Chasing Madoff

Read the other reviews. There, you will find two schools of thought; those who rate this documentary ***very*** highly and those who rate is ***very*** poorly. What's going on ? This is, I believe, a microcosm of the United States today where simplistic ideology rules Washington. On one hand, you will find those who argue that more regulation is needed and, on the other hand, those who argue that less regulation is the cure because the bureaucrats in Washington are unable to regulate competently. The facts are that if your local firemen are incompetent, the solution is NOT to eliminate fire-fighters, as some right-wingers argue, but to insure that they are competent. The solution is also NOT to increase the number of firemen, as some left-wingers argue. Essentially, this documentary argues not from the viewpoint of Bernie Madoff's evil, but from the viewpoint of the incompetence of Washington bureaucrats. THAT is the truth.

I don't understand the low marks for this film. It's a lively, fascinating telling of the Madoff tale, or rather, the two Madoff tales -- one about what he did and how he got caught, the other about how the people he did it to tried to protect him.

It's refreshing to see everyday people working in finance, and even more impressive to see them exercising values like sacrifice, courage, and the rule of law. Maybe the film is 10 minutes too long, but that's a small price to pay for this story.

If you're looking for an action film, rent 'Let the Bullets Fly.' If you're looking for an entertaining overview of the largest financial fraud in history, and its relevance for the rest of us, this is your documentary.

This documentary explores very interesting aspects of what went on behind the curtains while the massive Bernie Madoff's scheme developed, expanded and ultimately collapsed.

However, the documentary wastes the potential by using a very weak and wacky personal storyline anchor, which becomes repetitive and ultimately annoying after one of the main subjects starts putting out his paranoia for the n-th time.

The end result is a clumsy piece that bumps from a few high moment between a repetitive cycle of self-pity, delusion and confused thoughts of a man that slide into it after not seeing any results from his push to expose a major fraud in the making.

Never have I seen a film misdirected so well. Director Jeff Prosserman's comedy staring buffoon Harry Markopolos draws influence from Tommy Wiseau's THE ROOM. Why was Prosserman's vision not assessed by functioning adults? This film is indicative of everything wrong in documentary filmmaking today. Personally I was sad to have witnessed such a cinematic holocaust. Don't waste your time! Prosserman clearly has no idea what he's doing. If you look at Prosserman's previous work you'll find similar reviews. Emblematic of Canadian cinema, Chasing Madoff fails to meet the sufficient requirements to entertain an audience. If you're into watching films where the director has no clue where he is, what's going on or what he's doing, this film is right up your alley.

There have been many documentary shows about Madoff. It's a fascinating and horrifying story. But this example resembles a low budget episode of a "crooks and grifters" TV reality show. Obviously, video of Madoffs early career is rare. But the producers fill the void with stock shots, clips from old time movies and inserts that are clearly meant to provide something to watch as the narrator drones on. And to keep things interesting they rely on every cinematic bromide that their computer can manage: inserts with the edges out of focus, sepia toned clips to simulate "vintage" material and flicker-frame montages that repeat the same pointless visuals over and over and over. Its a 40 minute TV show inflated to feature length. Frontline, BBC and others have covered this material better. And the video is well laced with sobbing investors, folks rich enough to interest Madoff with their millions, yet foolish and careless enough to have blindly put all their nest eggs in the same basket. They claim over and over that they have "lost everything" when it is well known that the investors did get a substantial portion of their money back. The Frontline Madoff Affair is a much better watch.