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The Big Short | 2015 | R | - 5.3.10

Based on the bestselling book by Michael Lewis that documents how the 2008 housing crisis was anticipated by a few investors who decided to bet against the big banks, reaping large profits while the world's economies were collapsing. With Steve Carell, Marisa Tomei, Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Adepero Oduye, Hamish Linklater, Jeremy Strong, Rafe Spall, Finn Wittrock, John Magaro, Max Greenfield and Billy Magnussen. Directed by Adam McKay. [2:10]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - A topless woman dances around a pole in a strip club (we see her bare breasts, abdomen, and buttocks) while a man watches and talks to her about her loans. We see two topless women dancing in a strip club (bare breasts with pasties are seen, bare abdomens, and buttocks with thong-type panties covering the crotch) while men in the audience throw money on the stage. We see a poster of a topless woman wearing a bikini bottom on a street and a banner covers her bare breasts. Women wearing skimpy outfits that reveal cleavage and abdomens and dance in a bar. Teenage cheerleaders where short skirts and tops that reveal bare abdomens. A woman is shown in a bubble bath and we see her upper chest. Women are shown wearing bathing suits around a swimming pool and we see cleavage.
Men and women kiss on a street. Men and women dance in a nightclub scene.

VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A man stands on the roof of a high-rise building and we understand that he jumped.
 Two men walk through an abandoned house, they look in a swimming pool and an alligator thrashes its tail startling the men and they run away.
 People are shown taking target practice and shooting at pictures of Osama Bin Laden's face.
 A man talks about losing his eye in a childhood illness as we see him (as a child) getting tackled on a football field and presumably loses the glass eye (he has his hand over his eye and people on the sideline look alarmed). We see many homeless people and families. Many people with boxes filled with their belongings are ushered out of Lehman Brothers after it folded.
 A man on his phone walks through busy city streets and yells on the phone. A man says, "I'm gonna rip your eyes out." A man says, "I'm gonna bash his head in." Several men in an office yell at another man in the office. A man talks about his brother committing suicide by jumping off a building and says, "His face was so smashed." A man talks about finding a lump on his testicle. A man talks about being socially awkward. A man talks about yelling at his son when he screws up. A man interrupts a therapy session and tells a story about what's happening to him until the therapist tells him that he cannot do that, and they argue and he leaves. We hear that as a boy, a man was reprimanded for looking for inconsistencies in the word of God. A man talks about a Chinese colleague in stereotypical terms. A man talks about, "The end of capitalism." A man says that the inside of a pub "smells like sheep."
 A man brushes his teeth and spits in a garbage can (we see liquid). A dog licks a man on the mouth.

LANGUAGE 10 - About 74 F-words and its derivatives, 49 scatological terms, 16 anatomical terms, 9 mild obscenities, name-calling (suckers, screw-up, foolish, idiots, crazy man, sick, chicken little, bubble boy, greedy, losers, delusional, hypocrite, clueless, crooks, stupid, shady, architect of the crisis, pompous, moron, tool), exclamations (shut-up), 3 religious profanities (GD), 14 religious exclamations (Jesus [F-word deleted] Christ, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Oh My God, My God, Oh God, Holy [scatological term deleted], Holy [F-word deleted]).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man talks about Colorado and that the weed is better there, and references are made to Xanax and Zoloft. A woman drinks champagne while sitting in a bubble bath, people drink champagne and beer and mixed drinks in a bar, people go into a pub and we see people drinking and people drink alcohol in a restaurant. A man offers another man a cigarette, men are shown smoking in offices, and men smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol in a strip club.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Banking, stocks, bonds, mortgage backed security, economic collapse, guilt, responsibility, suicide, fraud, CDOs, 1930s housing market, defaults, fate, criminality, loss of savings, opportunity, homelessness, bankruptcy, betting against bad loans.

MESSAGE - Big banks and greed cause economic disasters.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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