FILM REVIEW: 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'

Scene from 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'.
Scene from 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'.
No disguising a paper-thin plot...


> Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
2 stars (out of 5)

Directed by: Oliver Stone Cast: Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Susan Sarandon, Frank Langella, Eli Wallach.
Rating: M


When the global financial crisis took hold, there were possibly only two people in the US smiling: Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas.

Douglas hasn't worked a lot in recent years and Stone's output has been patchy, so the failure of major US investment banks was a gilt-edged opportunity to update the original Wall Street 23 years on. If only they weren't so hamstrung by it.

From the opening scene where a dishevelled Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) is released from jail, Wall Street 2 feels the need to feed today's audience, most of who were not old enough to appreciate the original, with details from the past.

In a veiled attempt to explain the subprime mortgage crisis, Gecko has become a wise old soothsayer, predicting the crash before it actually happens. Standing in for Bud Fox is wiry broker Jacob (Shia LaBeouf), who just happens to date Gecko's estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan).

Cast after her exemplary performance in An Education, Mulligan does a pretty good job disguising her British accent.

Her major problem is being convincing as the left-leaning writer who rails against everything her father stands for, yet doesn't recoil at dating a Wall Street broker. This is just one of many inconsistencies in a paper-thin plot that not even amusing cameos and insider jokes can fix.

If the best way to reconcile the most significant financial crisis of the century is to race motorcycles, it's pretty apparent that Wall Street 2 is a benign take on the grim reality.


Best thing: David Byrne's contribution to the soundtrack. At least one '80s icon is in top form.

Worst thing: The fake tans. Charlie Sheen and Josh Brolin look as if they got sidetracked in the Oompa-Loompa make-up department.

See it with: A motorbike fan: the superbike porn is the best thing on offer.


- Mark Orton

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