Movie review: Billionaire Boys Club

BASED on a true event, the movie is set in the 1980s and tells the story of how two young men duped their rich and privileged former high-school friends into joining an investment company called the Billionaire Boys Club, which ended up being revealed as a Ponzi scheme.
Just like the 1987 mini-series based on the same story, this movie is narrated by Dean Karny (Taran Egerton), a tennis instructor from a middle-class family who went to the same private school as those from the richest families in California.
While meeting a client for a car sale, Dean meets old schoolmate Joe Hunt (Ansel Elgort), who also studied at the same school on a scholarship.
Back then, Joe’s poor background had put him at odds with his rich schoolmates.
When Dean, his only friend in school, catches up with him, Joe is struggling to make ends meet working in an investment company.
Dean introduces Joe to Ron Levin (Kevin Spacey), a Beverly Hills high-roller, who convinces Joe to approach their old schoolmates to invest their money in the Billionaire Boys Club.
Egged on by Dean and Ron, Joe gets taken up by the promise of the high life, and starts manipulating accounts and promising huge rewards to their investors.
However, his high-flying world comes crashing down when Joe and Dean discover that Ron is actually a con man, and that they are now millions in debts.
Desperate times cause them to do the unthinkable.
The story here is interesting, but unlike the 1987 mini-series which was far more dramatic, with Judd Nelson playing a very charismatic Joe Hunt, this movie drags along a bit.
Nelson has a small role here as Joe’s worried father.
Dean as a narrator is not credible because of lot of the scenes feature Joe in private moments with other people (such as his girlfriend played by Emma Roberts) with Dean nowhere in sight.
The biggest problem with the movie is that the characters are not fleshed out enough, and you can’t really understand their motivations for doing what they did.
While this version may actually be closer to the real-life incidents that took place, it is still a bit of a draggy affair.