Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

First of all, I have never seen the original "Wall Street," released in 1987 and also directed by Oliver Stone.  Therefore, I do not know all of the background information and can only judge "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" as a movie in itself and not as a sequel.  Seeing the original first probably would have been helpful.

"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" is directed by Oliver Stone.  It stars Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin, Susan Sarandon, and Frank Langella.  Charlie Sheen, and a couple others from the original have cameo appearances.

This movie starts off in 2001.  Gordon Gekko, who had been in jail for 8 years for insider trading, is finally released from prison.  The remainder of the movie takes place in 2008.  He tries to warn people that there's going to be some major economic problems, but they don't believe him.  Also, he is trying to mend his relationship with his estranged daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan), who is engaged to Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), who now is working on Wall Street.

The best thing that I can say about this movie is that the cast is fantastic.  Everyone is so incredibly talented, starting with Michael Douglas.  I have never seen him in a movie before, yeah I know, some American I turned out to be, but he proves himself to be quite the leading man.  I've heard that this time around he is a lot more watered down than in the original. I guess jail time will do that to you.  He won an Oscar for his portrayal 23 years ago, but he definitely won't win another one for the same role.  Shia LaBeouf, who I am kind of indifferent to, since he has stereotyped himself pretty badly in action movies in recent years, like "Transformers" and "Indiana Jones" was actually quite good in this.  He had some good chemistry with all of the main characters, as he was the only one who really interacted with everyone.  Hopefully this will lead to some better, different roles for him.  Ever since I saw Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, in "Frost/Nixon," I have loved the man.  His role as Jake's mentor is too brief, but enjoyable to watch.  Just take a look at the remainder of the cast that I haven't commented on, and take my word for it...they're fantastic.

The movie itself is a slowed paced.  I suppose a movie about Wall Street can only be so fast paced and engaging.  Actually Oliver Stone, and whoever actually did the filming tried to make it fast paced.  It didn't really work though and it just felt like there was way too much camera movement, that it got dizzying after a while.  So much camera rotating around people and generally going back and forth rapidly.  Also, someone decided it would be a good idea to do a split screen when they had phone conversations.  That was a dumb idea.  Screen spits are fine on television comedies, but people shouldn't try to pull that nonsense in big screen films.  One more complaint...too many extreme close-ups.  Yes, this may seem like a weird complaint but I swear if Michael Douglas' face was any closer to the camera it would have most definitely smudged the lenses.

There were some good aerial shots of various New York City sights however, which are always visually appealing.  Also, there were some interesting shots, where different parts of the scene were out of focus and such.

I have only seen one other Oliver Stone movie, and not one of his most well known/well regarded.  So I can only assume that his earlier work was much better.  And this one probably could have stood a little editing to make things more concise and tighter put together.

So basically, see the original first.  And if you have seen the original, see the sequel.  It's probably not as good.  However, I assume it is about as good as a sequel made 23 years later could be.  At the very least the cast is phenomenal.  2 1/2 out of 4 stars.

-Joseph Sbrilli



Alternate Review:

“It was never about the money, it’s about the game.” 23 years ago Oliver Stone released “Wall Street” to the public, a scathing, punch-in-the-face look at greed and it’s effects on people and the economy. Today, Oliver Stone has released something that falls a little short of its characters massive paychecks.

Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), besides having the most awesome name in the universe, has finally been released from prison after being put away in the first film for insider trading.  Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is a young, ambitious Wall Street man with the stones to handle amounts of money in the hundreds of millions of dollars, an amount that would have me curled up in a ball weeping on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Jake is dating Winnie Gekko (Carey Mulligan) who, besides having the absolute worst name in the universe, is Gordon Gekko’s daughter. Unfortunately, Carrie wants nothing to do with her criminal father, whereas Jake needs him to help avenge the death of his mentor and the collapse of his company at the hands of Bretton James (Josh Brolin). The entire storyline is wrapped around the financial collapse America experienced a few years ago.

If you are confused, trust me you are not alone. A father spent the entire movie trying to explain it to his son, who being 12, didn’t understand anything. Let me to try to explain it: massive banks that should be too big to fail like to trade money they don’t actually have from people who are defaulting on their credit and *snore. Whoops, it seems I fell asleep talking about it. Let me try again: Hedge funds through offshore accounts have *snoreeeeeee. If anyone could explain all of the terms and trends going on in this film, I would politely tell them to jump in front of the nearest bus while I file restraining orders on all of their remaining relatives.

No matter how boring the subject matter, or how incredibly long the movie feels, the acting is above and beyond what is normally expected. Michael Douglas, reprising a role that won him an Oscar, is exceedingly fun to watch. Is he bad? Is he good? Is he just a lonely man who lost all that was dear to him? Brolin and Mulligan are also very good at what they do but I’d like to say that Shia LaBeouf is really coming into his own. His earlier films are fairly wishy-washy, but I do honestly think this kid can act and will continue to make great films (not including Transformers 3). Every actor brings out raw emotion that was personal and relatable. Its not often I see a film that genuinely tears my heart during emotional scenes, but “Wall Street 2” did it multiple times.

“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” may actually put you to sleep, but the performances inside will make it a pleasant sleep.

2 and a half out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell