STUDIO: A&E
RELEASE DATE: September 23, 2008
STARRING: Judd Nelson, Ron Silver
WRITTEN BY: Gy Waldron
DIRECTED BY: Marvin J. Chomsky

If you threw out the name Judd Nelson to anyone who grew up in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, most people would associate the former Brat Packer with movies like Making the Grade, The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire, and New Jack City. Although I loved Nelson in all of those movies, the one project I associate him with the most is the riveting two-part TV movie Billionaire Boys Club that aired on NBC back in 1987. Although it aired on the small-screen, Billionaire Boys Club marked a significant turning point in Nelson’s career. It was the fork-in-the-road project that allowed Nelson to shed his teen image and come of age as an adult actor. How memorable was Judd Nelson’s performance as the deadly ambitious financial phenom Joe Hunt? Until the newly released A&E DVD arrived, I hadn’t seen Billionaire Boys Club since it first aired.

Based on the novel by Sue Horton and the true story of Joe Gamsky, aka Joe Hunt, who recruited the sons of wealthy and powerful from the Harvard Boys School into his elite investment scheme known as the Billionaire Boys Club (BBC Consolidated, Inc)), the movie follows a group of young and impressionable investment brokers from L.A. who seek wealth, power, extravagance but later fall victims to greed, corruption, desperation, and murder. It’s the rise and fall of a brilliant mind and a group of financial whiz kids who bilk their investors out of cash as they try to maintain their excessive lifestyles. When Hunt's scheme begins to fall apart, he resorts to killing the members of his club who know his secrets.

Starting with the trial Joe Hunt and his financial disciples, the movie flashes back to the formation of the BBC, their rise, and subsequent fall as each BBC member recants the deadly events of the true story from the witness stand. While the boys paint a vivid picture of how they manipulated investors and investments to serve their needs via Hunt’s leadership, with a "winning is everything" mentality, the story soon shifts to Hunt’s relationship with rich but shady investor Ron Levin (Ron Silver), as the BBC head tries to lure him into a paper investment scheme without a product. Both work in concepts and commodities, but Hunt soon finds himself in way over his head, which has a deadly affect on Levin’s bottom line. The final result is the fact that the real Joe Hunt is still serving out a life sentence without parole.

After revisiting Billionaire Boys Club so many years later, it’s clear that anyone who grew up post-1995 will find it dated. Although the story holds up well, with the acting as solid as I remember (both Nelson and Silver are fantastic), what was once perceived as a lavish lifestyle in 1987 is a tough sell in 2008. Even Joe Hunt would have a hard time getting a One Tree Hill investor to take a look.

A couple of years ago I got the opportunity to talk to Judd Nelson for the DVD release of New Jack City, but not before I led into the interview with a mention of Billionaire Boys Club. It was a cool TV event that a lot of people still remember. Those who recall the impact Billionaire Boys Club had on the TV landscape in the late ‘80s will still appreciate it two decades later. I could watch it over and again simply because it’s a memorable part of my youth. For anyone who came of age in the ‘80s along with Judd Nelson, it’s one of those nostalgic TV to DVD discs you’ll be glad you added to your collection. One of the most interesting things I noticed the second time around is how Nelson climbed to the roof of an apartment and shouted, "I’m on Top of the World," which oddly predated Leonardo DiCaprio’s "King of the World" in Titanic. Who knows if there’s a connection, but it was cool to see.