Review of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) by Steven C — 06 Apr 2012
Oliver Stone tries for a zeitgeist film and mostly succeeds, if half heartedly, with a sequel (or in all actuality, a companion film) to his Oscar winning "Wall Street". "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" is a zippy, overly obvious, if a bit meandering picture with a great ensemble cast.
Michael Douglas reprises his iconic role of Gordon Gekko with great relish while Shia LaBeouf turns in some of his best work as a cocky, but emotional, up and comer. LaBeouf is turning into quite the dramatic lead and I look forward to more of his work.
Carey Mulligan continues her winning streak as Gekko's daughter and the cast is rounded out from seasoned professions like Josh Brolin (re-teaming with Stone after "W."), Susan Sarandon, Frank Langella and Eli Wallach.
The cinematography may be some of the best of 2010 for the fact that the camera is both reactive and reflective to the characters and the story. Yes, it's stylish, but it does more than just make the proceedings look cool.
It serves the story and characters in ways I haven't seen anywhere else recently. Overall, the film is worth seeing for Stone's vivid and stylish imagery, an accurate, but simple, commentary on the financial crisis of the past decade and some good performances.
It might not flow as easily as it would like, but the end result is more than worth the trouble of keeping up. I really enjoyed this fun sequel. (One should also take note of the ending, Stone is clearly having a blast with the Hollywood "happy ending" conventions and the "insanity" of the past decade.
It proves to be extremely unsettling in all it's "happiness".).
This review of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) was written by Steven C on 06 Apr 2012.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps has generally received mixed reviews.
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