A&E Billionaire Boys Club

I remember when this film was on TV back in the late 80's, and it was absolutely one of the most well written, well acted, well scripted movies on television at that time. Judd Nelson was the stand out as he brought to life to real life murderer, Joe Hunt and the murder of Ron Levin and Reza Eslaminia, and the crazy scheme to rob them of their money, while running a crazy a crazy Ponzi Scheme to pay off his investors. Well worth the money. I hear there is a new movie coming out on this film, staring Kevin Spacey and other younger cast members. Can't wait to compare the two.

Although this made for tv film is over 20 years old, it is riveting to watch. The true story of Joe Hunt,an ambitious and brilliant young man with distorted values climbing the corporate ladder and convincing all those around him to knowingly cross moral boundaries, holds your interest from start to finish. The lead actor "Judd Nelson" is absolutely mesmerizing in every scene. The fact that you even feel some measure of sympathy for him is a true test of his topnotch acting. In my opinion, he should have been nominated for an emmy.

I was sitting in a resturaunt and I heard a the pet shop boys song from this movie and I thought, "Billionaire Boys Club, I remember watching it after I taped the TV miniseries on betamax." I looked it up on netflix and it was not available. I wanted to watch it again, so I looked it up on Amazon and it was available for a very affordable price. My husband and I both remember it from the 80s and it was nice to watch it soon after the thought crossed my mind. It was just as good as I remember it to be:)

Judd Nelson is excellent as Joe Hunt in this true story about greed and murder amongst the rich and privileged of Los Angeles. Joe Hunt came from a poor family and was considered by his former "privileged" classmates as being nerdy, unpopular, and a scholarship kid. After college, Joe became reacquainted with some of his rich former classmates through Dean Karny. He convinced this group of guys that he was an expert in commodities trading and he had a "risk free" strategy that would produce big returns. The guys were very impressed so they gave Joe all of their inheritances to invest in the commodities markets. But instead of investing the money, Joe used their money to rent office space and hire employees for his new company, the Billionaire Boys Club. Joe scammed money from wealthy businessmen, spent some of the money to maintain his lavish lifestyle and the rest he lost in the commodities market. And to keep his investors from getting suspicious, Joe mailed out fake statements that showed a small profit but eventually the investors started asking for their money back. Joe was desperate to find new investors. Joe met Ron Levin, who was a wealthy businessman and con-artist himself. He was hoping to scam Ron Levin out of enough money that he could bail out the BBC. But as it turned out Ron scammed Joe. Joe was furious and decided to kill Ron Levin. Joe's biggest mistake was leaving a hand written "to-do list" at Ron's house. The police found this list and later used it in court. The prosecutor proclaimed, "It's a recipe for murder". In Joe's continual pursuit for more cash, a plot was hatched to kidnap Hedayat Eslaminia, a rich former Iranian official and hold him for ransom. This plot didn't work either and Joe was losing control over the guys. Two of the guys secretly went to the police and this led to the end of the BBC. Two especially good books were written about this story. They are as follows: The Billionaire Boys Club by Sue Horton The Price of Experience by Randall Sullivan

A predecessor to the far superior 2000 "Boiler Room", "Billionaire Boys' Club" is a made for T.V. movie approximately the length of Gone With the Wind and War Peace combined. It is supposedly based on the true story of a young sociopathic, malignantly greedy former "nerd", Joe Hunt, who seeks to conquer the world of high finance, but where as a superbly crafted films such as "Blindsided" and "The Kings Speech" serve up stellar scripts, great dialogue, and believable characters, "BBC" fails dismally on all three fronts. Hunt's ambition, like MacBeth's is the catalyst for a conveyor belt of slaughter. Interesting enough, but the reactions to his obvious madness by his colleagues defy credulity. Here and there we are offered up scenes which elicit a "You've got to be f'ing kidding me." response. There are a handful of these but the one that stands out is Hunt's description of the desecration of his first victim's body when riddled by bullets. Hunt recounts the experience with the giddiness of a high-school kid describing his feelings while watching his first porn flick. To make matters worse, the film is little more than a composite of serial flashbacks. On more occasions that I can recall, the writer violates the first unimpeachable rule of scriptwriting: "Show don't tell." I'll let others discuss the plot and the virtues of the film which are almost non-existent to me. The most interesting aspect of this film is how producers were talked into anteing up the money for a three-hour, two-part television film. Perhaps Judd Nelson was more persuasive than he was as Joe Hunt.

Haven't seen this movie for years but it is a good cast and riveting story. Both Judd Nelson and Ron Silver were terrific. Judd Nelson does great job of portraying Joe Hunt the murderous con artist. It's a good watch.

Loved this flick and recorded it on VHS when it first aired. Haven't seen it in a few years...glad I found it on dvd...just watched it again. Wow. What a story!

I first saw this movie back in the late 80's and was hoping that it would come out on DVD. I originally had this on VHS but we all know what happened to that. I would add this movie to your Wall Street, Rogue Trader, Trading Places, Other People's Money and Barbarians at the Gate movie collection. It's over 3 hours long but the suspense will keep you watching. Enjoy!

There are some great acting performances in this movie. It is easily one of Judd Nelson's best acting roles. Just buy it... it's worth every penny.