Going against my original intentions of only reviewing independent productions, I decided on this Movie given the success and impact that the original had on most testosterone-fuelled males of the late 80s. We encounter Gordon Gecko (the original baddie for those unfamiliar with the story) who, having completed his jail sentence and written a best-selling book that shares his wisdom, is approached by a young trader, Jake Moore, who not only admires him but also happens to be the fiancé of Winnie, Geckos estranged daughter. When Jake’s mentor, Louis commits suicide, due to the collapse of the investment bank where Jake works, the latter then turns to Gecko for advice as to how to exact retribution against Bretton James, whom he holds responsible. In return, Gecko asks for Jake to help set up a reunion with Winnie. Imagine the feeling one gets when a legendary figure makes an attempted comeback that is depressingly painful to watch. That’s how I feel about long gaps between the original and the sequel. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, made me want to do exactly that (sleep that is). This version just dragged like a lame tortoise, the only reason I stuck it out was out of curiosity as to the outcome; unlike a few others that didn’t even last halfway before throwing in the towel. This looked to me like the film-maker’s attempt to rectify, what he considered, his error of making Wall Street traders heroic in the original. He succeeded in that instead they came across as annoying, so greed didn’t come into any equation. The storyline of Gecko’s relationship with Winnie was quite a lazy approach, given that the estranged father/daughter dynamic has already been used recently to a much better effect (The Wrestler). There was also highlighted the problem of choosing actors for fashion rather than suitability to the roles, which left me thinking that the motives for the sequel were purely financial (understatement I know – sorry). On the whole, this may not appeal to those that enjoyed the original. The best thing for me was Michael Douglas’s performance. Although, he didn’t have as much screen time as the original, he definitely made quality use of his screen time. Susan Sarandon, playing Jake’s mother, appears to have found a niche at playing free-spirited, yet irresponsible elder citizens (ref: The Lovely Bones). Unfortunately I couldn’t warm to Shia LaBeouf/Carey Mulligan relationship, which had the chemistry of the business mergers from which the film’s characters carved their living. In fact LaBeouf gave the impression that he was lost without the presence of the machines from Transformers. Josh Brolin as James came across as the hated high school jock (strap). In an ideal world, this should serve as an object lesson not to leave it more than the required intervals between original and sequel, but I’m not hold my breath. © K. Payne (2010)
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