WALL STREET: It’s like Oliver Stone was in competition with himself, and heck, why not? And in this case it’s a win-win situation, I mean, if the sequel is bad, he always has the classic, 1987 “Wall Street”.
So, let’s start with that one. I am not a fan of Michael Douglas, I am not a fan of Charlie Sheen, and saying that I am not a fan of Darryl Hannah is an understatement, but this movie just worked, “Wall Street” will be quoted until the end of time. It is just a classic movie, Oliver Stone directed this movie beautifully and you would think that a movie about Wall Street would be boring, but no, you are hooked from beginning to end, even someone who is as Wall Street retarded as I am, it’s a comprehensible movie that everyone has access to, and well, it makes stock brokers bad ass, and I find that cool. Now it’s the 8o’s so we can forgive the corny bits, the synth music from opening credits to the closing ones, the love story that you don’t really care about because you just can’t figure out what was going on with Darryl Hannah’s hair.
VS. WALL STREET O2: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS:
“Wall Street o2: Money Never Sleeps” so in 2010, I am still not liking Michael Douglas, I am in love with Shia LaBeouf and I don’t really know much of Carey Mulligan. I think any fan of the first movie went into this one with super high expectations. With today’s economy, this movie could have been very interesting. And if this
wasn't a sequel to a great classic, it would have been wonderful. But shit out of luck, you don’t want to have to follow a movie of such magnitude.
Don’t get me wrong, I am impressed with Shia’s ability to cry on cue, and you know, you just feel that Michael Douglas won’t let you down in portraying the asshole that is Gordon Gekko, he will do something horrible before this ends, you know it, you feel it, and without a doubt he does it. What is disappointing is that he grows
a conscience, which is not very “Gordon Gekko” like… I mean everything ends very nicely but I personally feel cheated, what happened to “Greed is good”?
The man that you loved to hate, has an epiphany, and becomes a nice guy. Literally, no transition, just lookin’ at his computer screen, bein’ his evil self, and then, poof, he decides to make everything all better.
Carey Mulligan doesn’t bother me, not the way Darryl Hannah did, but if she wasn’t in the movie, I don’t think I would have cared. Throughout the whole movie, you don’t know if LaBeouf’s character is like Gordon, or if he really just wants to do well. There is no doubt about his love for his girlfriend; Mulligan & LaBeouf have an undeniable chemistry. There is a whole “go green” subtext & I guess in this day & age you can’t get away from it. But again, you don’t really know if LaBeouf’s character is an idealist who wants to be a do-gooder while making a profit or if he is as greedy as the next guy & just wants the profit.
I went in with low expectations, not because I thought the movie would be horrible but because I just loved the first one. And like I said, if this wasn’t a follow up to such a classic, it would have been a good movie. The story was there (other than the green subplot which was kind of useless), the acting was good even if there were some characters that brought nothing to the storyline (Susan Sarandon plays LaBeouf’s mother, she didn’t do a bad job, but the part didn’t bring much to the table), the script was good, the directing was amazing (you can never say any bad of Oliver Stone), the location was great (when is there ever anything wrong with New York?).
It is just a true shame that this wasn’t just a movie on its own. If it were it would have stood on its own two feet… And it could have been great.
