Posted on 01/10/2014 5:38:33 AM PST by Kaslin
Inside twisted Tinseltown, Martin Scorsese has marked a new career achievement. His latest film, "The Wolf of Wall Street," includes a mighty 506 uses of the F-bomb in its three-hour running time. That's almost three curse words a minute.
Someone has proclaimed this the new record for F-bombs. Another Hollywood high mark. Scorsese often has hundreds of F-bombs in his films about crooks. But this takes the cake.
"That was a badge of honor for me, to be in a Martin Scorsese movie and say the F-word," actor-director Rob Reiner told a TMZ.com interviewer in a parking lot. When he was reminded about the movie's 500-plus curse count, he smiled and said, "I don't worry about that."
Though the movie's stars are sounding worried about that, as the film has limped at the box office since its profane debut on Christmas day. (Happy birthday, Jesus!) It drew an "awful" score of C from ticket-buyers on Cinemascore, and bad word of mouth could be behind its declining sales. The Daily Beast is selling the movie's 21 craziest moments, calling the film an "outrageously depraved orgy of sex, cocaine, and midget-tossing."
In several interviews, actor Jonah Hill, who fought his way into being cast in the movie, tried to argue that naysayers are misunderstanding it, which he's painting as a very profane morality tale.
"I personally take away the message from the film that this behavior, this lifestyle, leads to a very bad ending," the actor told Variety. "I think the movie is not glorifying this behavior, it is showing that it leads to bad places whether their judicial punishment doesn't reflect that is one thing. Where your life ends up, who you are as a person, is another."
The movie's top star, Leonardo DiCaprio, broke out what should be called the "Howard Stern defense." When you're incredibly perverse, praise your work for its "honesty" to the human condition. The director is being "unapologetic" as the film "shakes the foundations of society."
Scorsese isn't really trying to scold Wall Street. He's being a cinematic sensationalist, a linguistic and sexual exhibitionist. He wants this to be dramatically over the top, even while everyone proclaims it's incredibly true to life.
Critics have generally liked the movie, considering the director's renown in Hollywood. But not everyone. On NPR's Dec. 23 "The Diane Rehm Show," David Denby of The New Yorker was harsh. "I dislike it and I'm a big Scorsese fan. I think it's a fake. By that, I mean under the guise of being a satirical attack on this obscene, disgusting, over-the-top, profane sexist behavior on Wall Street, it is itself an example of over-the-top obscene, profane, disgusting."
Denby said Ray Liotta's central character in "Goodfellas" was much more credible and artistic, but this film had "an almost hysterical overemphasis, as if Scorsese was saying, 'I may be 71, but I'm still king. You know, I'm going to out-Tarantino Tarantino. I'm going to make the wildest, craziest movie you've ever seen.' And it really, I think, is oppressive."
So far, "The Wolf of Wall Street" has only grossed $66 million after costing $100 million to make. In its second weekend, it came in fourth at the box office. This may be due in part to the film's promotional trailer, which paints a misleading picture of a fun film about some sleazy stockbrokers with nothing more than a few seconds alluding to the parade of sex, drugs and debauchery.
Meanwhile at the top of the box office -- in its sixth weekend -- was "Frozen." With a worldwide cumulative gross of more than $600 million, it is now the second highest-grossing Disney Animation release of all time, behind "The Lion King."
It produced the third highest sixth weekend ever behind "Avatar" and "Titanic," and "Frozen" is also the first movie to hold the top spot on its sixth weekend since "Avatar" did four years ago. "Frozen" has just passed $300 million at the domestic box office.
Scorsese & Co. will hope for some Oscar nominations as a way to boost their underwhelming box office numbers. But the Hollywood manipulators behind awards season shouldn't be allowed to blur the message being sent to Scorsese and his studio enablers at Paramount. How many times must they learn that a super-sleazy spectacle is usually going to get trumped at the ticket counter by a film the whole family can enjoy?
They should change the name to Wolf of Hollywood and it would be more truthful.
Pray America is Waking
I haven’t felt any “shaking” out here on the eastern end o flyover country.
It’s 3 hours long. No one is going to sit for 3 hours of the F word.
He can't worry about it. He has meat for brains.
What is the obsession with this idiot and that whiny ass twerp DiCrapio? What is it, is he fascinated by his promotions of the global warming scam? That the little dip never worked a real job in his life so therefore that gives him cred to dictate to the rest of us serfs? Give me a break He’s the King of miscast actors, if Scorcese wanted to make a movie about singer James Brown no doubt he would cast this twerp as James Brown. He already tried to do it with the Frank Sinatra movie he’s trying to get made, DiCrapio with his borderline woman voice cast as Frank Sinatra, oh yes that will work. I am so sick to death of this Scorcese and this little doosh DiCrapio, and these critics who practically fall over themselves in praise for all these crap movies they make.
Besides the language, this film also has a great deal of nudity/sexual content. Amazingly, I read a positive review from the online version of “Christianity Today”.
While I can handle the F-word every now and then and have been known to use it when the occasion called for it, if it’s used with in five minutes of the movie starting, I’m gone...
Displays a lack of creativity, ingenuity and mastery of the language.
I enjoyed ‘Frozen’.
It was a long time ago but I remember seeing gangs of New York with my family- my cousin and her husband. And we’re Irish New Yorker with ancestors in the real story
At the end, the lights came on in the theater and my cousin and I looked at each other and we laughed hilariously
It was so bad it was hilarious
Dicaprio, I saw five minutes of titanic and had to turn it off
Sat through that pornographic the departed and gave him for whatever stupid reason another chance with Gatsby
All were much worse than a waste of time
But I do not get why people say these films are good
I do not get it
That's all he's ever been. It's just that some of his movies have been entertaining in spite of it.
It’s art.
You may not like the language but it is dead on accurate. You will never find an environment with more cursing. Movie was good but not great. A sort of self-ripoff of Goodfellas.
So, because it’s “accurate” in the use of the F-word, I’m suppose to pay big bucks to watch it.
No thanks...I’ll just stay “ignorant” of the culture where this kind of language is acceptable.
I have to thank you. I’m no fan of Daniel Day Lewis (King of the overactors), and in general am a Scorsese fan.
I never saw Gangs of New York, because watching poor Irish people fighting in Five-Points wasn’t exactly ‘Up, up with people’ for me, and I also wasn’t a fan of Cameron Diaz either.
I was always going to ‘get around’ to watching, but never did.
You mentioned there’s a scene where the US Navy shells Manhattan, and after you revealed that it was like taking a load off. I’ll never see it.
I saw American Hustle two weeks ago. Outstanding movie, in my opinion. Smart movie that treated their audience like they were smart.
Also, no sex. Revealing 70’s Cosmpolitan Magazine cover model blouses? Absolutely.
Very entertaining. I’ve seen critics tee-off on Jennifer Lewis’ dance thing toward the end of the movie, but she’s bat-shite crazy, and frankly, I watched my mom do worse growing up in CA in the 1970’s.
Anyway, thank you. I’ll never see Gangs.
Starts with an f.
Who told you to watch it?
Well, it seems as if Scorcese and DeCaprio et al are telling all of us it’s a great movie...do you not get that?
What I could F-word say right now......
You are surprised that someone is promoting their own product?
Really?
Have you never heard of marketing?
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