Album Reviews
Movie Reviews
Past Movies
Movie Resources
Concert Reviews
Book Reviews

Top 10
Contact Us

Twenty three years ago Oliver Stone created one of the most memorable, fictional financiers ever to commit a white collar crime. Gordon Gekko is now back and hopefully a little wiser in the follow up film, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. 
  
Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is a young, hot shot trader on Wall Street. When the company he works for finds itself on the brink of collapse he teams up with ex-con turned book writer Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) to get the word out about the soon coming financial collapse and hopefully learn who is behind the demise of his company and long time mentor, Louis Zabel (Frank Langella). 

This is a smartly written, well executed film that not only embraces the relevant events of our current financial headlines but also stays true to the look and styling of the original Wall Street. Ruthless characters and intricate cash crimes are the foundation for this telling. If there is one ray of hope in our countries always volatile economy it is that it sure makes for intriguing movie plots. But running parallel is the emotional drama of Gekko and his estranged daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan) who just happens to be engaged to Moore. Winnie wants nothing to do with her father and Gordon puts Jake smack dab in the middle. 

Oddly enough there is a character in this one that makes Gekko look like a boy scout. Bretton James (Josh Brolin) heads up one of the top banking firms and will stop at nothing to put everyone else in ruin. It is an ultimate ego fest when he squares off with Gekko. Brolin is perfect and delivers a solid performance. In fact there isn't one weak link to be found. LaBeouf shows again that he is a smooth, confident and capable young star. He never seems intimidated or in the shadow of his seasoned counterparts. Yet he still manages to not over play it and brings a boyish humility to the role. 

Stone pens a perfect plot with this one too. He doesn't rely on the notoriety of his character but instead creates a  story that you can tell has been researched and studied to keep all the details exact. It is fiction, you hope. Yet you can’t help but feel that Stone is showing us what really happens with our money while we are sleeping. 

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language and thematic elements, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is made for the 18 and up crowd. More for the story and theme than the content; the only issue at hand being the language. I have a hard time believing your younger teens will want to sit through 2 hours of corporate shenanigans. But all others will find this a top notch movie experience. It gets 4.5 out of 5 ticker tapes. Certainly a good investment of your time and ticket dollar. 

Matt Mungle

Review copyright 2010 Mungleshow Productions. Used by Permission.