Money Might Never Sleeps but You Will

In Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the world of high finance was never more boring. The sets may be first rate and the casting sublime, but the problem is I didn't care about anything that was happening to them. The storyline is very similar to the first movie in that we have a wise old mentor in the way of Frank Langella to Shia LeBeouf's protege Jake. Jake is an up and coming trader trained by Langella who happens to be in love with Gekko's daughter Winnie. In fact their mentor/protege relationship was the only one I really felt invested in and it was was over before I knew it and then the rest of the movie went downhill without it. We see Gekko exit prison with a cell phone the size of a brick which provided both a laugh and a point of reference as we are told it's been 7 years since the original movie and alot has changed. Douglas's Gekko is as slick as ever and you can tell Douglas delighted in playing him again. I did like his refreshed take of greed being what got us in our predicament we are all in now and references to the mortgage collapse, but Gordon Gekko feels and looks tired. It's not that Michael Douglas's performance wasn't good, it's just that I don't feel that Wall Street was a movie that held up over the years, it feels dated; from the computers to the fashion to the mindset. Stone's a heavy handed director and nothing's different here - the pace is slow and it feels at times like he is making two movies; one about greed and the market, both in 1987 and now, and the other a melodrama about starcrossed lovers from different sides of the tracks. It would have been nice to have more of a backstory as to why LeBeouf's Jake and Carey Mulligan's Winnie got together in the first place - their story needed to be fleshed out better and explained if the audience is expected to root for them- as it was it felt like she gave up to fast and he walked out to willingly. James Brolin's character is perfect as the villianous, evil, star broker who's pulling all the strings - I loved to hate him, which is to his credit. Even so, every turn Stone takes is predictable and at 2 hours felt overly long. By the time the credits rolled I felt relieved - never a good sign. If you want a great movie about Wall Street and stocks, rent 2000's Boiler Room instead.

My take 2 out of 5 stars