Billionaire Boys Club (1987) Reviews

• Such a true-to-life movie...

  daughertya052001-09-07

  This was a great movie. So, maybe it was a little long, but it had to be. There was so much information that this movie gave us; the true story, from Dean Carny's, Holmby's, and the Fairmount's points of view, and the happenings. Wow! I watched a documentary on the real Billionaire Boys Club, and it was surprising how close the mini-series actually was. Incredible performances by Judd Nelson and Brian McNamera. All around great court movie....*+*Anna*+*

• Excellent movie!

  br4672000-11-17

  This movie, whether you watch the 4 hour version or the shorter 2 hour one, is really well done. Judd Nelson and Ron Silver give terrific performances and the writing is very sharp. The action is well done and the courtroom scenes are riveting. A solid piece of work and definitely worth seeing.

• This is one incredible story!

  sherwin-12002-02-28

  Based on a true story, a high school nerd comes home after college and cons his past classmates into a get rich scheme that is really too good to be true. They form a company called the Billionaire Boys Club, the BBC. Joe Hunt is the mastermind manipulator from Beverly Hills, who grew up with a bunch of rich kids and knows how to play on their greed. With smoke and mirrors he sets up his victims to believe he can make them a ton of money. He can lead others to do wrong, believing it is right. Joe said, "It all depends how you look at things. There are no absolutes. There is no black and no white. Just shades. Depending how you look at it, black is white." Joe meets his match when he gets five million dollars to invest from Ron Levin, another con man, and through trading in commodities turns it into fourteen million. Then after spending much of the profit, he finds out it wasn't real money. He could kill the guy for that! He carefully plans to murder him, writing down all the steps. . . seven pages of `To Do' notes. In a court trial the whole scheme is revealed. . . it is one incredible story! This is a must see for anyone susceptible to get rich opportunities.

• Tell me, tell me. How to be, how to be. A Billinionaire?

  vertigo_142004-04-04

  The Billionaire Boys Club is based on the true story of Joe Hunt (Nelson), a shady investor who built an empire on B.S back in the early 80s. Known as the BBC, the story involves a couple of guys recruited into Hunt's company on the promise of making millions. However, everytime Hunt's lapdogs think his boss has used his cleverness to make them filthy rich, they instead find themselves with financial losses. Trying to recoup a mounting pile of debt made from giant b.s. deals, the ruthless Hunt involves select members of the BBC to aid in the worst of crimes to get what they want. But, a few, scared of how far Hunt will go, try to stop Hunt's brutal reign of terror possibly before real damage begins. The bulk of the story is told in flashback in accordance with testimony of various witnesses at Hunt's murder trial. Most of the testimony comes from Hunt's closet collegue and accomplice, Dean Karney(MacNamara) who was offered immunity in exchange for his testimony. As the story of fraud, greed, kidnapping, and murder unravels, it is unusual how lightly those other than Joe (who naturally behaves with such cruelty) react knowing all the crimes they've committed. A murder here and there, but they can still have such good times at a birthday party, for example. And what's even more disgusting is how the defense team for Joe Hunt tried to write off everything as immature gimmicks, simply stating that Hunt was innocent despite the large number of witnesses testifying against him and the vast paperwork trails that reinforce his guilt. If that was the actual closing arguments offered by the defense, my only guess was it was a last hope that Hunt could get off. And what is even more laughable is how brazen Hunt was about absolutely everything. He is not a sympathetic character in any light. Neither are too many others in the BBC, except for the three responsible for setting off the case that eventually brought down Joe Hunt. And what is much more sickening than that Joe Hunt wasn't the first and isn't the last in the game of greedy ambition (recall that 'Boiler Room' based on a true story that occurred many years after the case of Joe Hunt and the BBC). I think part of the attraction, too, to this movie is the cast of young actors: Judd Nelson, Brian MacNamara (always an enjoyable actor), John Stockwell, Raphael Sbarge, and many others. It is an insight into much of the corporate greed that went on particularly in the 1980s.

• One of the best TV movies.

  gsprods2000-01-04

  This is a well told, mesmerizing true life docudrama. Even if you know how the story goes, it is told in such an interesting and exciting manner. Judd Nelson is terrific as Joe Hunt, making you believe that he is a good person even if the facts suggest otherwise. He says at one point that "all he ever wanted to do was make money, for everybody." Nelson received a Golden Globe nomination as did McNamara, who plays the baby faced narrator and most sympathetic character. Ron Silver does a great job in the small but critical Ron Levin role. I recommend the film for fans of courtroom dramas and murder mysteries.