Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

When it's over, I remember Gordon Gekko saying, "Greed is good" in the original Wall Street (1987) film, but in Money Never Sleeps, Revenge is better.  After being released from prison, Gekko (Michael Douglas) hungers to rebuild his empire and strike back at his enemies, mainly Bretton James (Josh Brolin).  He manipulates a young stockbroker, Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), to aid in his task.  Moore also craves revenge on James, who was responsible for his mentor's death, and in his pursuit of revenge, he becomes blind to Gekko's maneuvering, which costs him not only his beliefs and values, but also his fiance, Gekko's daughter (Carey Mulligan).  The pace was fast keeping the story alive and moving.  Director Oliver Stone knows his craft and knows his characters.  He has the ability to bring to life an occupation and lifestyle few of us live or would survive in.  How stockbrokers handle the stress of wall street is beyond me.  I don't think Money Never Sleeps would work as a stand alone film, and although it works as a sequel, it also suffers the weight of comparison.  I enjoyed the sequel, only because I've seen the original, and it's hard not to compare the two films, because Wall Street was such a defining film of the financial industry in its time.  Twenty three years later, the glitz and mystery isn't so enticing any longer, and it's definitely a harder sell to audiences.  An opportunity to see Douglas reprise his role as Gekko was definitely the prime motivator for me to watch this film.  He was such an iconic character in 1987, and it was interesting to see what became of him and what lengths he'd go to get what he wanted. 

My rating: 3.5 out of 5