Review: The Wolf of Wall Street

Starring - Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie
Written by Terence Winter
Directed by Martin Scorsese

It's rather depressing that in interviews promoting his latest collaboration with Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio felt the need to explain that they are critiquing the attitude of Jordan Belfort rather than endorsing it. Short of appearing onscreen and delivering a lecture on the morality of stockbroking, it's hard to see how Scorsese could make this any clearer, but apparently certain critics refuse to get the point.

In their defence, DiCaprio brings a great deal of charm to his layered performance as Belfort, cleverly showing his development from eager to please 'pond scum' (to quote his first employer) to dizzying success. However, the film takes every opportunity to knock him down, whether it be his eleven-second long first encounter with his future wife or his pathetic attempts to terminate an incriminating phone call between his friend Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) and a Swiss banker.

Despite a long running time, Scorsese ensures that the film never sags. Though the tone varies wildly, it mostly does so very effectively, though just occasionally the humour falls flat due to the more serious events going on at the same time

For the most part, however, this is a film with all the confidence of (but significantly more morals than) its lead character. It is, of course, absurdly early to start talking about the best films of 2014, but The Wolf of Wall Street has set the bar high. Greed may not be good, but it can make for some great films.

Batman: Zero Year

Quick update for those of you who haven't had enough of my tedious witterings yet. My thoughts on Scott Snyder's Batman: Zero Year can be found here, along with older reviews by me and some people who can actually write.

While you're there, why not have a look around? Komix offers all kind of comic-y goodness, is very competitively-priced and generally awesome. Enjoy!

Review: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Starring - Will Ferrell, Steve Carrell, Paul Rudd

Written by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay

Directed by Adam McKay

In 2004, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy arrived in cinemas with little fanfare and gradually developed a huge following. Just shy of a decade later, The Legend Continues arrives to be greeted with the kind of expectations that any film would struggle to meet.

Ferrell and McKay's response to these expectations is not to stray too far from what made the first film work. Once again, Burgundy is confronted with a woman who challenges him both professionally and romantically, and once again the film follows the arc of his fall from grace and his attempts to redeem himself. And, once again, there's a star-packed inter-newsteam brawl.

At its best, Anchorman 2 is a hugely entertaining follow-up to the original. However, the film struggles to reach such heights consistently as it juggles too many plotlines. As well as the returning characters - including Brick, who is given more of a storyline this time round - the script has to share screen time between Ron's relationship with rival Jack Lime, his superiors at the Global News Network, and his ex-wife's new partner (played brilliantly by Greg Kinnear.)

The first Anchorman was so packed with jokes that they managed to stitch together a whole other film using leftover scenes. The Legend Continues is better than most comedies out there, but it fails to live up to the first film's DVD spin-off, let alone the first film itself. It may be a reasonably entertaining comedy, but the team have proved themselves capable of doing so much more with these characters, and sadly this film can't help disappointing.