The Wolf of Wall Street 2013

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Handsome, sporadically amusing and admittedly never boring - but also bloated, redundant, vulgar, shapeless and pointless ... Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The sets are ravishing. The cinematography dazzles. There's so much going on that you don't blink for fear that you might miss something. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: I couldn't buy it, and couldn't wait for the hollow spectacle to end. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: As Jordan Belfort, a New York stockbroker who spent years cheerfully defrauding investors, DiCaprio is positively reptilian; he spits out his lines with a nasty glee. You're both horrified and enchanted by this creature - a monster in Armani. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: A big, unruly bacchanal of a movie that huffs and puffs and nearly blows its own house down, but holds together by sheer virtue of its furious filmmaking energy and a Leonardo DiCaprio star turn so electric it could wake the dead. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: At three hours, The Wolf Of Wall Street is Scorsese's longest movie (barely edging out Casino). It's also his crassest, his loudest, maybe his funniest. Read more

Jessica Herndon, Associated Press: Digging into deep-pocket gluttony, Martin Scorsese's dark comedy ''The Wolf of Wall Street'' highlights a world rich in drugs, fast cars and private jets. The American dream is amplified, yet those indulging in it are never satisfied. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's like "Goodfellas," only (slightly) more legal, which is very much the point. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: As with Goodfellas, Scorsese's helpless attraction to the very behavior he wants to indict becomes the movie's serrated edge. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Scorsese's camera energizes all he can, in every way he can as a propulsive filmmaker. But around the 80-minute mark the bullet train of a protagonist begins to run in circles, however maniacally. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: DiCaprio doesn't seem terribly comfortable in the role despite all his strutting and posturing. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: It's hard not to feel there is a better revisit of Scorsese's crime gem already in theaters, David O. Russell's American Hustle. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: At the highest level, it really is about getting your own, forget those down below. If so, that could have easily come across in two hours, it didn't need three. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: So it's a relief and a pleasant surprise that Wall Street, despite some missteps and the need for an editor, mostly manages to live up to the interest generated by its kinetic trailers and the heavy hand of hype. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Scorsese has pulled off something tricky with Wolf: He's given us a thrilling cautionary tale about a guy who never for a second seems the slightest bit sorry for what he's done. If anything, he just had the bad luck to get caught. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: For three hours the movie operates at a ridiculous comedic pitch. You never forget you're at the circus. You never lose site of the lawlessness, the reckless pleasure, the sheer lunacy and lack of regulation. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: The wages of greed and excess portrayed in grand, operatic, often very funny style. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Man, does this movie have a savage bite. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: Whether he's on the phone luring someone to send him a check for a dicey investment, or flopping around the floor after ingesting too many quaaludes, DiCaprio hits the jackpot. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The Wolf of Wall Street isn't a celebration of bad behavior: It's a condemnation. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: DiCaprio has hinted before that comedy might be his natural calling -- think of Catch Me If You Can -- but his energy here is not just fun, it's discovery. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Martin Scorsese's epic tale of debauchery feels overlong and sometimes misses its mark, but it's the director's raunchiest, funniest film yet. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Wolf is delivered, almost all the way through, at the same pitch of extreme aggression. It's relentless, deafening, deadening, and, finally, unilluminating. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Scorsese unleashes a furious, yet exquisitely controlled, kinetic energy, complete with a plunging and soaring camera, mercurial and conspicuous special effects, counterfactual scenes, subjective fantasies, and swirling choreography on a grand scale. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Why would a man cheat people out of millions and then spend it on hookers, 'ludes and stupid pranks? Hey, why wouldn't you? Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: Various Cheech-and-Chong-style slapstick scenarios play out repeatedly, just with different props. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Talk about a high-risk reward. Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" is a delirious, manic, push-the-limits comedy of gaudy amorality that tests the audience's taste. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: A vital and troubling document of the present ... Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: This sprawling mock epic about a sleazy penny stock whiz contains scenes of astonishing black-comic brilliance, but it's also solipsistic and exhausting. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: As thrilling a filmmaker as Martin Scorsese continues to be, and as wild a performance as Leonardo DiCaprio dishes up as its morally bankrupt master of the universe, The Wolf of Wall Street seems almost entirely unnecessary. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Scorsese presents Belfort as a charismatic Caligula. He is an endlessly fascinating character who holds viewers' attention from beginning to end. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: This is good but not great Scorsese. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Working with a gutsy script by The Sopranos' Terence Winter, Scorsese is jabbing hard at America's jackpot culture. The laughs are merciless and nonstop, every one with a sting in its tail. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Though "Raging Bull" must still go down as Martin Scorsese's greatest achievement, "The Wolf of Wall Street" makes the race for No. 2 a lot more interesting. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The story's relentless, unvarying rhythm-malfeasance, consumption, more malfeasance, more consumption-leaves the audience drained and annoyed. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "The Wolf of Wall Street" is a fleet-footed three hours of startling moments, 99 percent of them hedonistic and hilarious. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Scorsese, as always, knows exactly what he is doing. Although it's long, the movie is never less than entertaining. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: The Wolf of Wall Street is a magnificent black comedy: fast, funny, and remarkably filthy. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Oh, my, my. Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street is outrageous, an offense against modesty, a shameless celebration of bad conduct. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: If you're down with a character arc that's as short as a crack pipe and equally resistant to temperance, then Martin Scorsese's latest picture is your chance to howl. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: A terrific and fascinating movie, but it stops short of masterpiece territory. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: The Wolf of Wall Street plays modern tragedy as epic farce, reminding us just how much fun Scorsese can be when he's in a playful mood. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: The Wolf of Wall Street is a slippery beast, both beguiling and repellent on the surface, more difficult to pin down the deeper you look, and shifty in ways that I found intoxicating. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Like Scorsese's After Hours, it's absurdly funny, though more akin to Goodfellas in substance and structure. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: As a highly detailed portrait of true-life corruption and bad behavior in the financial sector, Wolf is pushy and hollow, too much of a bad thing, like a three-hour cold call from the boiler room that leaves you wondering, "What have I just been sold?" Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: A veritable orgy of immorality, each scene making the same point only more and more outrageously, the action edited with Scorsese's usual manic exuberance but to oh-so-monotonous effect. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "The Wolf of Wall Street" remains one-note even at is most outre, an episodic portrait of rapaciousness in which decadence escalates into debauchery escalates into depravity - but, miraculously, not death. Read more