Wolves of Wall Street

It sounded like it could be fun. The premise of the most powerful brokerage firm on Wall Street being run by hunky werewolves could have worked. And the film does boast some capable actors, even an amusing cameo appearance by Louise Lasser (from "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"). Obviously, one doesn't expect a classic film, but the least these people could have delivered is something enjoyably bad. But there is no excuse for it being so dull. There are no werewolf transformations on camera, for starters. Eric Roberts plays the senior partner of the firm with "where's my paycheck?" restlessness, while the supporting cast just goes through the motions. There are constant, repetitive shots of Wall Street buildings, full moons (do full moons happen several nights in a row there?), embarrassingly bad wolf puns, and an idiotic flashback from a party. In the flashback in question, the brokers all strip off their clothes Chippendale's style, then crawl to a pair of seated female models, sniffing and licking their hands and legs while the women moan (but look like they're yawning). Meanwhile, the sound of wolves growling plays on the soundtrack. What do they plan to do to the women? Seduce them? Eat them? Hump their legs and pee on the carpeting? I never figured it out. There are a few off-camera killings, but it's the paying audience who are the real victims. David DeCoteau (the man responsible for this) belongs in the doghouse.

If you're going to make a movie about werewolves or vampires someone should actually turn into one. It would have been a good low-budget movie with a different hook but they failed to make a monster. Maybe it was a budget thing, I've been there. ADVISE: If you don't have enough money to do it right, don't do it!

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+!

who had this lame idea of mixing Wall Street and American Werewolf In London? Two perfectly great films do not necessarily make one good movie. Poorly acted, executed, filmed, edited and just a bad idea in the first place.

Could this have been done better...I doubt it. I think the whole idea was a stillborn from the start. I also think it felt way too overdone already from both the "big business" and "scary werewolf from young guy" approach. I feel for the people that put any money or effort into this...total waste.

Ugh..couldn't't stand the whole "transformation" thing. Not the man to werewolf but the wanna-be to "high stakes broker"...a beret? what were they thinking????

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 *****