The Big Short [Blu-ray] [2015] [Region Free]

I loved The Big Short with Christian Bale and Brad Pitt, as I also loved Margin Call starring Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany, and Kevin Spacey. Two very different ways of dealing with the financial crash of 2007 - 2008. Two very good films.Margin Call is looking at the crash from the perspective of a company that realises that it is holding too much by way of bundled up, collateralised, sub-prime mortgages, and sells them on just in time to avert its own total demise, although some employees do lose their jobs.The Big Short is looking at the crash from the perspective of different people who all think that they are the only ones to see that mortgages granted to large numbers of people who are less than ideal mortgage borrowers is leading to house prices inevitably going up as a lot of money enters the housing market that should never have entered the housing market, and that this will inevitably lead to bust as many of those less than ideal borrowers default on their obligation to repay, and, here's the really important point, the equity in those heavily mortgaged properties is not enough to repay the lenders because those properties were too highly valued when the mortgages were taken out and when sold, if sold, would be sold for a value below the amount borrowed against that property, sometimes well below the amount actually borrowed.Although what is explained in The Big Short, and not explained in Margin Call, is that what happened was that those sub-prime mortgages were collateralised, bundled up, and each bundle given an inaccurately high credit rating by Credit Rating Agencies that had a financial incentive in giving an inaccurately high credit rating, and then sold as being a good investment to people looking to get a good yield on their money.Not only were these bundles of inaccurately highly rated sub-prime mortgages sold to private individuals, they were also sold to banks that then looked to be more wealthy, financially solid, than they actually were.If I have understood it correctly, the company in Margin Call is holding a lot of these bundles containing a lot of sub-prime mortgages, and simply sells those bundles just before those same bundles really collapse in value. In Margin Call the company does what Lehman Brothers should have done if its staff had been bright enough.The Big Short is quite different in that the protagonists specifically bet that these bundles will indeed collapse in value. I, personally, never quite got to understand the precise procedure for placing these bets, and maybe the inability to keep it simple should cost the film a star. I think that they do their best to explain it, but I don't think that they quite pulled it off. Ditto really for Margin Call. Margin Call did not quite explain enough or not clearly enough, I thought, what the product was that the company had to off-load so precipitately.The Big Short was excellent in its ending. People who should have known better did lend to housebuyers who they must have known were never likely to be able to repay their loans. Credit rating agencies gave bundles of these sub-prime mortgages a credit rating that they must have known was too high. Neither the reckless lenders nor the probably outright dishonest credit rating agencies were brought to book for the disaster they wrought.

If you watch this, and can think, you will get an angry and you will get upset, and you should watch it, and remember it. 16 years after all this happened the rich are now richer and the poor are still struggling to make a life.

This is a film about the banking crisis of 2007 and the maverick investors who saw it coming. Christian Bale plays the investor with a glass eye who first saw the trend and bets big against the market [ that is the Short referred to in the title] , Steve Carrel plays the head of an investment group who get wind of the problems in the market through sheer dumb luck! Ryan Gosling is a banker who is willing to move against the banks. It is an astonishing story of greed on an epic scale for which ordinary people paid the price.The performances are all great with Brad Pitt playing the role of a disillusioned investment banker helping two young investors to enter the market. What sets this film apart is its style it uses a sort of montage approach meaning that it edits together images to tell the story such as pop videos and still photographs also the actors, mainly Ryan Goslings character break the third wall in other words they talk direct to camera. The director is aware that banking is a very complicated subject so to explain there are inserts by people playing themselves such as Selena Gomez and my favourite Margot Robbie explaining the concept of shorting from a bubble bath!!! the style of the film gives it pace and keeps the viewer interested, it is a fascinating true story and deserved its Oscar nominations. But one caveat if you are offended by bad language there is an awful lot of it in this film, but overall it is well worth watching repeatedly if only to understand the fraud of the banks.

I decided to get the recently-released DVD of the film 'The Big Short' as the subject matter and cast suggested it would be a decent watch, as well as provide an insight into a wide range of matters surrounding the lead-up to the global financial crisis - which essentially started in the USA in 2007.[This whole matter is obviously VERY significant, but due to it's very nature, VERY involved so it's difficult to try and summarise the main plot without mentioning so many other aspects - hence my rather lengthy review title !!!]I enjoyed watching this film and, despite the subject-matter having a foundation in greed/stupidity/downfall and it occasionally being a little difficult to follow 'events' (I refer you again to how complicated this whole subject area is, so this was likely to happen !!!), think it does a pretty good job of 'explaining' a major aspect of the crisis which has largely been 'unexplored' - despite the film being based on a pre-existing non-fiction book (with the same title).As this is essentially an 'office space' drama, with lots of dialogue and little action I think watching it on DVD was perfectly adequate - especially as it's also a modern release and the Blu-ray costs quite a bit more !BUT, do note that the DVD extras are MUCH fewer than the Blu-ray....----Now I've already explained quite a bit about the overall 'story', it's a good time to repeat the well-described Amazon synopsis for the film plot : "The film follows eccentric financial analyst Michael Burry as he uncovers an impending crash in the housing market and puts together a plan to profit from it. As Burry's predictions are spread by those who believe he is mad, a small number of people, including Jarred Bennett, Ben Rickert and Mark Baum, get on board with his idea in the hope of saving their assets."The book this film is based on was written by Michael Lewis, who also wrote a book called 'Moneyball' which also made it to the silver screen and who's subject-matter is similarly convoluted (the statistical analysis of Major League Baseball player performance), but still able to 'entertain'.The links do not stop there, as several of the cast from 'Moneyball' are also in 'The Big Short', with Brad Pitt being the most notable despite him having quite a small part in this later production - I think he gets 'inflated' billing due to his fame but also because this time he helps produce the film.....Other artificialities exist since, for example, Marisa Tomei and Melissa Leo are billed as cast 'stars' yet appear for barely a few minutes and (most significantly), whilst the Michael Burry character is the MAJOR driver for the plot and the most important personality, Christian Bale who plays him is on screen for not much longer than those other examples !Fortunately, what for me was the most prominent character (Mark Baum) is played by someone who puts in a stonking performance and most of us already know/like = Steve Carell. The next most featured actors are the 'team' of John Magaro and Finn Wittrock, with the better-known Ryan Gosling trailing them....Other personalities make cameo appearances courtesy of that 'unusually presented' aspect mentioned in my review title, as cutaways to them appearing as themselves occur early on to provide various explanations for pertinent financial terms/practices which relate to the story....----So, we have the plot and background, know the main characters and how some technical explanations are provided.What the film does is to tell the story of that plot, with those mentioned 'devices', by covering how a number of unconnected hedge-fund managers and low-level financial 'investors' dealt with the predictions of looming financial disaster to profit from it in the lead-up to the meltdown, and it's aftermath.Confused ? You probably will be !BUT, if you rely on the film presentation and dominance of Steve Carell to lead you through it all you should end up both enlightened BUT also entertained; with a final realisation of sadness, as so many people ended up on the wrong end of the crisis - excepting many were the instigators of their own demise through factors such as greed or stupidity....Much is obviously sad/bad, but humour does exist due to the snappy way things are presented/structured (eg those cutaways plus a zippy musical soundtrack) and of course the comedic personality of Carell - despite the actions of his character being really quite serious/ruthless.The production values are quite basic as much is office-based (the film 'only' cost $28million to make) but the film presents itself very well nonetheless; it looks and sounds fine on DVD.However, the DVD extras fall short of the Blu-ray with only the "In the Tranches" casting featurette appearing - so nearly 50mins of extra featurettes and then some deleted scenes are absent....I've attached a photo of the DVD slipcover back as Amazon omits it.Despite this I think the DVD is all that is needed as it's the film that's the essential feature, so it being presented well in SD is good enough to provide us this portrayal of such an important period from or recent past, with a logical progression thought the related events and some notable acting performances.

what not to do when you want to buy a home.the scariest thing was right at the end .

Most Americans, especially young people, do not read. They do not know of Milton Friedman, F.A. Hayek or Thomas Sowell and blissfully live their lives without a care until the inevitable happens. They mistakenly place their trust, in this worthless digital age, in their i-phones. "If it was on the screen it must be true" theory. "The Big Short" should be required viewing for these kinds of people, since they can't find enough brain cells to focus on reading an entire book, but perhaps they can watch a T.V. screen for 90 minutes Mainly because the situation that historically happened and ruined millions of average people's lives is about to happen again. My best friend recommended this movie after I had sent him the DVD "The Money Masters" which is about the fraudulent fractional reserve banking system in our country and the origin of the Federal Reserve, which is neither Federal nor did it have any reserves, but is a private corporation. For those of you who have never said "I can't be over-drawn, I still have checks" do yourselves a favor and watch this movie, a brilliant and fast moving account of bankers and real estate agents perpetrating doom and destruction and ultimately not one of them being punished for their crimes and malfeasance.

Was war eigentlich die Ursache der Bankenkrise im Jahre 2008, und lohnt es sich überhaupt, darüber nachzudenken. Der Film beantwortet beide Fragen. Es lohnt sich erstens darüber nachzudenken, weil das Problem sich heute erneut stellt (NFT und Crypto) und zweitens ganz besonders, wenn die aktuelle A-Riege Hollywoods sich hier ein Stelldichein gibt, dass großartiges Erzählkino abliefert. wenn man sich für Wirtschaft nicht wirklich interessiert, ist dies neben dem Wolf of Wall Street einer der Filme, die doch noch das Interesse wecken können.

Service tres rapide et un product de qualité.Très bon vendeur et très recommendable.Un vrai plaisir!

Great film and actor lm very happy with the seller and product

Great movie. Very good for a Hollywood take on the 2008 financial crisis.