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 The Boiler Room is a story about one man and his search for morality in a den of financial thieves. The film puts a green accountant’s lamp over the world of "Boiler Room" brokerage firms. The film centers on college dropout Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi), a budding underground casino owner from Queens, New York, who gets a job at J.T. Marlin, a less-than-reputable brokerage firm. At the time, Seth is totally unaware of the firm's criminal reputation. He is just happy to have a job. Aren't we all?
At times compelling, Boiler Room is not a great film by any means. To me it was filmed by a fan of the movies Wall Street (1987) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). Both of those films are heavily quoted in Boiler Room. Both are are on a higher pedestal then this "need for greed" flick.
 It is one thing to pay homage to films that obviously inspired your derivative work but quite another if in the end, you kind of make yourself out to be just that – a derivative work.
Exhibit A: Ben Affleck looming over his conference room recruits acting much like Alec Baldwin did in Glengarry Glen Ross. This scene would have been a total rip off if it hadn’t fallen so short of the Glengarry scene with Alec Baldwin.
I will state now for the record that though I like Ben Affleck, he isn’t an Alec Baldwin. I am not even sure that is saying a whole lot. It’s just I think Baldwin’s scene is a member of the all time greatest CoolFilmz hit parade list whereas this version by Affleck is thoroughly forgettable and a blatant copy. Don't get me wrong. There is something about Boiler Rom that is cool. I think a lot has to do with the lead actor Giovanni Ribisi as Davis. There is something that pulls you in about him. Perhaps becuase he acts in the movie like he doesn’t give a shit but he has a heart. I even liked Vin Diesel in his role as the stockbroker that was greedy as hell, but you kind of liked anyway. I would have never figured a guy like Diesel in a Wall Street part but it worked for him.
Diesel played this corrupt broker that had little remorse for conning anyone out of their money. How that differentiates from legal brokers I am not sure. Hey, a sucker is born every minute and he has to pay for that Ferrari somehow. Plus, the boss is doing it so it must be legal right? Rabisi’s character actually likes the older brother-like one played by Diesel. He even tries to warn him about the imminent take down by the feds. I thought that was an effective scene, since it was sort of a Rabisi’s character throwing out a life preserver to Diesel’s.
Another decent scene was when the boss told Rabisis’s boss to get the fuck out of his office, even though this head boss was a bigger asshole than Rabisi’s boss. I like politics like that. What sort of gives the move added dimension is the strained relationship between Rabisi and his Judge father, who has sort of disowned him and dismissed him as a bum. This plot angle didn’t’ need to be there but it added depth. I suppose this makes Rabisi sort of like Bud Fox – a guy whose father disowns him but comes to love him in the end. Oh, shit. Don’t’ tell me they stole that from Wall Street too? This movie may not be original. But, hey, I can take derivative done well and that is what the Boiler Room boils down to - a Queen.
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