Boiler Room (2000)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

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 | Stock | Casino | Career | Ferrari

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:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: After Seth and Chris have their argument in the stairwell right off of the boiler room, Seth goes down at least one flight of stairs on his way out. In the next scene he passes Abby in the receptionist area that is on the same floor as the boiler room - because he's been bumped upstairs to nicer offices.

Quotes:

Broker: I know you're not standing on your front porch with a bag of money waiting for me to call you. But I'm not some 18-year-old selling a cure for AIDS. I'm 46 years old, I have 22 years market experience, I know this business. So pick up your skirt, grab your balls, and lets go make some money

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

Soundtrack:

Sunset Eyes

"Look at the smile on my face ... ear to ear, baby!"

Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi) is a young man who would like to make a fortune without having to work too hard for it. His entrepreneurial spirit - he runs an illegal casino out of his apartment - catches the attention of the recruiters at a small-time brokerage firm; they promise him he can make a lot of money in a short amount of time. However, the very abundance of money at this firm is a sign that things are too good to be true.

A truly entertaining picture that clearly aspires to be a junior version of Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" - some of the characters here actually have entire clumps of dialog from that movie memorized. To make my point clear, there were actually long stretches where I wasn't checking my watch. It really did hold my attention.

It's a good showcase for a talented young cast; Vin Diesel, who proves here he can play more than just action heroes, has a great scene where he closes a sale on the phone. Nia Long, as a romantic interest for Seth, looks great and offers a nice counterpart to the aggressively macho male characters in the film. And Ben Affleck pops up every once in a while to yell invective at the hapless newcomers to the firm.

I *was* a little put off by the (very) liberal, gratuitous use of the F-word; do these characters ever have foul mouths!

Overall, though, this *is* a good film!

I gave it eight out of ten.