2013 End Of The Year Awards- Best Comedy Film- The Wolf Of Wall Street

If you follow my blog regularly, you know all about my love for Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, and a while ago, I picked Anchorman 2 as the best comedy in 2013....but that happened before I had the chance to watch The Wolf Of Wall Street in theaters.

To say The Wolf Of Street blew me away is an understatement. The two hours and fifty-nine minutes runtime feels like a breeze during the extravagant bonanza. Stop and think about it for a second. A film that runs nearly three hours maintains consistent laughs with a wild and rowdy tone. I never had any "oh man, when is this going to end!" feelings of exasperation. Not once. The Wolf Of Wall Street pulls you into an obscene world full of corruption, greed, drugs, backstabbing, and sleazy debauchery, and I couldn't pull my eyes away from the screen.

The cast is top notch (Rob Reiner is hilarious during his sporadic appearances), with DiCaprio (you'll win the gold someday, Leo) and Jonah Hill earning their Oscar nominations. Legendary director Martin Scorsese steps outside of any comfort zones to take a real risk here. Scorsese takes a risky chance with TWOWS, and the end result was a triumphant success. If I had to rank TWOWS on the list of DiCaprio/Scorsese collaborations, I'll say it deserves a spot in the top three with Gangs Of New York and The Aviator. That's not bad at all.

Scorsese and DiCaprio are in top form as one of the most successful actor/director duos here, delivering another multi-Oscar nominated film together, and The Wolf Of Wall Street is pure black comedy gold. I'm telling you now, if you haven't seen this one, you're missing something special.

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Django Unchained (2012)

So after three years of waiting for his next film, I FINALLY watched Django Unchained last night.

As expected, the acting was just phenomenal, and Tarantino is a master of assembling the perfect cast. Jamie Foxx really nailed Django, and yes, he was believable as a bad ass. The whipping scars and his scruffy hair-do helped pull everything together, but Foxx really put his heart and soul into this character. Christoph Waltz's performance as Dr. King Schultz resembled Hans Landa from Inglorious Basterds. You know, the devious and sophisticated gentlemen with a nasty side. Of course, Schultz is one of the good guys here. And she doesn't speak too much, but Kerry Washington did a wonderful job of using her body language to express fear and anxiety through a series of facial expressions.

The Brittle Brothers and Big Daddy (Don Johnson) don't last long, but when their characters appear, Leo and Sam Jackson make up for the void of lost bad guys. Sam Jackson didn't just deliver his best performance in a Quentin Tarantino film, this is the best performance I've seen from him in any film. Stephen is the sniveling and loyal house for slave for Calvin Candie (Leo). He's they type of antagonist that you can hate and pity, and Stephen provides a few laughs every now and then.

And Leonardo DiCaprio was just fantastic as Calvin Candie. Candie is the merciless and powerful slave owner. Leo has a strong presence on screen, as this delightfully evil slave owner, and his intense and charismatic performance is so fun to watch. Plus, the woman, who plays Calvin's ditzy and snobbish sister (can't find her name) deserves some credit for the A+ cast of antagonists.

For me, Django was an upgrade over Inglorious Basterds. I won't put it up on the pedestal with Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. It's in the pack with Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Jackie Brown, and that's not bad at all. Tarantino didn't revolutionize the Western genre with this film, but Django is an enjoyable revenge flick.

And now it's time for my major gripe with this film. I don't know about everyone else, but I hard time getting into the mentorship/training storyline with Django and Schultz. I understand the reasons behind Tarantino wanting to show Django's road to being a bad ass, but the initial storyline between Schultz and Django just drags and drags, and truth be told, it's very uninteresting at times. It wasn't unbearably bad, but Django Unchained doesn't kick into high gear until Candie and Stephen come into the picture.

Django Unchained is brutal, bloody, violent, funny, and Tarantino spares no expense for the hard to watch moments in this film. The dialogue is sharp, and the "we can't see anything through these masks!" scene with Jonah Hill, and Don Johnson is hilarious. And Tarantino's cameo is just priceless. Although, I wish I could've seen more of Walton Goggins, because he doesn't appear until the end.

Also, as far as the music goes, with the exception of "Ain't No Grave," and the opening Django theme, everything else was sub par. I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure I heard a Tupac song during the final shootout/Django's last stand, but it wasn't something to remember.

Final Rating: 9/10

EXTRA TIDBIT: After thinking it over for a day, I've come to conclusion that Django Unchained deserves a higher score, so I'm bumping it up one point!