rocky Balboa” focused on the inherent sadness of an aged fighter enduring yet more punishment, “Grudge Match” is quite glib about the potentially fatal fight at its center, while it rarely passes up an opportunity to slather on pathos elsewhere via a cherubic little kid (Camden Gray) and images of laid-off industrial workers.
Compared with De Niro’s shticky role in this year’s “The Family” – in which his Jersey mobster character actually attends a screening of “Goodfellas” – the actor has a few moments of spark playing the more unsavory of the two leads, while Stallone mostly muddles through. (Both men, it must be said, are in quite impressive shape by the film’s final reel.) Arkin and Hart strike the same ornery-old-cuss / loudmouthed-little-man notes they’ve hit a dozen times before, though they’re good enough for quick laughs, and Hart’s end-credits attempt to stage yet another retirement-age grudge match proves the funniest moment in the whole endeavor.
“Grudge Match,” a Warner Bros. release, is rated PG-13 for “sports action violence, sexual content and language.” Running time: 113 minutes.
ANDREW BARKER, Variety
Still Showing
Animas City Theatre (128 E. College Drive, 799-2281, www.animascitytheatre.com)
Nebraska. After receiving a sweepstakes letter in the mail, a cantankerous father (Bruce Dern) thinks he’s struck it rich, and wrangles his son (Will Forte) into taking a road trip to claim the fortune. Shot in black and white across four states. Rated R.
Durango Stadium 9
(Next to Durango Mall, 247-9799, www.allentheatresinc.com)
American Hustle. A con man and woman are forced to work for an FBI agent during the ABSCAM era in the 1970s. Rated R.
Walking with Dinosaurs. Audiences will truly see and feel what it was like when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. “Walking With Dinosaurs” is the ultimate immersive experience, utilizing state of the art 3D to put moviegoers in the middle of a thrilling and epic prehistoric world, where an underdog dinosaur triumphs to become a hero for the ages. Rated PG.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. With the ‘70s behind him, San Diego’s top rated newsman returns to the news desk. Also back are Ron Burgundy’s co-anchor and wife, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), weather man Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), man on the street Brian Fontana (Paul Rudd) and sports guy Champ Kind (David Koechner) - all of whom won’t make it easy to stay classy…while taking the nation’s first 24-hour news channel by storm. Rated PG-13.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. (In standard format and digital 3-D with surcharge.) Bilbo Baggins journeys with the Wizard Gandalf and 13 Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield, on an epic quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor. Having survived the beginning of their unexpected journey, the Company continues East, encountering along the way the skin-changer Beorn and a swarm of giant Spiders in the treacherous forest of Mirkwood. Rated PG-13.
Frozen. Inspired by the 19th-century fairytale, “The Snow Queen,” by Hans Christian Andersen, “Frozen” marks another Disney film modernizing one of the Danish author’s stories.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Katniss goes on a victory tour after her “Hunger Games” victory, but there’s no time to rest before the next round. Rated PG-13.
Gaslight Cinema
(102 Fifth St. Next to the railroad depot, 247-8133, www.allentheatresinc.com)
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. (See review page 1C.)
Saving Mr. Banks. Tom Hanks plays Walt Disney as he negotiates for the movie rights to P.L. Travers’ “Mary Poppins.” Rated PG-13.
Ted Holteen and Associated Press
