The Movie: Every since I got me 3 in 1 blackjack/roulette/craps, people kept mentioning this movie. They kept asking me if I was gonna be like the guy in this movie. Never having seen this movie, I had no idea what they were talking about, so I quickly placed this at the top of my Netflix queue so I would know what the hell they were talking about.

Well now I know. Boiler Room is about a young college dropout who runs a successful (but illegal) casino out of his New York apartment. Well, now I know why people kept asking me if I was gonna be like that guy. Unfortunately (for me), this part of the story is just exposition on the main character, and not really a significant part of the story.

The real story is that a friend approaches him with the prospect of a new job... on that could turn him into an instant millionaire -- he could become a stock broker at a particular firm, where everyone working there seems to drive Ferraris and Lamborghinis and have more money than they literally know what to do with.

So he joins up, and quickly finds that he has great skill in this arena, but not before first learning about just how living the high life of a "respectable" investor could be even more crooked and seedy than being the operator of an illegal casino.

To tell you the truth, I didn't really like this movie that much. I think there were a lot of things in the plot that were just a little too convenient for moving the plot along, if that makes any sense. I wasn't really drawn in by the movie, or held in any suspense. It seemed to me like any other "little guy gets fooled at first by, then takes down the institution" type of movie, and it was just a little too predictable to really enjoy.

Vin Diesel fans should note that he's in this movie. So is Nia Long (what a hottie!), and Ben Affleck also plays a small role in this film.

The DVD: The anamorphic film transfer was awesome, preserving the subdued subtleties of color, and the gritty look of the original. The audio was clean and crisp, though uninspiring. This disc has a pretty long list of extras, including an audio commentary track, a bunch of deleted footage (fully produced with anamorphic transfers), and a trailer (also anamorphic widescreen), but also interesting to me was the fact that in the cast/crew filmography section, a couple of Nia Long's films listed in there actually have trailers, in glorious, pristine anamorphic widescreen, including one for Friday. I'd be surprised if the Friday theatrical trailer even looks this good on the Friday DVD. But file those under easter eggs, I guess.