Review: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

20th Century Fox

I wonder if this movie will receive any more attention because of the state of our economy as of late. I see trailers for so many documentaries about how the people on wall street are all crooks and terrible people and how this all could've been avoided, and etc, etc. I don't claim to have any sort of knowledge when it comes to wall street and/or the economy. I've never been much interested in that sort of thing and I find it kind of boring. But not too long ago I saw Oliver Stone's original "Wall Street" starring Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas where the character of greedy, crafty, wall street giant Gordon Gekko was first created. Although I admit to not understanding a whole lot about the terms and lingo of the business traded back in forth throughout the movie, I found myself entirely engrossed in it. "Wall Street" has a great balance of complex stock trading information along with intense characters and relationships that are not all good and you get caught up in seeing them fall helplessly into money traps and illegal activity. 

"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" starts out along the same lines. It seeks to return to the fast-paced, slick, yet dangerous life of stock broker, and for a while there I was excited to see where it would lead. Unfortunately, partway through and on to the end it lost much of the reality and intensity the first one profited on. Charlie Sheen's Bud Fox is a young and determined stock broker who wants to make it big, even if that means going the illegal route. Of course, he ends up giving himself in along with Gekko for the sake of saving his father's company whereby retaining some of his respectability. On the other hand, Shia Labeouf's Jake Moore is something of a justice seeker and honorable stock broker. I have to admit I was surprised by Labeouf's role, because I usually hate him in movies. I found he did a pretty good job here when he was forced out of his bumbling teenager role he's so used to. However, compared to Bud Fox, Moore is not as fun to watch. It's hard to find such an honorable figure in wall street realistic; especially when compared to the last film.

20th Century Fox

At the same time, Josh Brolin's Bretton James functions as the villain, and although a good performance in his own right, doesn't match up to the class and suave character of Gekko. I went into the theater expecting to see basically a remake of the first one. Thankfully it wasn't so, but I still wanted more Gekko. Because as anyone who's seen the original knows, he's the best part. Douglas really did deserve his Oscar from playing the renowned character who once said "greed, for lack of a better word, is good." But here Gekko is more of a background figure and the brunt of the plot is left to Labeouf to handle. And like I said, he's not bad. But the entanglements and issues Bud Fox found himself in before were just more exciting to watch. 

Carey Mulligan probably ended up being one of the best parts of the new one. She plays her role really well as the fiancé stuck in the middle of the ordeal who's also trying to deal with her father (Gekko) having just got out of prison after 8 years during which her family fell apart. The scenes between Mulligan and Douglas are definitely the best and it reveals a side of Gekko we didn't see in "Wall Street". Still, I was basically waiting for Gekko to return to his old ways through the whole film.

20th Century Fox

On top of all that's happening there's these voice-overs by Labeouf that try to create these analogies that have something to do with bubbles (I forget now) that they keep coming back to again and again by showing kids playing with bubbles in the park and at the end, etc. I didn't find that this facet of the film worked very well and kind of felt weird. I also think that a lot of the feel of the old one was lost with the decision to keep this a PG-13 movie. In the old R-rated one we had some more scenes with nudity and other material that gave everything more of an edgy feel. We also had more coarse language which gave more life and intensity to the more stressful scenes. There was hardly any of that in this one apart from 2 f-words, which apparently is all you can say to retain a PG-13 rating these days. 

On the whole, it's definitely not a bad drama. It's a decent all-around movie and sequel with good acting and a script that, while not as lively as the first, keeps moving. I was most disappointed with the ending because it felt too trite and sort of a cop-out instead of a darker ending like the first (which would've been a better idea, in  my opinion). So if you're a fan of the first "Wall Street", I'd say it's worth going to see this sequel just so you can see how things turn out for Gekko. But if you're not already a fan, it's not really worth your time.