Hazel Motes

Probably my favourite movie of the year so far. To be completely honest, I didn't think Adam Mckay had it in him. I'm really curious to see what he does next. Hopefully not a comic book movie. Steve Carell owned this movie. I watched an episode of The Office on tv awhile after seeing this and it didn't even hit me until when I was laying in bed that Steve Carell was in both things. I totally forgot Steve Carell was Steve Carell in The Big Short.

RichC2

1. Prepare financial education program
2. Hire Margot Robbie to read it in bubble bath
3. Profit

I dug the movie, but the editing seemed a little off, like there should have been a tempo to all of it but it wasn't quite right. I do gi e the movie credit for being really educational and entertaining, it was an odd movie but worked overall.

Patman

"Waiting is the hardest part." LOL! That sums up the thesis of the movie for me.

I thought it was okay, with 3 main subplots of those who tapped into the mess that led into the financial calamity of 2007, and the toll it took on them.

I give it 2.75 stars or a grade of B-. (it's worth a matinee viewing if you are into the subject material).

Decker

I think Steve Carell has turned the corner and like Tom Hanks, Bill Murray and (to a lesser extent) Robin Williams before him has parlayed a TV comedy into comedy movie stardom and then has proven himself to be a very cable dramatic actor as well. He was great in this and in Foxcatcher a year earlier.

MrE

Never knew sophisticated econ lessons could be so entertaining. The whole cast does grade A work. Another best of 2015.

Coral

I enjoyed it - which wasn't surprising since I like reading/watching stuff on that financial crisis and how it started.

Good performances all around, although I though Pitt and Tomei were underused.

Similar movies I recommend based on this event are Margin Call and the documentary Inside Job.

RichC2

I think that was on purpose with Pitt (it was his company's movie), but it was weird having Tomei and Leo in such small, thankless roles. But then again, Margot Robbie was also in it for just a minute.

Inside Job is excellent

Michael T Hudson

I thought was great. Michael Scott did an amazing job.

jfoobar

Just caught this last night and was very impressed. Having read the book, my first thought was that the screenwriters did an excellent job adapting it. As you can imagine, the book has a million moving parts and the film cannot begin to encompass that, so they made wise choices on which characters to focus on and which moments to include.

I also remember thinking, "who is that guy?", until I got home and realized that they changed the names of almost every person, apparently at the real people's request. The only major name they left intact was Michael Burry's. "Jerrod Vennett"'s real name (for the most part, since he was somewhat of a combination character), is Greg Lippmann.

The transitional segments showing imagery of our fascination with the mundane were powerful. The brief image of the soldier playing a slot machine was the one that really caught my attention.

I think Brooklyn is still my favorite of the year so far, but this has moved into second place. It is a very important film, much more important than some people are likely to give it credit for since it is so comedic.

JimRochester

Saw this on Blu last night. Having been in the industry 01 through the crash I can attest to the weird ass shit we saw. It started in the early 90's when a bi-partisan government decided everyone should be able to own a house. That eventually became "even if they can't afford one or pay any of their bills". After the 9/11 attacks the housing was what kept the economy moving and things were made even more lax.

We would refinance some people every 6 months. We would pay off thousands of dollars in CC debt again and again. All that spending made the economy grow but eventually you run out of appreciation and money to pay back the loans. I saw some very unscrupulous lenders tack big fees on the HUD at closing. Of course it's easier to take advantage of the greedy. Most of the people who fell for it weren't going to be able to pay it back anyway.

I like the way the movie showed how basically the wolf was guarding the henhouse. All the people who were supposed to watch each other were playing golf and partying together.

Whenever I hear the terms Rocket Mortgage, or phrases like "we need to make it easier for __________ (fill in the blank) to buy houses" all I can think of is that they didn't learn a lesson the first time.

Dan

Decided to watch this again last night. Excellent film overall, and I forgot how good Steve Carell was in this. Everyone else is great, too, but he's fantastic.

inri222

Saw it tonight and I agree. Carell should have gotten the Oscar nod instead of Bale. I was surprised how good this was, at first I did not think I was going to like it.

4/5

Troy Stiffler

This is on Netflix.

Second time was better, since the financial stuff made more sense to me this time around.