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The Wizard of Lies

The Wizard of Lies (2017)

May. 11,2017
|
6.8
|
NR
| Drama History Thriller Crime

A look behind the scenes at Bernie Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, how it was perpetrated on the public and the trail of destruction it left in its wake, both for the victims and Madoff's family.

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The Couchpotatoes
2017/05/11

If you want to know more about the biggest fraud that ever happened in the USA then The Wizard Of Lies is the movie to watch. The life of Bernie Madoff is not really a thing I'm interested in but I guess for other people it might be interesting. The movie and the acting is not bad. Certainly not the acting with a great cast. Robert de Niro can play anything. But if you're like me and you could not care less about superrich people losing money by trying to get even more money then it might be a bit boring. There is a law for the rich and there is a law for the poor, this movie prooves it again. The Wizard Of Lies is to me just good to watch once, except if you like that kind of stories than you will like it more then I did.

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osmandenizsavas
2017/05/12

First off all,it is a biographic movie and this mean it has bad scene but completely ı think,movie is okay.Robert Deniro plays cheater role and remunurate the role.The movie show us "Life has big surprise and never say I'm okay".Finally if you watch simple and regular movie with eat something yeah that movie.

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Sankari_Suomi
2017/05/13

Controversial actor/producer/director Robert De Niro stars as Bernard L. Madoff in this straight-to-TV drama by popular screenwriter Sam Baum.Beginning in the 1970s, the Madoff crime family rose to power by acquiring huge wealth via their family business: the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC. Ostensibly a well respected investment firm, it was in fact the world's largest Ponzi scheme.The Madoffs took >$64 billion from gullible clients, promising to invest it wisely, and offering strong returns.Some of this money was spent buying politicians and paying off officials to ensure that America's largely unregulated stock market was allowed to run without government interference. Most of it was spent on the Madoffs' billionaire lifestyle.The Madoffs ran their scam successfully for several decades, despite multiple investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As the crime family infiltrated industry bodies such as the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, their access to market controls grew exponentially, until there was virtually nothing to stop them exploiting Wall Street in every possible way.As early as 1999, financial analyst Harry Markopolos informed the SEC of the Madoffs' criminal activities, having concluded that the returns they promised clients were impossible to achieve. Authorities ignored him, and continued to do so for the next 10 years.He later wrote an 'I-told-you-so' book, entitled No One Would Listen.Similarly, none of the major Wall Street firms traded with or invested in the Madoff corporation, because they rightly suspected that it was a criminal enterprise.When Bernard was finally caught by the FBI in 2008 he immediately pleaded guilty, and denied any involvement by the rest of the Madoff cartel. Faced with a lengthy and expensive battle to prove the culpability of other family members, federal investigators accepted his plea, and Bernard took the fall for everyone.Bernard settled comfortably into prison life, and boasted of his preferential treatment, and respect among the inmates.I have no sympathy for his victims. They were all rich people, looking to get richer through a scheme they were too greedy to recognise as criminal.For the rest of the crime family, life continued as usual. They retained their wealth, their lifestyle, and most of their assets. Bernard's sons, Mark and Andrew, were separately investigated for tax fraud, but they cheated justice by dying before authorities could settle the case (Mark by suicide, Andrew from mantle cell lymphoma).Mark had allegedly become 'depressed' after his family's crimes were uncovered, and struggled to find employment after the collapse of his father's Ponzi scheme, having never worked a proper job in his life.His CV contained vague, meaningless titles like 'licensed broker', and his entire career had been devoted to the Madoff corporation. Since nobody in the finance industry wanted to hire an unqualified felon from a notorious crime family, Mark took the easy way out and hanged himself with dog leash, leaving behind a wife and child.Sam Baum's version of the story is a softball puff piece, intended to wash away the stench of illegality and rehabilitate the Madoff crime family as much as possible. De Niro portrays Bernard sympathetically, as a good man—well-intentioned, but a little dreamy—who simply got carried away with his own success. A gag-inducing scene shows Madoff's wife reduced to tears when she discovers that her celebrity hairdresser won't serve her anymore because the Madoffs are now known to be criminals. Such are the terrible First World problems of the super-rich. How they must have suffered! The two sons are played as lovable idiots who had no idea what their father was doing with everyone's money, despite being privy to the inner workings of his corporation. Their deaths are accompanied by buckets of crocodile tears that left me cold.I rate The Wizard of Lies at 9.99 on the Haglee Scale, which works out as a pathetic 3/10 on IMDb.

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Joetampa90
2017/05/14

Finally De Niro takes a break from hack comedies and mailed in roles for direct to red box garbage films! He delivers his best performance since "Jackie Browne" here as real life super villain Bernie Madoff. The movie itself is a long winded and sometimes trudging look at Madoff's life beginning when he comes clean as essentially a scam artist. De Niro transforms into the ultra rich and short tempered Bernie masterfully. I'm happy to see this after years of writing him off as a guy who'd lost his touch and just does it for the money. This is especially important to see with his upcoming reunion with Pesci and Scorsese in "The Irishman" looming.As a film I'd say this work gets the job done and serves its purpose well. Veteran workman director Barry Levinson who's three plus decade catalog includes all sorts of movies has made a pretty good movie here, possibly one of his best ever? It does not really wow you in anyway but it's also by no means bad. I especially enjoyed the scene in which Bernie attempts suicide with his wife and ends up hallucinating. The Wizard of Lies gets a 7 out of 10 which on my scale makes it a "good" movie, but it surely falls short of greatness with it's mostly straight forward and often dragging delivery.

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