Who's Reviews - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

It seemed like a good recipe: topical subject matter, a follow-up from an immensely popular 80s movie, same director, same big-name actor... But to be honest, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps failed to live up to the hype. I left the cinema disappointed: the trailer has a lot of explaining to do.

The gist of the whole movie is revenge. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) wants revenge on Bretton James (Josh Brolin - who has a fantastic rage scene at the end where he destroys a priceless artwork... best scene). Jake Moore (Shia) wants revenge on Bretton James but then he sets his sights on Gordon Gekko. It's pretty circular. And the whole 'payback' thing got a bit tired at the end. The movie is 15 mins and one plot twist too long.

And maybe I wasn't paying enough attention to the finer details of the dialogue, but I also felt that the plot progressed in a bit of a stilted fashion. The scenes in the movie seemed contrived, and some ideas (like why Shia really wanted $100m for the development of some alternative energy project) seemed completely random and unexplained - I couldn't help thinking "but WHY are you so interested in this project?"

I love Carey Mulligan, who plays Winnie Gekko - Gordon's daughter and Jake's girlfriend/fiance/babymamma - with an American accent which was not bad. Susan Sarandon was probably the only other woman I saw in the whole movie. She played Jake's mother in an extremely peripheral and underdeveloped role. It is very much a male-centric film. It could have used some fresh female perspective (or am I just being biased?) because there are only so many scenes with slicked hair and clean-cut suits that can be tolerated in one sitting.

Overall, the plot seemed to opt more for style than substance. Given the subject matter and the timely nature of the film, it could have gone a lot further in terms of making an impact, rather than throwing words like "moral hazard" around.

I'd give it a 7/10. Edward Darcy agreed though he suggested a range between 6.5-7.0. Final conclusion: not as good as you were hoping. Money might not sleep, but it put me to sleep.

~ Hurley Who?

PS. Profuse apologies for the very un-punny joke.