BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

aixinz I worked as an auditor at Big4 for several years, and my fiancée is a former investment banker and PE investor. We both found this movie to be very true and realistic when describing the stress and intensity that people face when working on Wall Street. We related to him and felt him pain! Not that what he did was right, but the movie did an excellent job presenting the Wall Street stress and reality which most of the Wall Street movies fail to do. What am I talking about? The extremely high expectations: you are never good enough, you can never stop, and there is always more profit to be generated. The way that he was treated: no matter how well you do, your direct boss will give you more pressure because your performance is related to their bonus, although they haven't contributed a thing in the process besides telling you to come in to work on Sunday during a funeral weekend.Anyway, if you are interested in a career on Wall Street or Big 4, please watch this movie, so you will know what you are getting yourself into!

xbernard If you're into stock trading and if you've read Nicholas Leeson, it might help you enjoy this movie. If you're not, you might need to view a couple of times before the story grows on you.I'm still not sure how I can summarize best the story for you: Ewan McGregor plays Nick Leeson, a stock trader for England's Fairbank is given a mission in New Delhi. He builds up a team with people who know nothing about stock trading and together they'll play with the Nikkei. As they're "playing", mistakes are made by Nick's team and he wants to cover them up by opening up an account called "88888". Soon, he'll start gambling with the bank's own money. Unfortunately, the losses grow bigger and bigger until the bank goes broke.Since there is no real action, and it's really told like a story and not like a movie, you really have to rely on the actors' skills to appreciate the movie.

parhat When the movie was first out, Ewan MacGregor was a total unknown, until of course the Star Wars prequels came out. Then at the time stock markets was in the boom and the bust were, just something to be ignored. That was basically what happened when the movie was first out. This movie should mellow and get better reviews. At the time, it was therefore not well received, now many years later 2007. I have a chance to look and their risk control in derivatives trading were shockingly non existent and being in the stock market myself it is no wonder the Barings Bank get busted not as soon as they should. Lack of auditing, lack of controls, risk psychology, doubling up, and not learning from mistakes are all signs of absolute disaster. Learn from this movie, while not as funny as Trading Places, this is the story as close as a real bust might have occurred. A good learning experience, even if Nick Leeson is not learning his Lessons.

mystarry A cunning scoundrel in exotic Singapore single-handedly brings down Barings Bank, established two centuries ago and one of England's foremost financial institutions. Another wildly improbable sting flick? Not at all - the story is based on actual events and the film sticks pretty close to the facts. Nick Leeson, brilliant and ambitious young trader, superstar of the Singapore stock market, incurs staggering losses. Unwilling to jeopardize his prospects for advancement, he tries to cover his tracks by pulling non-existent rabbits out of imaginary hats. The literally gut-wrenching stress of this Sisyphusian endeavor is illustrated by Leeson's frequent bouts of vomiting (while in prison, he underwent surgery to remove a tumor along with part of his colon and large intestine, and chemotherapy after being released). The film's flaw is that it glosses over the bank's role in the disaster. Barings turned a neophyte loose in an foreign arena with total control of the operation and minimal supervision. Putting the same individual in charge of both the front office and back office bypasses the appropriate checks and balances, and is tantamount to having the fox guard the hen-house. The official report of the Bank of England concluded that Barings' failure to segregate Leeson's duties was "reprehensible," and those with "direct executive responsibility for establishing effective controls must bear much of the blame." Yet little mention is made of this in the film. And the mechanizations of the stock market are downright incomprehensible at times. Nevertheless, this is an interesting story and Ewan McGregor turns in another outstanding performance.