Hey folks, seems like ol Flesh Gordon is back from the planet Mongo and I have to say, there is no sign of his faithful companion, Flexi Jerkoff, but they are still searching... Hopefully he isn't in the evil clutches of Emperor Wang. Anyway... Flesh, armed with his power pasties, went right on in and took a gander at THE BOILER ROOM... A movie that I've seen, and felt that Giovanni Ribisi's heroin shiek Peter Lorre routine just went on too long and weepy for me. I liked Affleck and Diesel... but their characters were on screen waaaaay too little. But... I'll let Flesh explain the disappointment...
Hello Readers,
Flesh Gordon here (God, it excites me to say that, and oh baby I mean excited). As a fan of film, I am always at least a little excited about viewing a new movie. The anticipation of not ever being completely sure of what you are about to witness is what keeps me coming back for more. You can call this phenomenon "my weekly dose of crack". The fact that I was looking forward to the watching of "BOILER ROOM" was no surprise. Though I am always glad to catch early-bird viewings of movies, "BOILER ROOM" has left me disappointed.
The film's trailer says it all: "Watch as a young buck joins in on the exploits of a testosterone driven frat-boy-like cadre of stockbrokers at a mysterious firm lead by Tom Everett Scott and Ben Affleck." I was optimistic that this cast of popular and talented young actors could pull off a film that frankly, from viewing its trailers, looked like a recycled "WALL STREET" (a comparison that the movie is not shy of, and even embraces). Giovanni Ribisi is miscast as an up and coming stock broker. He is always perfect when portraying dysfunctional slacker types, but Ribisi completely lacks the energy or intensity to convincingly pull off the impossible hard sell, which is a critical ability if you are going to succeed in the offices of J.T. Marlin, the firm depicted in the film.
The supporting characters in "BOILER ROOM" are cardboard flat stereotypes and very unexplored (You see almost all of Ben Affleck's performance in the trailer.). The one exception is Vin Diesel, but even he has to fight for screen time against the omnipresent insomnia-inducing Ribisi. Diesel plays a fellow broker at the firm who genuinely befriends the Ribisi's character of Seth. Diesel delivers a charismatic performance, but he gives nothing even close to his acting in the yet to be released "PITCH BLACK" (You will be amazed when you see the character of Riddick in this one folks! This man is going to be big, very big. Harry has praised him, and it's praise well-deserved. If more "TERMINATOR" movies come to pass, and I am still not totally sure that they should, but if they do, forget Arnold, Vin Diesel would be an intense and very cool cyborg. Sorry, I fell into fan-boy mode.).
"BOILER ROOM" is a message movie that broadcast its whole plot from the beginning. We know nothing good will come from Ribisi's character's new career choice. We know he shouldn't take the offer that sounds too good to be true. We know he and the agency will screw people out of their cash, and we know he is going to get caught. This movie was made with all of these obvious cliches, but the amazing thing is that it just ends before we see all of the typical finales you might see in this type of flick. "BOILER ROOM" deprives us of the one scene we wanted to see. There is no big confrontation between Seth and the firm, there is no payoff. The only time that "BOILER ROOM" travels anywhere close to being dramatically satisfying is when we see a how badly a person can foul up their lives by being seduced by the tempting words of Rabisi's broker. Watching a seemingly nice family man go to ruin by buying bad stock is painful, but at least it's not boring.
I guess the bottom line for me on "BOILER ROOM" is that I have seen these sort of greed + too easy a quick buck = punishment scenarios one too many times (and don't forget, CRIME DOES NOT PAY either). This theme is a tired horse. While watching "BOILER ROOM" a friend remarked to me that this film is ten years too late, and I agree. If I wanted to watch "WALL STREET"... well, I would just watch "WALL STREET", not this "hip", youth-oriented wannabe. I will acknowledge that greed is still a pervasive element in our society, but tales of insider trading are old ones. Today's risk-takers rise and fall by addictively day-trading online. Showing how this occupation (or fixation) affects their lives on film would have been more interesting. Freshman writer/director Ben Younger should have gone with something more original for his first effort. Anyway, thanks for reading.
So long,
-Flesh
