Review of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) by Sam M — 21 May 2011

Review By Ryder- A-.

"Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps" is a new age sequel of the 1987 film "Wall Street". In the original, Michael Douglas plays Gordon Gekko, an overaggressive finance executive. This role ended up winning Michael Douglas an Oscar for Best Actor so it was interesting to see him bring this character back from the dead, or from out of prison, in this sequel. Along with Michael Douglas there is a great cast that includes Shia LeBeouf as Jake Moore, Josh Brolin as Bretton James, and Carey Mulligan as Winnie Gekko. These actors compliment each other very well on screen but all come second to Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko.

Michael Douglas really dominates this movie with his presence, whether it be because he is the only returning character from the first movie or just because he is the main character, it is easier to relate to Gordon Gekko than to the new characters that Oliver Stone has created. Shia as Jake Moore is a young investment banker that gets hired by Bretton James to work for him. Josh Brolin as Bretton James, plays a hotshot executive that is very good in the market and has made a great living for himself. As the movie unfolds we find that Jake Moore has a grudge against Bretton for destroying his mentor. So while Jake is working for Bretton, he and Gordon Gekko are working together so that Gordon can take down Bretton in return to see his daughter Winnie, played by Carey Mulligan. Michael Douglas aside, Josh Brolin does a great job as Bretton James and Shia is good to see in this role but doesn't really hold his own against Brolin or Douglas. As for Carey Mulligan in this film, she gives a good performance playing Winnie but everyone is really overshadowed by Michael Douglas.

Whenever a sequel comes out I always try to watch the original's before going to see the new movie. The truth is...I've never done it until Wall Street. I know it's wierd that out of all the sequels that have came out like "The Dark Knight", or even "Pirates of the Carribean" that "Wall Street" is the one I watched, but AMC had it playing during the week in between my classes so I had to watch.

One thing that made this sequel interesting was that it was continued with so much time passed in between movies. We left it in the late 80's when computers were in their baby stage and pick it up now while technology completely dominates every aspect of the stock market and it was really cool to see. Oliver Stone made another great film with this one and I didn't expect anything less. All together they made a sequel that felt like it was an entirely different movie from the original which I actually liked it more than trying to bring back too many characters. And because of that I gave this movie an "A-" but is close to a "B+".