OS /\ ~ 2.34% MD /\ ~ 5.87% SL \/ ~ 9.25%

"Greed is Legal" says the reptilian and aptly named Gordon Gecko in a lecture while promoting a new book he has written now out of prison for fraud and insider trading.  He's older, wiser, cagier and he might have let the world slip by a little in the new post 9/11 world but he's fully prepared to wring whatever big bucks out of it that he still can while the stock market is on the verge of collapse in this sequel to the original Wall Street film.

The movie sets it's sights on another Wall Street big shot, Jacob Moore played by Shia Labeouf and is trying to make a go of a new Fusion energy idea out in the Pacific.  His fiance, Winnie is the daughter of Gordon's and runs a non profit liberal news website.  Winnie and Gordon do not get along and Jacob sees an oppertunity to get some knowledge from Gordon and get Winnie to make ammends.  Jacob's professional life is in turmoil as the firm he's a part of is on the verge of bankruptcy and it drives the owner, Zabel and Jacob's mentor off the deep end.  In comes Bretton James to buy out the firm and Jacob only sees Bretton as the cause of Zabel's downfall and a crook but Bretton promises big things.  Bretton also has ties to Gordon and Gordon hasn't forgotten this.  The movie takes it's time in building the story of how Jacob will get an ace over Bretton, having Jacob go around town with Gordon (which he keeps a secret from Winnie) having Jacob meeting and romancing Winnie, Jacob's money headaches with a failing job and backed up by a failing economy and even a scene with Jacobs mom, a nurse who is trying to make money on a housing deal.

Jacob, oh yeah, Shia LaBeouf takes up 3/4 of this movie and Douglas maybe the other 1/4 and darn it if there isn't something a little unfair in that.  Shia while trying to play a young man in a grown ups game doesn't look right at all.  He looks like a GQ model in his suit and repeating things he's overheard about the stock market and heavy drama scenes with Brolin's Bretten or Douglas look like he's mustering up his all to be as dramatic as possible and coming up short.  Winnie the fiance has a consistent gooey look the whole movie being sad or maudlin the whole time.  She does get a scene apart from Shia where she lets loose on Douglas for his rotten parenting in the past but not much is made of it.  For all she hates her dad, she sure doesn't have a breakdown or outburst the way I thought she should.  Jacob sees a mentor in his midst and Winnie says he's trouble WHY?!  Yes, WE know Gordon is a skunk but there are just enough moments in the movie where Gordon does come across cordial and sympathetic.  Why WOULDN'T Jacob trust Gordon with only his fiances crying about how bad he is and not explaining.  Jacob should have watched the first Wall Street.

That was another thing.  There isn't much anger in this movie.  Theres angst and turmoil and Shia does get the crucial F Bomb drop at the crucial moment for one of the best parts of the movie but there is no anger letting loose, not even when a character has just ran off with 100 million from another when it could have been the key to the brighter future.  Not even a scene like in the first movie where Gordon discovers he got ripped off on the airline deal.  Another thing and I hate giving this away, the ending is happy and worse it feels tacked on.  You can argue character growth for characters but I can say it comes out of left field for the sake of not repeating the downer the original Wall Street ended on.

Oliver Stone keeps his noisy and bombastic visuals down and the movie has a nice cool and mellow feel to it.  Yeah we still see the SYMBOLISM like kids blowing bubbles and most of them popping say for one that goes all the way to the top of sky on screen and dominoes falling in rows during drama but it isn't that bad. 

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps isn't a bad movie, just not an engaging one.  Douglas and Brolin are good, the production values from swank penthouses and downtowns are fancy but the drama that really should be showing through really feels contained and with the weight Shia LaBeouf and Carey Mulligan carrying the load, they really should have handed some of it off to someone else or be recast.  Maybe it's proof that Shia isn't the blue chipper that Hollywood thinks he is.