Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

You like songs, that's nice, they belong on the radio. There were so many dramatic moments ruined in this film by pushing in a song and turning it up LOUDER AND LOUDER, to try to make up for a dramatic moment that was lost by using a song. Dramatic underscore that's written by a real film composer is what makes the music work in a film. Stuffing songs into it is nothing more than the production company trying to make money selling a soundtrack album that has no real relationship to the film. You might notice on soundtracks they include songs that weren't even in the film! Ever since David Chase ruined The Sopranos with poorly placed songs people have come to accept this as what they should do. Get back to the basics of music scoring.

The plot was truly horrible. So many disjointed ideas that didn't come together to form any sort of story.

I loved this movie until its final thirty minutes or so. During those thirty minutes you realize that Stone and his team of writers were searching desperately for a way to end the movie on a positive, hopeful note. We are left to plod along with them on this implausible track. Also, during the ending Gekko's daughter's character consistency is shot to hell and she appears as venal as the characters against whom she rails.

Those moments are especially disappointing because I believed that this movie had the potential to be Stone's best film ever. Carey Mulligan and Michael Douglas in particular delivered great performances. Shia Lebeouf is "good enough." The writing is fairly unpredictable then everything seems to be tied into a nice bundle near the end. The problem was that Stone couldn't quite bring himself to put the bow on that bundle. He wanted to add a bit of glitter to it, which seemed gaudy and completely out of place.

Bottom line: if this movie had ended on a somewhat dark note it would have reflected the reality of modern day Wall Street, and it would have made for a tighter, better movie.

It's worth watching, and if you liked the first Wall Street it probably won't disappoint you. You might want to leave during its third act, though :)

Michael Douglas's performance was great. But he usually delivers solid performances. Beyond that, the acting in this movie was not great. I don't understand why Shia LaBeouf and the Carrie Mulligan were cast in the movie at all - they seem so weak and lacked even an iota of glamor. Susan Sarandon's character seemed unnecessary. The movie did have some funny lines. I liked the Ducatis and some of the wardrobe design. The cinematography was excellent - especially the racing scenes with the Ducatis! However, overall this movie was nowhere near as good as the original. The ending of this movie was very abrupt. Overall, it was a complete letdown.

Director Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas. Again. Twenty years later. Gecko is out of jail. And he wants to work a deal with Jake, his daughter's boyfriend (Shia LeBeuf). Frank Langella is Lou, the old stock pro at his office. Susan Sarandon (Janet ! In rocky horror) is mom. John Mailer and Josh Brolin are in here. Check out austin pendleton, who was so awesome in Whats up Doc and Skidoo (they are both incredible films, if you haven't seen them.) lots of music by David Byrne, Brian Eno. More shenanigans in the stock markets... Gecko says he just wants to have a good relationship with his daughter, but he seems to be manipulating the boyfriend. To what end....? What's more important... money? Revenge? Or does he really just want to be on good terms with his daughter? Michael Douglas won the oscar for part one, but no oscars for this one. Interesting that acc to imdb, this was filmed at the end of 2009, just a few months AFTER the actual bottom of the economic crash of 2008, 2009. This one was just okay; doesn't have the impact or power of the first one.

I was looking forward to seeing what Oliver Stone & the ensemble he got together could do with an updated version of an even greedier Wall Street that was gambling with obscene amounts of money & making their own rules that the S.E.C. didn't do anything about or even try to understand it seems.

I was very disappointed. This follow up didn't fare well against the original...which is almost always the case. But with Stone directing again & Douglas in again...I thought this may have a chance. Some part 2's are just laughable...I guess they make money or they would stop doing them. The big exception of course was "The Godfather part 2".

Anyway - this movie just didn't have the snap, crackle & pop of the original. And I think the movie spent way too much time on the Jake & Winnie relationship played by Shia LaBeouf (wasn't that Glenn Campbell's name in the original "True Grit", well....maybe it was LaBeef) & Carey Mulligan. By the way...very sad about Campbell's Alzheimers admission.

When I saw this movie I knew that LaBeouf had been in a lot of Hollywood movies & must have been well thought of....but it was the 1st movie I had seen him in. I thought he did OK with the part he was given. But Mulligan was such an annoying character as Winnie....or was it Whiney? Every time she was in a scene it was like fingernails on a blackboard. Did anybody else feel that way about Mulligan's performance?

And as others have said...the ending was just not very good.