Review of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) by Bryan S — 10 Apr 2012

Is greed good? That is the center of this film. Wall Street opens in the year 2001 pre-9/11 where Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is released from federal prison to find no one is waiting for him. The film then fast forwards seven years later centering on Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) who is a young stock broker working for a bank investor trying to make a livling for him and his girlfriend Winnie (Carey Mulligan) who also happens to be the daughter of Gordon Gekko. The day comes when the bank investor goes bankrupt and needs to be bailed out of trouble by another investor company ran by Brenton James (Josh Brolin), this leads to the tragic death of Jake's mentor and father figure (Frank Langella) after he commits suicide during the situation. This leads to Jake going to Goron seeking advise. With that being said this film focuses on fears that we are seeing today on Wall Street and what the film "Capitalism" was trying to explain and that is that brokers on Wall Street will do anything to make millions even if it means we the people lose everything.

If there is one thing that the film doesn't let go is it's storytelling as the film focuses on four different stories all within the 2 hours, which one would think would be possible based on the subject of the movie. First we have the story of a young couple Jake and Winnie (played by LaBeouf and Mulligan who happend to be a off-screen couple as well) as they try to survive in a world by depending on each other. Second we have a revenge story as Jake goes after Brenton for the death of his mentor by sabotage his company to lose everything, as well as Gordon going after Brenton for putting him in prison. Third we have Gordon trying to reconnect with his daughter Winnie after all the years he spent in jail, only for her to blame the death of their son/brother on him, and with the help of Jake, Gordon and Winnie are finally reconnected. And the final story is Gordon trying to regain what he had lost, most being his name and all the money he could have ever wanted. So I ask again, is greed good? The answer...yes and no as we are shown in Wall Street.

Will fans of the original Wall Street be satsified by this sequel? The answer is YES! However if there is one thing they may cause a stir it would be the fact that the movie is less Michael Douglas and more of a starring vehicle for Shia Labeouf, as Michael Douglas is used more as a supporting actor role which there is nothing wrong with. Douglas returns in top notch form as Gekko which earned him a best actor award for the original. Shia Labeouf proves that he is tremendous actor and can do more than just run around with robots. Carey Mulligan does an excellent job following her oscar nominated role in "An Education". And Josh Brolin gives another great performance in his career as the sleezy villian. Watch for cameos by director Oliver Stone and Charlie Sheen who reprises his role of Bud Fox.