Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

In 1987, Oliver Stone made a little movie called Wall Street, a tale of Wall Street executives in the midst of the era of Reaganomics (Also, to my shock and utter disgust, Reaganomics is an actual word according to Blogger's spell check). Wall Street served as a cautionary tale, not to let greed get the better of us and to invest in good causes rather than fattening our wallets. The stand-out performance from that film was Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, the infamous originator of the phrase, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." Douglas well-deservedly won an Oscar for his portrayal as Gekko, but the message of Wall Street was almost completely lost on 15-25 year-olds who were compelled to become just like Gordon Gekko and some would even thank Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas for helping them make a decision on a career. After the Clinton Surplus, it seemed that great things were coming and people had understood the message that Stone was trying to get across. Of course, not many people could have prevented an event like September 11th could happen...

After September 11th, the Bush Administration came up with the greatest excuse to get Americans to go out and shop while also generating near-permanent benefits for the Wall Street fat-cats and investment firms. Outraged that a government could turn its back on its own people while pretending to treat them like babies, Oliver Stone felt it was time to make a Wall Street 2. Thus began one of the most infamous Development Hell cycles in movie history. Although Stone had a clear idea on how the plot should go, most studios felt the film would not be relevant since the stock market was still doing well despite the hiccup after September 11th and the pop of the .com bubble. Of course, once the stock market nearly crashed in 2008, the studios jumped at the opportunity to get Wall Street 2 in theaters as soon as possible.

Not coincidentally, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps takes place in the weeks before the stock market crash of 2008 and subsequent bank bailout. Gordon Gekko is released from prison a few weeks after 9/11 and begins work rebuilding his name by writing a book, Is Greed Good? Predicting an imminent stock market crash due to the changes in Wall Street policy, the wars in the Middle East, and most significantly, the change in American attitude towards real estate development, Gekko hawks his book nationwide warning people that the only way for young people (meaning Generation Y) to save their financial future is to buy his book.

Outside of Gekko's part in the movie, the plot of this sequel is almost word-for-word identical to the plot of the original, just replacing Gekko and Bud Fox with new characters and slightly different circumstances. Although Gekko was the antagonist in the original, here he serves more as an anti-hero, warning people not to make the same mistakes he did. Along the way, Gekko reunites with his daughter in a scene where he refers to the way Wall Street is practiced as "cancer," in a speech that must have hit eerily close to home for Douglas, what with his very public battle with Throat Cancer and admitting that he was a terrible father to his son, Cameron Douglas.

While the last Wall Street ended with an intended finale of seeing Gekko get what he deserved in being sent off to prison for insider trading, Money Never Sleeps ends exactly as its subtitle describes. Through Bear and Bull, thick and thin, money never sleeps and life goes on. !SPOILER ALERT! At the end of the day, Gekko ends up making a donation with slightly illegal money to a company that is developing fusion technology rather than keeping it for himself. Realizing that being a grandfather will be the most important thing he does with his life, Gekko sees that greed is indeed good, but greed for one's family is more important than for oneself.

Final Score: 4 Too-Big-To-Fail Banks out of 5
In typical Oliver Stone fare, the film doesn't disappoint. One of the film's major problems is pacing; at times the film seems much longer than it really is. I expected the film to end about 20 minutes earlier, but Stone preferred a happy ending to bring hope to a new generation. This is one of Michael Douglas' best performances in years and it won't be a surprise at all if he ends up being nominated for the same role he previously won an Oscar for. As far as Shia LaBeouf? He actually does a great job and accurately portrays a middle-of-the-aisle Wall Street investor interested in his own profits as well as alternative fuel sources. Really, the biggest problem is the pacing.