Boiler Room (2000)

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.

Director:

Ben Younger

Writer:

Ben Younger

Stars:

Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long

1 win & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

Seth Davis is a college dropout running an illegal casino from his rented apartment. Driven by his domineering fathers disapproval at his illegitimate existence and his desire for serious wealth, Seth suddenly finds himself seduced by the opportunity to interview as a trainee stock broker from recent acquaintance Greg (Nicky Katt). Walking into the offices of JT Marlin, a small time brokerage firm on the outskirts of New York - Seth gets an aggressive cameo performance from Jay (Ben Affleck) that sets the tone for a firm clearly placing money above all else. Seth's fractured relationship with his father and flirtatious glances from love interest Abbie (Nia Long) are enough to keep Seth motivated in his new found career. As he begins to excel and develop a love for the hard sale and high commission, a few chance encounters leads Seth to question the legitimacy of the firms operations - placing him once again at odds with his father and what remains of his morality. With homages to Wall...

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Plot Keywords:

stock | judge | casino | career | stock broker | 

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Taglines:

Motion creates Emotion!

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Genres:

Thriller | Drama | Crime

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong language and some drug content

Details

Official Sites:

Metropolitan Filmexport (French) New Line

Country:

USA

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

18 February 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

1 km da Wall Street

Filming Locations:

Garden City, Long Island, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£88,765 (UK) (5 May 2000)

Gross:

$16,938,179 (USA) (7 July 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Team Todd

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The chips used in Seth's casino were made by American Standard Molding (ASM) which makes custom chips for casinos and home games.

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Goofs

When Michael is talking to the room full of brokers to tell them about the party, his tie pin is alternately closed/open between shots.

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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.

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Crazy Credits

At the start of the film, the New Line Cinema studio logo features the faces from various U.S. Dollar bills, and the studio fanfare music uses a hip-hop "scratch" sound effect.

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Connections

References Wall Street (1987)

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Soundtracks

"Sunset Eyes"
Written by Teddy Edwards and Dorothy Wayne
Performed by Ernie Andrews
Courtesy of GNP Crescendo Records
By Arrangement with Ocean Park Music Group

User Reviews

A very very very good film

I'll sum this film up in 5 words, 'on par with fight club'.

This is a great film, every second of this film is worth 9/10. I'll start with the films flaws. Firstly, the main character is very weak, I'm not sure whether it's poor writing or bad acting but he just comes across as an idiot rather than the deep, flawed, entrepreneur that the film wanted to portray. Secondly, even in the year 2,000 floppy disks were an ageing technology, without giving much away there's a scene where an entire companies data is copied to a floppy disk. The film includes a lot of central characters and doesn't provide any back-story for any of them, this wouldn't be so much of a problem if the central character wasn't so weak but by the end of it you feel as though you haven't seen a single character develop or even begin to understood any of the characters but you have just seen a good film.

Praise: This film is amazing. The film really captures the desires of society and gives them a face. The characters really convey the shallow two facedness you come across every day where they're happy and pleasant until something happens that could even remotely damage their cash flow. Every person you've ever met that wanted to make a quick buck is in this film, the consumerism and lack of social conscience that constantly plagues society is so prevalent in this film. It also approaches the topic of share trading from a much more accessible angle, they don't put much effort into adding the right industry terms or showing scenes of the NY stock exchange - they show the consequences of share trading, the lack of understanding of the average consumer and give you a better understanding of where the money comes from. If you're anything like me then this film takes you on a ride where you are the main character every step of the way until finally you return to life with a much deeper understanding of the desires people succumb to in modern society. This film includes very young appearances by a lot of famous actors, Ben Affleck, Vin Diesel etc. who all pull their weight to give life to the film. I'm explaining the film in a very stale way but I can't help it, it's on par with 'fight club' - you can't explain why the film is good in a way that does it justice, just watch 2 hours of cinema that will improve your quality of life.