Wonderful character development!

Disappointment for a huge fan!

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi) drops out of college and runs an illegal gambling den for college students at home. His judge father (Ron Rifkin) is extremely disappointed and he can't get his approval. A friend Greg Weinstein brings him to an outsider brokerage firm. Jim Young (Ben Affleck) pushes the recruits. Chris Varick (Vin Diesel) and the violent Richie O'Flaherty (Scott Caan) are top brokers. The owner Michael Brantley (Tom Everett Scott) is running a scam. Seth starts dating secretary Abbie Halpert (Nia Long) which angers her ex Greg. One of his client Harry Reynard is destroyed by his stock. After his father tries to help, he is pulled in to help the FBI.This doesn't have the style of Scorsese. It does have some great energetic up-and-coming young stars. I got a real kick out of Ben Affleck doing his Alec Baldwin impersonation from 'Glengarry Glen Ross'. Ribisi is his usual jittery goodness. His hard sell to Harry is difficult to watch. The movie gets by with its high energy audacity which oddly is how the brokerage firm does its business.

If you like Wall Street thrillers, this is a well done production. I found the story engaging, as well as the subplots between Seth and his father and girl friend. There are parallels to real life and found this added to the credibility of the story Younger was telling. The supporting cast is well catered for here and they add richness to the plot.In the shadow of the global financial crisis, its still relevant today in how the finance industry will cannibalize its investors. Although this movie is over 10 years old, you will find it time has not diminished the story.

Boiler Room isn't a terrific movie, but it's not a terrible one either. It's definitely entertaining, but at times feels too much like a derivative of other financial thriller films, in particular Wall Street, with some references to Glengarry Glen Ross thrown in for good measure. Because of this, it feels kind of like an pale unoriginal imitation, more than something truly original.The story centers around Seth Davis (Ribisi), a 21-year-old college dropout living in Queens. In place of school, he runs an illegal casino out of his apartment for college students. He makes a good living, but does so against the wishes of his family, in particular his strict, cold father Judge Marty Davis (Rifkin). His father doesn't want to speak to Seth until he makes a living in an honest way. One night, towards closing time, he's visited by an old friend and his colleague. They tell him about being a stockbroker and recruit Seth to join a group interview. Wanting to impress his father, he goes to the interview at J.T. Marlin. About an hour away from NYC in the suburbs, Seth is immediately attracted to the sports cars and luxury suits worn by the brokers. He gets in good with the firm, befriending some of the top brokers and going from relatively weak on the phone into a lying, swindling sales hot shot. Eventually, he realizes J.T. Marlin is nothing more than a pump and dump chop shop peddling worthless penny stocks in a bucket scheme where the customer loses money on the stock while the firm keeps the profit and the broker a $2 commission per share purchased. He also has change of conscience when he scams an innocent man out of his life savings. Seth fights to get out of the situation before everything falls apart.The movie indeed is entertaining and the story interesting, but I just can't help but compare it to Wall Street. Seth Davis is no Bud Fox. Sheen played the role of Fox with the right about of naive innocence and slimy salesmanship. Ribisi keeps the same stoic expression, never seeming to change from the beginning of the movie to the end. The other thing is they both center around father-son relationships and how the sons want to impress their fathers. In Wall Street, you sensed the bond that the two had, which could have been helped by Martin Sheen playing the father role, but in Boiler Room, there seems to be no bond and by 21, if a son doesn't get along with his father, it seems like he'd have no interest in making that connection. Towards the end they have a great scene together, but the relationship seemed awkward for most of the movie. While Wall Street focused on a legitimate brokerage house in NYC which employed Ivy League graduates, Boiler Room is out in the cheaper suburbs, hiring likely blue collared kids with no degree. Maybe that's part of the movie's message, but it's hard to go from Wall Street to the suburbs if you watched Wall Street previously. The story just doesn't have the same punch or the same twists and turns of Wall Street. Ben Affleck does his best imitation of Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross, but it pales to the real thing and again just comes off derivative of Alec Baldwin. Also, there is a lot of unbelievability and things that don't make sense that happen too much in this film.It's entertaining for sure, but I'd stick with Wall Street and Glengarry Glen Ross if you want cautionary tales of high risk/high reward investment careers.

This film is about a son of a judge who runs an underground casino. He tries to impress his father by entering a legitimate business, only to find that things don't work out the way he plans.Giovanni Ribisi delivers a great performance. He looks vulnerable to be the son who will never live up to the expectations. He manages to bring his inner moral conflict, which is something internal and hard to depict, very well through his facial expression and body. Giovanni Ribisi makes the film engaging because he captures viewers' sympathy."Boiler Room" is an engaging film that exposes the unscrupulous greed of financial companies. I enjoyed watching it.