Review of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) by Elliott M — 11 Jan 2012

If there's one thing that Hollywood is a fan of it's the sequel. It doesn't even matter if it happens 23 years after the original film came out. "Wall Street" was one of the best movies of the late 1980s which starred Michael Douglas as one of the most iconic villains in movie history, Gordon Gekko. Gekko and Douglas are back in "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps". After serving 8 years for insider trading and securities fraud Gekko (again brilliantly played) is released from prison to find his estranged daughter wanting nothing to do with him and his former Wall Street cohorts still raking in the cash. His daughter (Carey Mulligan), ironically enough, is dating a proprietary trader name Jacob Moore (Shia LaBeouf) who finds himself without a job after the Federal Reserve refuses to bail out his investment firm. This can be directly attributed to the work of investment banker Bretton James (Josh Brolin in another outstanding role) who was an old rival of Gekko's. When Gekko runs into Moore at a lecture he asks for help in repairing his relationship with his daughter. In exchange for this he will assist Moore in planning revenge against James although as the plan evolves it becomes more and more unclear as to what side Gekko is on and what his intentions truly are.

It's pretty clear that "Wall Street" never really needed a sequel but I must admit that it was fun watching Douglas back on the screen in one of his most iconic roles. Charlie Sheen makes a cameo as "Wall Street's" main protagnist Bud Fox which is fun but entirely unnecessary. Douglas and Brolin carry the movie whereas LaBeouf seems to just follow in their footsteps. "Money Never Sleeps" is definitely worth checking out but it doesn't quite measure up to its predecessor. Hey...at least it wasn't a remake!!