Visitors Review

alphaeagle007 (2012-05-24 07:37)

Money never sleep. But I did

WS part 1 is my favorite movie. I watched that movie everyday back inthe days when I was training to become a broker (making over $1000calls a day) GG was the man we all wanted to be UNTIL Oliver stonewrote and directed this CRAP called WS2.Mr Stone where are the catchy lines? "I am not a destroyer ofcompanies, I am a liberator of them! or What happen to the famousTeldar stock holder's speech? Where is the dog eat dog attitude of GG? Instead you turn GG into a punk! Softer than ice cream. This garbage ofa film need to be tossed into outta space! Email me I will write WallStreet 3 and bring back glory that was lost!You need a back hand slap Mr Stone! You destroy a VERY GOOOOD CLASSIC.

galileo3 (2012-05-23 11:02)

"Greed is not that good after all..."

"…greed, for lack of a better word, is good." The classic line delivered by the wicked financial wizard Gordon Gekkoin Oliver Stone's 1987 classic Wall Street has become immortalised asone of the most popular movie quotes in the history of American cinema.Unfortunately, there is nothing memorable in Wall Street: Money NeverSleeps.Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is out of federal prison, followingeight years of incarceration for insider trading. The film begins in2008, just before the global financial crisis, and Gekko is on amission to warn the public of the imminent economic meltdown. After oneof his speeches, Gekko is approached by Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), whotells him that he is going to marry his estranged daughter Winnie Gekko(Carey Mulligan). From thereon, the film splits in two directions. The main plot involvesGekko trying to reunite with his daughter through Jake. This story issupposed to be a love/family theme within the film's financialbackdrop. This is the most problematic and truly unnecessary part ofthe film. Instead of Oliver Stone digging deep and examining thefailings of the capitalist system and truly condemning the culture of'moral hazard' displayed by the big financial institutions, he goes forsentimentality. Stone who has directed such classics as Platoon (1986),Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and JKF (1991), is way below par withhis latest project. The other more interesting and stronger side of the film is thefinancial stuff we see, mostly through Jake's eyes, a young Wall Streetguy who is living and breathing in the toxic environment of subprimemortgages, leveraged finance and good old fashioned egomaniacal greedof Corporate America. The biggest strength of the original film was Michael Douglas (on OscarWinning form), who tore up the screen with his presence. In this film,Douglas is underused, and it is a shame because he is the best thing inthe film. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps does not know what it is trying to say,and it goes soft at the end, failing to convey a message on the 2008'Great Recession' and the culprits behind it. Ooh yeah, and the endingsucks…VERDICT: 6/10 (Mild Recommendation).

Professor Klickberg (2012-05-22 15:13)

Unwatchable, not just because of Shia

This movie was unbelievably awful. Never thought it possible thatOliver Stone could make a film that would be across-the-board bad. Even the music, aside from a few of the Eno/Byrne songs, was horrible;and the few "good" songs previously mentioned were used inappropriatelyover dialogue, etc.Whereas the first film was about morality, truth, the human soul andactual characters, this mess is quite literally about Wall Street andthe financial crisis without being humanistic at all. The verbiage isas complicated as the needlessly complex plot (just read the synopsisto get an idea of how foolishly turgid the movie is). There should have been no sequel at all, but if one had to be made,there were a lot more options available with such an indelible andfascinating character as Gordon Gekko. A real shame. Oliver willhopefully come back strong with his next film.The fact that Allan Loeb wrote this and Just Go With It and The Switchand still has a number of other projects in the works confirms andexacerbates my fear about the reality of Hollywood today, the choicesthat creative executives are making.

mistarkus (2012-05-22 07:26)

Greed is Good

Entertaining and interesting since we are drawn into a story thatimmerses itself into fairly contemporary times that still impact us inthe present moment. The timing of this movie is perfect since themeltdown just happened and we still feel it and it is so much a part ofour current events.There are documentaries out there about the dramatic spiral downward ofour economic system. This is not one of those documentaries and it willnot accurately and intellectually explain how the financial crisisoccurred or what happened behind the scenes. Instead, this is afictionalized fable of love, loss, and vengeance that is nicelyinterwoven within the contemporary financial meltdown.The movie actually has little connection to the first Wall Street,besides the character Gekko and thus should not be seen as a sequel butrather as a story onto itself concerning the recent financial crisis'saffect on the elite financiers. We are taken into their world in anexaggerated, overblown yet entertaining way. The financial stuff maystill seem foreign to most of us but we get the idea.Gekko was one of the most interesting characters ever created in recentfilm history and the mythical wall street characters including Gekkoare back. Amusing to see these caricaturized Wall Street elitesgathering in the federal reserve late at night like evil demagogueswith self interested dark souls deciding on the fate of the economicsystem and in actuality deciding on the fate of the world. Its not evenabout money at this level, it is about the game between people andsimply winning. When asked "everyone has a number, what number will youstop and call it quits", the response is "More".The director created a visually encompassing film with artisticallydirected shots of NYC giving the city a certain aura of grandiosity andextravagance. At the same time we are exposed to a variety of placesand cultural tidbits that give the movie an absolute felt setting.Contained are little details, from a conversation in a cab while thedriver drives too fast, to walks in Central Park with a dog, that takeus to NYC. Also, one of the most entertaining cameos ever done in filmfurther adds to the entertainment. It is an understatement to say thatthe ending in the first Wall Street was powerful and poignant. Thatending in the first was unforgettable; this Wall Street unfortunatelydid not come close to packing the same punch in the end.

mjallen1973 (2012-05-20 16:54)

Confused plot - terrible sequel

This movie gets a vote as just above awful as I managed to watch it tothe end. The only reason I did was to try and make sense of what was atotally confused storyline, it was all over the place and made nosense.The original was a fantastic movie with great performances. Why wasCharlie Sheen in this as a cameo - it was like they wanted to parodyhis original character.Oliver Stone this is not your finest hour.Bad movie. If you want to see a wall street movie watch the original -this one sucks.

jzappa (2012-05-20 08:08)

The Heydays of Our Me-Decade Plutocrats and Their Twin Towers are Over…

Like The Social Network, Oliver Stone's 21-year follow-up is aboutorganizations and brutes at their helm, and the complexities ofhonestly deconstructing capitalism from within our virtual oligarchy.He gasps and gusts with images for the trade and industry void, even ifhis drama comparatively lacks the throb of recent documentaries onderegulated financial markets' puppetry of our state of affairs. As inW., there's the sense of a softening cinematic rabble-rouser.Notwithstanding, it's both endearing and horrifying to watch thiscontinuation, to see the crucial '80s model of beaming gangsterself-indulgence, Me-Decade artifact Gordon Gekko, downgraded to an itemof old-world diversion, for both the characters on screen and for wethe audience. Is this the guy---this out-of-the-frame member of the oldschool who looks in the glow of the Great Recession like a pettyoperator---who stimulated such pervasive concern, such pop-culture stirback in the day? How amazingly immature we were---in the Reaganomicsheyday of all times---about how much destruction the usurers could doto us.Gekko's back in Stone's regeneration of 1987's original, but only just.It's 2008, and he's already been out of prison for seven years, livingrather moderately on his book, Is Greed Good? He lectures universitystudents on how "the mother of all evil is speculation," that creditdefault swaps are the true weapons of mass destruction, that their (my)age group is screwed. Gordon today is, alarmingly, a voice of reason.And Douglas slips so effortlessly back into the role that even we whoknow him for a crook cannot help but be enamored while we've also gotour eye on him.Gekko just cannot expect to weigh against the treachery of the economicoffenders manning 2008 Wall Street, the ones he's now viewingobjectively. If JFK was Stone's tribute to conspiracy theory, then his18th dramatic film is his sketch of conspiracy reality, but dressed tothe nines as fiction, about the billionaires who see $120 million as amodest share and scheme to preserve the monetary muscle-flexing thatsustains them. It seems like some fearful vision when the Wall Streetpatriarchs sit around a Federal Reserve Bank conference table and plotways they can stop their own wrongdoing from taking them down with theship they so mercilessly shot at before, and get even wealthier in theprocess by inducing the government to pay their dues. Initially, Ithought Brolin's disturbingly unflappable manner as one calculatingbrokerage head might be the eeriest element, but what's worse is thatthere's no heroic figure this time to drive home that wrong wascommitted and someone must pay. Deregulation, derivatives, middle-classdevastation, all open to the elements. Few of us seemed to care much,until afterward, when we could pay righteously indignant lip service tothe problem.This is, in some ways, much more pessimistic than its predecessor. Thetwo Me-Decade plutocrats and the Twin Towers that conquered the skylineare all four pointedly missing here. '80s hostility has annihilated anemblematic backcloth and transmuted into a custom that's hardlynoticeable anymore. Even the few smudges of optimism in this sprawlingdrama seem peculiarly muffled and conflicted. Our supposed protagonist,savvy broker Jake Moore, has an idea he's been shopping to anyone withears, but unlike his 1987 foil, the eponymous half-man on ABC, whosustained a deteriorating airline and prevented blue-collar layoffs,Jake's a bona fide romantic in a world with no use for romantics. It'slike the film is implying, by the absurdity of Jake's optimism, thatimpracticality is an even tougher outlook to hold today than when italready seemed quite aloof and tricky.If the film's final moments wind up conflicting somewhat dissonantlywith what leads up to it, then, well, it's a dismissible flaw, as allthat precedes was so vigorously told by a visual storytelling master.The opening sequence stages present-tense New York as a place asvivacious and active as ever sans employing any of the customaryformula. Stone's sharp eye makes incisive points wherever he turns it,as when he concentrates on the jewelry glittering a Wall Street soirée.This is a very entertaining film, and a pretty upsetting one, too. Forif Gekko was a word of warning back in '87, should we take hisre-emergence as yet another prophecy of further economic ruin to come?

gerrythree (2012-05-20 11:52)

Wall Street 2 Is A Dull Movie

After a crackerjack start showing Gordon Gekko checking out of prison,the title credit rolls and Wall Street 2 falls into a rut it never getsout of. As the cast moves from one glossy set to another, all very wellphotographed as if for the Discovery Channel, I was waiting for action.In Wall Street 2, there is no real action, just talking heads as theactors recite lines from a script with no originality and no humor.Everything is glossy, no exterior scenes at night showing piled garbagein downtown Manhattan, to be picked up later, serving as thesmorgasbord for hungry rats. No scenes showing cars getting ticketedand drivers stuck in midtown Manhattan traffic. A movie set in asanitized Manhattan, where the only minorities you see are the Chinesepotential investors at a conference where Shia LaBeouf's charactersaves the day with his knowledge of a company out to generate fusionenergy using multiple lasers to convert seawater to clean energy (Note:I am a big backer of cold fusion).In this movie about Wall Street, everyone is a Boy Scout, there is nosmoking that I recall and no drug use of any kind, not even peopletaking prescribed anti-depressants. This movie shows Wall Street asaccurately as the TV soap opera General Hospital shows the workingsinside a hospital. In other words, Wall Street 2 is a complete shampopulated by very good looking people who never find themselves in adark corner, really worried, in trouble with no escape route. There isone scene in LaBeouf's company where you see a chubby office workerwalking by LaBeouf, the guy carrying a cardboard box with his personalpossessions. Does the guy make a comment about how rotten things are,laid off with thousands of other co-workers? Of course not. That isstuff that happens in the real world, a world the movie's scriptwritersare incapable of presenting due to incompetence or possibly excessivedrug use.Try as he might, Michael Douglas cannot do much with his role as awaffling Gordon Gekko. Someone should have told director Oliver Stonethat when he says "Action," there should be some interesting action.Watching the character Winnie Gekko spend most of the movie moping doesnot qualify as action in my playbook. To end my comments on a positivenote, Wall Street 2 does have one redeeming quality: in a down economyhitting Hollywood studio movies particularly hard, this sequel providedjobs to a lot of actors and craft people.

Jim C (2012-05-20 01:18)

Money Never Sleeps, it is just not awake for this

"You stop telling lies about me, and I will stop telling the truth about you." Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) tries to make this a famous quote in the movie, but there is really nothing that will be famous from this one. Oliver Stone set out to tell everyone this is NOT a sequel. In the meantime, he used the same title, same characters, same actors, and picked up the story 20 years later.Then he filled the movie with back story to fill in what we missed. Why go half way? Many people buying tickets wanted the slicked hair, "Greed is Good" Gecko to come back like Darth Vader did in Star Wars sequels.The most obvious story would have been Gordon having planned his revenge in jail, returns to carve Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) a new "bottom". But when Bud Fox appears in this one, it is more a cameo and no substance to be found.Much like Darth Vader saying Hi to Luke in the Alien Bar and moving on. In the meantime we have Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) making a career of starring in poorly scripted sequels with aging actors. Unlike Indiana Jones, he was not someone we would care about in this one. We couldn't even dislike him.He was much like the 3 year old in Olive Garden. Loud, obnoxious, over energetic, and just annoying. His soon to be wife, Winnie Gecko (Carey Mulligan) gave a great performance when she was opposite Douglas.Her angst at re-connecting with her Father was spot on. And you could tell that naming her Winnie was one big mistake! What happened to Rudy, Gecko's son from the first movie? That gets explained as well.But her interaction with LaBeouf is strained and when they kiss it is like two first graders, not two people madly in love. Susan Sarandon plays Jake's Mother and is a scene stealer, but for the reason that the other actors just seem to be taking an acting test, rather than giving real emotion to the part.In one scene, LaBeouf stands to lose a million dollars. He reacts like he dropped a twenty in the bathroom.If anything, Frank Langella could have taught him to act since he played his mentor, Louis Zabel. Langella is spot on with his emotions in every scene. One last thing to watch for is when Eli Wallach makes his "bird sound" playing Jules. We kinda want to like him, but we barely get more than a few tweets, and not the electronic kind.If you want to burn $10 now, take 2 hours and give this a look. You may find some decent scenes to almost earn your money. It plays just as well on DVD and unfortunately Oliver Stone will find it in the $5 bargain bin a few years from now.Almost a fitting end for a stock market movie about people losing lots of money.

Mino (2012-05-19 11:51)

Lifeless dried up gecko in a jar

Oliver Stone used to write scripts from the gut. Scarface, Year of theDragon, Platoon, even JFK were perhaps flawed, and in some ways mightbe considered dated today, but they were a well placed punch to theribs in their time. Looking back I consider Stone to be kind of achisel and hammer sculptor at movie making, both in script writing anddirecting. I agree to Sean Penn's comment that his basic hog naturestands in his way of achieving his true potential. And I mean this inthe most flattering way possible. Sadly, I begin to think that he has lost even his hog nature in favorof a more soft day time drama sensitivity.Wall Street I believe is an OK movie, which seen in '88 could have beenviewed as powerful, but most of all turned out as a great Douglasvehicle. Greed is good? Well, tell that to the billions who feed of 2bucks a day. No, greed is not good, and Stone makes insinuations inboth movies to the rotten system and its proliferation. But there wasno need for a sequel to make that point. Greed is however good as amovie quote. Wall Street 2 is kind of a spin on the consequences ofthat quote. Was it ironically prophetic? Perhaps, but the WS 2010version is diluted and looks weirdly dated. The score...the horror, the80's music with no regard to circumstance..characters appearing out ofnowhere to justify the development of the script, daughters, mothersout of nowhere.. Douglas is no longer Gekko, and does not try hard tobe. Shia is a better actor than Sheen but his character alone is notworth a sequel, and frankly looks more like an intern talking out ofplace at the meeting table, as for the current financial crisis, itsbeing oversimplified. As for Carey Mulligan, man, I'll take an airheadblonde in her place anyday, even Daryl Hannah.The last scene is however the most disturbing to me. A Happy Ending?are you kidding? Are you turning soft? If yes do a big screenadaptation of One Tree Hill and get it over with. Don't spoil thememory of one of your past successes.There was a time I would have expected a comment of the collapse ofBuilding no 7 from Stone. Not any more.

jjj1924 (2012-05-18 22:49)

Good, yet.....

First let me say I think that the reviews criticising the storyline areunfair. I think the story, and Douglas, are the best things about thefilm. For me, the storyline works perfectly. However, LaBeouf does notconvince in every scene, and Mulligans performance is very poor. Brolindoes a reasonable job, not his best performance, but quite effective.Of course, Douglas steals every scene he is in. I can understand thatStone wanted to concentrate more on LaBeouf and Mulligan to develop thestory, but had Douglas been in more scenes, this could have been somuch better. Don't be surprised if he gets at least an Oscarnomination. The jargon about the financial markets didn't detract fromthe story. I left cinema feeling entertained, but that it had justfallen short. Finally, Eli Wallach, what a performance, 95 years old!!The bird noises were genuinely hilarious AND surreal.

Bones Eijnar (2012-05-18 02:35)

A great sequel

The good stuff in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps are boisterous andshiny, they pop up often and they glimmer like Oliver Stone does at hisbest. I'm talking about good stuff like the fact that Shia LeBeoufstands the test as a wanting, willing and talented Wall Street trader,the homecoming of Michael Douglas' Gordon Gekko who now poses a moralfigure and central catalysator, the great and inspired editing effects,or the brilliant music by David Byrne and Brian Eno which is tremblingand detailed, and the script that sees director Stone not rehashing thefirst one in a modern era, but involves true romance and family topics,and the amazing cinematography by Rodrigo Pieto who makes Manhattanlook better than ever. 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps' is alreadyanother underrated Oliver Stone film, and for those who expected him topurely and realistically capture the time and occasion of the financialera, he does something in movies that's maybe better; he makes it agreat, overblown fanfare.

bkoganbing (2012-05-17 09:02)

The Gekko Gospel

In cinema history the characters of Fast Eddie Felson and Gordon Gekkohave had a similar path. Both Paul Newman and Michael Douglas got toreprise their characters in a real time period on the screen, roughlythe same quarter century for both. Gekko had the additional goodfortune of having his character helmed on the screen the second time bythe man that created him, Oliver Stone.Gordon Gekko certainly had a more public existence than the small timepool hustler who reached for the big time only to get flattened bypowers that be. Michael Douglas won his Oscar for Gekko in the originalWall Street and he's improved and refined his character here.The Wall Street Pirate of the Reagan Era has gone to prison for hiscrimes and is now a best selling author, but also someone not quitesure of his next move. Douglas is a sadder and wiser man it seems, he'slost a wife and son and his daughter is estranged from him. DaughterCarey Mulligan is serious with a young stockbroker, Shia LaBoeuf oddlyenough though.LaBoeuf has a mission kind of thrust upon him. In an obvious referenceto Lehman Brothers, the long standing brokerage firm headed by familypatriarch Frank Langella has collapsed. Langella was his mentor andLaBoeuf is thinking that this was a set up and he wants payback. Whobetter to help than Michael Douglas who knows the Street like no other.But as it turns out Douglas has his own history with the man whoengineered the downfall Josh Brolin and Douglas has his own agenda.Douglas is right back at the top of his game in his career role andLaBoeuf and Mulligan make an attractive pair of young lovers. However Iwould not be surprised if Susan Sarondon does get an Oscar nominationfor Best Supporting Actress as Shia's mother. She was once a hospitalnurse, but she gets into the real estate game with the inflated housingmarket and gets in way over her head. She too has taken up the GekkoGospel of Greed Is Good and takes a tumble for her efforts.Oliver Stone has done what some consider impossible and made asuccessful sequel to a classic film with Money Never Sleeps. And inreal time as well.

burntouthack (2012-05-16 19:39)

The first Wall Street was all fun scenes - where are the fun scenes in this?

It might be "wrong" to enjoy Gekko and Fox's balla lifestyle in theoriginal movie, but that's what you watch it for, damnit! You sure ashell don't watch it for Fox's romance with Daryl Hannah character.Oliver Stone usually hits the mark but he was never going to hitanything with this sequel's dry, incomprehensible plot. It really didfeel like a three-hour film. You've got to love the product placementtoo - I'm talking about the Heineken in the restaurant film. I like thefact Gekko actually suggests a crappy old Heineken to LeBoeuf - thepoor kid doesn't even get to read a menu, or get the choice of a decentbeer! And then the brilliant shot of the bottle being plonked down!Hilarious. Sadly the rest of the film isn't so entertaining - a majordisappointment.

edwbur (2012-05-16 03:40)

much better than the first

this is one of the best movies of the year. its got a great cast, agreat story, and put some things that surprised you. i liked this moviebetter than the first movie because you saw a kinder and better side togekko than you did in the first one. what Gordon wants in this film toreconnect with his daughter after getting out of jail. Jake is gekkosdaughters fiancé. Jake's shia labeouf. anyway there is another storygoing on also. there is this new guy named Breton James ( played byjosh brolin). and he is like the Gordon gekko from the first wallstreet.he puts the company Jake works for out of business and Jake'sfriend Louis zabel who also happens to own the company commits suicidebecause of it. thats how Gordon and Jake met. he wanted Gordon's helpand in return Gordon wanted Jake to help him reconnect with hisdaughter. i thought this movie was much much better than the first. ithought it was very good to bring back Charlie sheen's character budfox back in it to see whats happened to him even though he was only init for a few minutes. this was a pure classic and Michael Douglasshould get an Oscar for his role in this. either him or Colin Farrel.me personally would go with Michael Douglas if he even gets nominated.i hope does. anyway watch this movie. in fact get it on DVD you wontregret it.

pepitko p (2012-05-16 04:22)

Great premise spoiled by too many plot points

The Wall Street Money Never Sleep had a great premise at the beginning- return of great characters from the original and very interestingsubject matter (worst financial and economical crisis since the WorldWar II). While the movie succeeds in taking us through the financialcrisis as it gradually unfolded, it is constantly dragged down by waytoo many plot points, but mainly the hardly believable revenge and veryslow paced love story subplots.Let's get one thing clear at the beginning first. It is an immenselydifficult task for the writers to portray the financial crisis into amovie for general masses, while explaining the workings of the crisis,not bogging down the viewers with too much financial jargon and at thesame time keep the movie entertaining. This is the part that you cansee the makers have made their homework and is something to beappreciated about the movie, such as the Bear Sterns inspired collapseof Keller Zabel.My biggest problem with the movie is that the character with the mostscreen time, Jacob Moore, is not a believable character. It might bedue to casting Shia LeBouf, who for one looks too young and too soft tobe earning $1.5m bonuses and living in a $6m apartment. Second, he is a"prop trader," which means that his job is to constantly trade stockson his company's account. Yet, we see him trying to raise $100m for arenewable energy source, which isn't the job of prop traders. Even heis pitching the idea to Chinese investors, which is nonsense, since hewould have had nothing to say about the company unless he was an equityanalyst responsible for the energy sector. This brings the obviousquestion, why was he so interested in the little fusion plant project?His job is to make money not save the world.And than there are the inconsistencies and plot holes: At the beginningof the movie Jacob invests $1m from his bonus on 50% margin into hisfirm Keller Zabel and keeps his position even as the stock isplummeting putting him into sizeable amount of debt (film hinted $0.5mil). Now, first firms usually prohibit employees on speculating ontheir own stock due to the possibility of having insider informationand second if Jacob was such an excellent prop trader he wouldn't havetouched the stock if there were rumors of its impending collapse. Thisalone is hardly believable and our intelligence is assaulted again whenthe film somehow forgets his debt (before he even admits the debt whenproposing to his girlfriend), when he writes his mom a check for$200,000 without a second thought.Jacob spreads rumors about an African oil rig being nationalized inwhich Bretton's company has a big stake, which ended up costing thecompany millions. And Gekko ends up explaining to Jacob that it wasillegal because he pushed other people to make traders based on falseinformation, so Jacob realizes that the two are alike. How can a WallStreet rainmaker such as Jacob not realize that he manipulated themarkets, which is illegal? Other problems: Gekko's London hedge fund growing from $100 mil to $1.1bil during Winney's pregnancy? At one point, we saw workers dismantlingthe fusion plant, would it have been too little too late to give the$100m to an empty factory site?To conclude, this is a revenge and redemption movie with Wall Streetand market crash as a backdrop. If they had cut down the crying-girlscenes, to improve pacing, maybe it could have turned out better. Thisway, it's just plain bad.

sol (2012-05-15 05:37)

It's 1929 all over again! But this time it will hit bottom much faster!

***SPOILERS*** Having spent nine years in the can, federalpenitentiary, the once all powerful Wall Street market mover GordonGekko, Michael Douglas, is released from prison with no one, and I meanno one, there the greet him or give him a ride back home to his halfwayhouse.What really ticked Gekko off is that his daughter Winnie, CareyMulligan, didn't even bother to go see him at a time when he, witheveryone he knew on the "street" turning their backs on him, needed hermost! Winnie has nothing but contempt for her dad in holding himresponsible for her moms mental breakdown and her older brother Rudyhaving OD'ed on hard drugs! It's in fact Gekko's daughter's live inboyfriend hot shot stock broker Jake Moore, Shia Labeouf, who makes anycontact with him in trying to get Gekko together with Winne. Jake alsohas ulterior motives to get in good with Gekko in that he's determinedto get back at big shot Wall Street Hedge Fund manager Bretton James,Josh Brolin, for driving his good friend boss and mentor Louis Zabel,Frank Langella, to kill himself by jumping in front of a New Yorksubway train. That after James in a planned hostile takeover of hisbusiness spread rumors about Louis' brokerage firm Keller & Zable aboutto go under! This caused Keller & Zable stock prices to plummet from 79to 2 dollars a share in less then two weeks! Gekko plays it close to the vest in giving Jake all the information heneeds to get in with James in becoming a member of his Hedge Fundoperation having his own reasons to take James out and put him behindbars. Not only did James destroy Louis Zabel but also Gekko himself inbeing the person far more then Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), who wiretappedhim for the FBI, who ratting him out to the Feds that had Gekkoconvicted and sent to prison for nine years on his insider trading andstock fraud rap back in 1988! Now by using Jake together with hisunsuspecting daughter Winnie, who has the means for him to do it, Gekkois planning to get back at Bretton James Big Time! Like a leopard Gordon Gekko didn't change his spots he only camouflagedthem. Coming across at first as a reformed stock and Wall Streetswindler and wanting to have nothing to do with making money in thestock market Gekko in fact planned to use the some 100 million dollarsthat he secretly held in trust,in a Swiss bank account, for hisdaughter Winne as ammunition against the hated Betton James indestroying his financial empire that he build up over the broken bodiesof men like Louis Zable. As things turned out James himself did all thework for Gekko in his greed and stupidity by getting in over his headby playing it fast an loose in the very dangerous and speculativederivative and real estate markets! This all came to a devastatingconclusion on the morning of of "Black Monday" September 15, 2008 whenthe stock market tanked because of the trillions of dollars of toxicassets that James and his fellow Hedge Fund manipulators accumulatedover the last five or so years!***SPOILER*** Sitting back and enjoying the fun in the stock marketmeltdown that he saw coming Gekko, by leaking it, had his daughter'sfinancial website release information on James' unscrupulous actions,through his secret off shore Hedge Fund, that just about destroyed thefinancial markets not only in the USA but the entire world as well!James now broken and penniless is to face the music and feel whatGordon Gekko went through some 20 years ago that he was responsiblefor. Back on top of the financial world Gekko in his London office isconfronted by his future son in law Jake Moore in what a low downmanipulating creep he was by pulling off the financial scam of thecentury and at the same time making himself filthy rich off it. Besidesall that Gekko also ended up swindling his own daughter out of hertrust fund as well! But the news from Jake in him soon to become agrandfather, with Winnie about to give birth to his grandson, andleaving both daughter and grandson out in the cold by pulling the rug,Winnie's 100 million dollar trust fund, from right under them finallybrought Gekko's good side, if he ever had one, out in the open!Moving and very touching ending with Gordon Gekko doing the right thingfor the first time in his rotten and miserable life and thus for oncemaking a "Mench", Man in Yiddish, of himself. It wasn't an easy taskfor Gekko to do, give back the money he stole, but it did helped himsleep at night as well as be able look at himself in the mirror!

ken558 (2012-05-15 11:20)

Started Out a Potential Hit Which Then Veered and Misfired

Good thing I am yet to watch the original 1987 Wall Street. Based onthe other reviews, my opinion of Money Never Sleeps would have beenadversely affected if I had. As it is, without the comparison, it isnot a bad movie, not a good movie, merely average fare.Started out very well and I was looking forward to a gun-a-blazin' WallStreet ride, but 30 mins in it became apparent it wasn't going to be.It veered off into firstly plain sentimentality, then into mere un-funshallow silliness.Poor plot aside, my main bug-bear would be the absolutely horrendouslymis-casting of Shia Le Boeuf. Shia unfailingly appears like a 16year-old stand-in while the "real" actor is away - a 16 year-old tryingto play the role of a hard-driving money man - poorly, unconvincinglyand plainly laughable. He is good for Transformers, but I have no ideawhy there is this continuous attempt to cast him as a man's man in avariety of movies, when he is but merely a boy's boy. Shia's silly presence cast a ridiculous and contrived pall over thewhole proceedings.I can imagine (since I have not seen the original) Charlie Sheen to bevery well suited for his Bud Fox role (i.e. if I can get his CharlieHarper character out of my mind), and carrying the movie and thedynamics with Michael Douglas' Gordon Gekko into absorbing realisticterritories - however, Charlie's uncredited brief and unnecessary cameoin the current movie as Bud Fox trivializes the character and shouldhave been left at the cutting floor. What a waste... could have been that much better.... if I am now to seethe original perhaps I would wish this follow-up was never made. As itis, this is a very average 'boy pretending hard to be a man' sort ofwell-shot but not very well-scripted, neither-here-nor-there movie.

paris_whitney_hilton_nyc (2012-05-14 15:17)

Maybe money never sleeps , but I sure did !

Unless you are a daily reader of the Wall Street Journal and watchevery financial program on TV will you not comprehend what this dumbmovie is all about . For the average movie goer who is not stock marketsavvy, you will probably be bored early on . ( do you understand whatputs and calls are, or what leverage is, or what they mean by shortingthe market ? ) The only thing I found interesting was some nice aerialshots of lower Manhattan and a subway ride to the morgue . We all knowby now the stock market has always been manipulated by the guys at thetop . As a viewer I found I was being manipulated by director OliverStone again, especially with a hokey, cornball ending that even I sawcoming a mile away ! I expected Michael Douglas ( Gordon Gekko, not theGEICO Gekko ) to have a somewhat larger and more significant role inthis under performing sequel . I would rename this bore-fest " WallStreet 2 : You just wasted 12 bucks " Definitely Not Hot , ... P.W.H.

Andris Bekmanis (2012-05-13 21:59)

Oliver Stone almost got there again

I really enjoyed move for first 3/4 of it. The story was good, MichaelDouglas was great, all was fine, and I almost thought that Oliver Stonedid that again.But then, came the big "unexpected" twist and all went downwards. Andthen came even more "unexpected" ending - after that heroes just had tojoin hands and start to sing and dance. 8/10 for first 3/4 of the movie and 4/10 for last 1/4, together makesstrong 6/10.Oh, and I almost forgot - Shia is crying like for 1/3 of the movie.That comes close to priceless.

JC VD (2012-05-13 09:26)

Oliver Stone worth 9/10

I didn't have high hope on this but 10 minutes after watching this - itpulled me in with such a depth of insight & info.It used to be MS NBC Business, CNN, CBC, Wall Street Journal ... thenit's Michael Moore, William (Bill) Cooper, ... etc other documentary /investigative film makers.The story continues after Mr. Geeko got out of jail and things justweren't as native as before after a few bubble bursts. What makes thismovie special is it's down to earth, realistic, asking a questioneveryone wondering - y isn't anyone stopping scams & gritters rottingwall street / USA / world economy. I think this movie shed light inthat direction.Glad Oliver Stone till pulled this one off with grand movie - greatstoryline, amazing actors/actress performance, no fake CG filminglocations...it's amazing! A must-see movie for 2010!!!!