“Billionaire Boys Club”

LOUISA: 

LOUISA SAYS:

Thanks to the harassment allegations against actor Kevin Spacey, “Billionaire Boys Club” never really got much of a chance at the box office. While many involved with the film will likely seek to pin the blame on Spacey’s disturbing shenanigans, the truth is that the movie just isn’t very good.

The film tells the true story of a group of wealthy boys in Los Angeles during the early 1980s who established a ‘get-rich-quick’ Ponzi scam that eventually turns deadly. It’s t.v. movie-of-the-week material that should’ve (barely) had a home on basic cable.

The story is sordid but somehow comes across as boring. Even with the insanely talented young cast (including Ansel Elgort, Taron Egerton, and Emma Roberts), the men behaving badly story line feels too predictable and monotonous. The allure of quick money and empty promises of 50% returns leads to compulsory scenes of pitiful people taking out second mortgages and emptying their savings accounts just to give these jackasses their cash.

This is bargain basement stuff that deserves to be treated as such.