Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Whisper it, but Oliver Stone’s original Wall Street film isn’t actually all that great. However, it was the performance of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko that has pushed it up to a higher plain than it really deserves, and as Gekko, Douglas returns here for the sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. It’s not a great start as, I know it’s a quote from the original film, but that really is a bloody awful sub-title. The actual film doesn’t get off to a great start either as Gekko is released from prison (he’s been inside for dodgy dealing), but the two great sight gags have already been shown ad nauseam on the trailers. From here, Gekko meets Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) an employee of a major investment bank, who happens to be engaged to Gekko’s estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan). Some unconvincing plot machinations mean that Gekko agrees to trade with Moore and help him gain revenge on the man who Moore believes pushed his mentor to suicide. In return, Moore will help Gekko get back into his daughters good books. This doesn’t actually sound all that bad, but, dear me, this is such a mess. Countless plot holes don’t help, but a lot of what happens and decisions made by the characters don’t actually make much sense. Stone’s attempts to explain the financial world as well basically revolve around filling the screen with various numbers, stats and rolling tickers every 10 minutes or so. Is this a film or CNN Business news? The one redeeming feature is Douglas, but he is sidelined in favour of LaBeouf. A big mistake from Stone that as the audience will have little interest in LaBeouf’s charisma free performance. Mulligan fares even worse as her character is so annoying you wonder why on earth Gekko would want to reconcile with her in the first place. As for the length of the film, Stone is hardly known for his tight running times, but this is ridiculous. I reckon a good portion (up to 45 minutes) of the running time could have been trimmed here. There must be around 5 minutes of aerial shots of New York alone. That’s all well and good, but it hardly moves the story along. It smacks to me that the idea of a sequel was mooted long before the financial meltdown and then the screenplay was rushed to fit around the current fiscal situation (this is no lie, but I’ve just done a bit of research and that is pretty much what happened). Is that anyway to make a film though? I can recommend one thing in this film, however. The main reason for seeing this has to be the most outrageous piece of product placement seen in a film for quite some time, as the ordering of some drinks at dinner leads to a can of lager slammed down on the table like some sort of alcoholic monolith. It’s a moment of rare unintentional humour, but much like the odd looking Charlie Sheen cameo, it’s ultimately pointless.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Your investment in a ticket for this film will guarantee little returns. Rating: 4/10