R E V I E W S

Boiler Room (2000)

Starring: Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel
Director: Ben Younger
Rating: R

Studio: New Line Cinema

Review Posted: Unknown

Rating: 6/10

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By Sheila Danzig.

I have loved "scam" movies since I first saw Robert Redford and Paul Newman in The Sting (1973). They are always entertaining. I must admit that Boiler Room was entertaining, but little more. A bad rip off of Glengarry Glen Ross and Wall Street, Boiler Room does not live up to either one of these films as it presents the young brokers without the character depth or genuine emotion of Wall Street or Glengarry. These are simply punks, and I never came to care about them, nor believe them.

Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi), a 19-year-old college dropout, is our star. He gives up running a 24-hour casino for a supposedly legitimate job at a brokerage house, J. T. Marlin, to please his cold unsympathetic father, a judge, (Ron Rifkin). Dad is very angry with Seth for dropping out of school, and for running an illegal operation. The scenes between Seth and his father were the best part of the film, however confusing since Seth seemed to desperately want his father’s approval, but he certainly kept doing things that his father would never approve of. Ribisi's relationship with the firm receptionist (Nia Long) is nice to watch, but we never did understand why she was attracted to him.

In Wall Street Michael Douglas intoxicated me with his greed and drive for power. In Boiler Room I could only laugh at young men who acted more like drunken fraternity brothers. They spent their money on fast cars and all they do with their lives is drive back and forth to work and eat pizza in big homes that have little in the way of furnishings.

Posing as a legitimate brokerage house, the broker-punks of J. T. Marlin were selling stock of non-existent companies. Writer-director Ben Younger did a good job learning how real boiler rooms work. I have heard these very pitches myself. Don’t feel too badly about the young brokers, for while they may have started out innocent enough, in time they realize that they are cheats. Even if they think that they are not breaking laws, they know that they are ruining lives. Too late. By that time the money they are making makes it too hard to leave. Greed rules them. And the greedy will be turned on by this film.

The movie turns into an old-fashioned morality tale as Seth starts to feel terribly guilty about the people on the other end of the phone. The movie winds down to a very disappointing end, lacking both the excitement and originality that it needed.

I give this movie a 6 out of 10. I looked at my watch 4 times. I would not see this moving again. I suggest that you wait until it is on cable, and go out and rent either Wall Street or Glengarry Glen Ross, if you want to see a great film.

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