Boiler Room (2000)

Director:

Ben Younger

Writer (WGA):

Ben Younger (written by)

Release Date:

18 February 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | Drama | Crime

Tagline:

Where would you turn? How far would you go? How hard will you fall?

Plot:

A college dropout gets a job as a broker for a suburban investment firm, which puts him on the fast track to success, but the job might not be as legitimate as it sounds.

Plot Keywords:

Judge | Casino | Stock | Investment | Stock Broker

Awards:

1 win & 7 nominations

Cast

Giovanni Ribisi	...	Seth Davis
Vin Diesel	...	Chris Varick
Nia Long	...	Abbie Halpert
Nicky Katt	...	Greg Weinstein
Scott Caan	...	Richie O'Flaherty
Ron Rifkin	...	Judge Marty Davis
Jamie Kennedy	...	Adam
Taylor Nichols	...	Harry Reynard
Bill Sage	...	FBI Agent David Drew
Tom Everett Scott	...	Michael Brantley
Ben Affleck	...	Jim Young
John Griesemer	...	Concierge
David Younger	...	Marc
Herbert Russell	...	Kid (as Russell Harper)
Mark Webber	...	Kid

MPAA:

Rated R for strong language and some drug content.

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

USA

Language:

Russian | English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIB (DVD rating) | Argentina:13 | Denmark:15 | France:U | Germany:12 | South Korea:15 (original rating) | South Korea:18 (DVD rating) | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #36838) | Finland:K-16 | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Garden City, Long Island, New York, USA

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

Ratner's, the restaurant Seth and his family eat dinner in, is the same restaurant that Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider stake out in The French Connection (1971).

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the FBI arrests Seth, they tell him to go to work the next day and copy his C Drive onto a floppy. This would be impossible as a floppy disc only holds 1.5 megabytes and his Hard Drive would hold at least 20 or more Gigabytes.

Quotes:

Seth Davis: What do you mean, you're gonna pass. Alan, the only people making money passing are NFL quarterbacks and I don't see a number on your back.

Movie Connections:

References Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Soundtrack:

You Don't

These Guys Can Act!

The large and well-selected cast turned in very powerful performances. They crafted a convincing range of emotions, from cunning cut-throat manipulators of their clients' personal wealth during office hours, to brief examples of their "boys will be boys" shenanigans after hours. The story line is built completely around their personal financial greed, the hapless victims they scammed to realize it (with the greatest focus on one of them), and a well-sustained sense of mystery that plants seeds of possibilities along the way. The ending was not at all predictable; it could have gone in any of several directions. The viewer gets the impression that if these predators could yank even the last remaining penny out of a client on his (they targeted males) deathbed, they'd gleefully do so and view it as a major coup giving them full bragging rights. There's a hint of information about how legitimate stockbrokers earn their credentials and that was enlightening. The romantic angles are minimalized and that serves to benefit the film. The language is consistently coarse, but certainly seemed realistic for the characters' ages, their business sector and their work ethic. For everyone who enjoyed "Glengarry Glen Ross," "Wall Street" (both of which are alluded to in the film), or even more appropriately "The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron," this feature will really score a bulls-eye.