Wall Street II: Michael Douglas and Oliver Stone are Back

[scifiwolf]

Took the girlfriend to see this for her birthday on Saturday. We both loved the movie. It was kind of eerie hearing Gordon keep talking about money as a cancer. Shia turned in perhaps his best performance to date. I'd certainly put it ahead of The Greatest Game Ever Played. He really blew my expectations away. I doubt he'd ever see an Oscar nom for this movie, but he's going to get one someday and deserve it. Wow. My biggest gripes with the movie were some choices with the script (the Bud Fox stuff was poorly inserted and felt forced) and the cinematography. Everything else was great.

 

[nightwing06]

There are two films starring Michael Douglas that no matter what the time.or what im doing i must watch them all the way through.One is Fatal Atraction,the other is Wall Street.Part of the appeal of Wall Street to me comes from working in the banking industry years ago and rubbing shoulders with Gordon Gekko types
Gecko and his portrayal by Michael Douglas is the other half of the appeal.
He's that devilish person,with a poker face who can display disinterest in your ideas,and the next day take your ideas and make 100 million dollars.

But in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps i unfortunately received a water downed Gecko
Shia LaBeouf is only partially believable as the young upstart Jake,trying to avenge his mentor(Frank Langella),taking on Bretton James ( a smiling and uncaring and loving every minute as the villain Josh Brolin), a former businessman that betrayed his mentor
His youthful looks just threw me off,he has grown on me as an actor but he just looked like a kid in a room among men.
Carey Mulligan is more believeable as his fiancee Winnie who is also the daughter of Gecko,who cant decide if she wants to let her father back into her heart and life.
The best scenes are when Douglas gets to talk to talk and strut and becomes an semi-advisor to Jake,he uses Jake to attempt to get back in Winnies good graces,and Jake uses him for info ,but Gecko is like a lion waiting to pounce you can see it in his eyes and delivery,and this is when the film excels.There are a few nice suprise cameos.
But some of the film seems repetitive and
Director Oliver Stone wants to reacquaint us with the housing market crumbling,stocks diving to all new lows,banks that are "to big to fail"and government bail outs,instead of truly reacquainting us with Gecko.
Go rent the original or catch it on AMC let the sequel sleep and catch it on DVD
Scale of 1-10 a 7

 

[Darkness Falls]

great film

8/10

 

[Crockett]

I haven't watch the first Wall Street, but I went to see this movie anyway and I was pleasant surprised. A entertaining sophisticated movie with good performances.
3/5

 

[TheFuture]

I really disliked this film. What started out so promisingly, with hard hitting scenes following the global economic meltdown, ended up being the Gekko family soap opera. I have so many issues with this film.

Spoiler

The Charlie Sheen cameo was utterly pointless.

Michael Douglas's facial expressions throughout the film pretty much gave away that Gekko was going to do something distardly eventually. It was flipping obvious what was coming. It was like Stone just told him to look as sly and slimey as possible all of the time and low and behold, the scenes in which caught my attention, were the ones that were recapped upon once Lebeouf's character realised he had been double crossed.

His daughter's inexplicable forgiveness of Gekko after he double crossed her. For someone who barely forgave him in the first place I cannot believe she was willing to overlook that once again Gekko manipulated her and abused her trust.

The ending. Jesus. Sentimental tripe where they are all playing happy families. Pass the bucket.

Only two characters were remotely interesting for their entire time on screen: Brolin's and Langella's.

 

[MadVillainy]

I agree with all except the 2nd and last one. Except I didnt hate the film because I loved the performances so much

 

[TheFuture]

I agree with all except the 2nd and last one. Except I didnt hate the film because I loved the performances so much

Spoiler

I will admit that I initially changed my mind in regards to Gekko when he and his daughter had a heart to heart because it seemed very genuine. But the second he started fishing for the $100m I knew he was going to do something sly.

 

[MadVillainy]

Spoiler

I will admit that I initially changed my mind in regards to Gekko when he and his daughter had a heart to heart because it seemed very genuine. But the second he started fishing for the $100m I knew he was going to do something sly.

Spoiler

I did too. Right when he asked Shia for it. I was praying "Dont let him steal from his daughter, don't let him steal from his daughter" Over and over because they made the character completely unlikeable to me and his "redemption" at the end was BS. The ending neutered a great character

I still think Douglass deserves Best supporting actor nod

 

[TheFuture]

Spoiler

I did too. Right when he asked Shia for it. I was praying "Dont let him steal from his daughter, don't let him steal from his daughter" Over and over because they made the character completely unlikeable to me and his "redemption" at the end was BS. The ending neutered a great character

I still think Douglass deserves Best supporting actor nod

Aye I could have lived with it if it wasn't for the ending, it just really annoyed me.

I really liked aspects of Douglas's performance. I thought his book promotional speech was awesome, and the heart to heart with his daughter was fantastic as well.

But I actually hope Langella gets a supporting actor nod. It was a very heartbreaking performance, and I think he perfectly captured the desperation of the time we're living in right now.

 

[DACrowe]

I saw the movie over the weekend. It was highly enjoyable. Oliver Stone is always great at taking a cynical view of the power brokers in America--whether they be in government or high finance--and displaying with sympathy why he hates them and how dangerous they are.

I thought the first 2 acts were great in this movie. The set up of Shia losing his mentor played wonderfully by Frank Langella and setting out for revenge through Gekko was terrific. As well as the acceleration of his relationship with Winnie (an excellent Carey Mulligan who looked gorgeous in this picture).

My favorite aspect of the film was Josh Brolin and how his bank was pretty much a stand-in for Goldman Sachs. Right down to his cozy relationship with the Fed Chair who looked suspiciously like then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson (the one who pushed the $700 billion TARP/bailout i the last months of Bush and former Goldman alum). Did I not see current Treasury Secretary stand-in Timothy Geithner in that room as well?

But seeing them hold the government hostage after (correctly) catelogging how terrible this crash would be was painfully great. The epitomy of slime.

Douglas is amazing in his signature role. But it worked best in the first two acts. Him being broken and sad he cannot reconcile with his daughter turning out to be a great con to swindle her of her "trust fund" was not entirely surprising, but on-the-nose smarmy and perfectly Gekko. Anybody who thinks Gordon Gekko is a hero never watches the movies he's in. To Stone he is the personification of greed, excess and the dangers and potential evils of capitalism gone awry.

So...his reconciliation with his daughter at the end and the big bow of the final shots with bubbles and green energy was a disappointment. Gekko, Stone, and the overall movie was too cynical for that happy ending. Shia and Winnie getting back together? OK. $100 million to green energy and Grandpa Gekko? Terribly tact on.

8/10

Would have been higher if not for the ending of the movie.

 

[batman11]

I went into this expecting it to be pretty bad based on the reviews, and I was pleasantly surprised. While it was somewhat far from the greatness of the first one, I will say that I did quite enjoy it.

One thing that stuck out to me was how much I liked Shia in this role. I wasn't expecting to like him so much, but I think he did a pretty good job. I bought into and became much more invested in the love story than I could have ever predicted. I really enjoyed that element of the movie.

Douglas was, as expected, great. He slipped back into Gordon with ease. I have no complaints about his performance. He was perfect. Especially, as mentioned, in the book scene, and during his emotional scene with Winnie. Regarding how the plot starts to twist towards the end of the film:

Spoiler

Although I genuinely wanted to believe that Gordon changed, the one thing that tipped me off was his hair. LOL. It was always so unkempt during the first two thirds of the film. I knew from the get-go that eventually, we'd see the old Gordon again, with his hair slicked back, the outfits, the swagger, etc. While I really did buy into his heart-to-heart with Winnie, I knew that as soon as he started looking for that $100 million, the happy couple was in trouble. That said, the predictability of it did nothing to diminish the "twist" for me. If anything, I wish Gordon was the "real Gordon" for a bit longer in the movie, and that he would have played a little bit of a bigger role in Brolin's character's downfall. I also liked the happy ending. Sure, I can see how some may vomit over it, but I'm a bit of a sap. LOL.

All in all, while not as fantastic as the first one, I really did enjoy the movie, and will probably watch it again eventually. Like most of you have said, the acting is what really lets it shine.

 

[rashad]

Fox Home Entertainment has announced DVD ($29.98) and Blu-ray ($39.99) releases of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps for December 21st. Extras on the DVD will include a commentary by director Oliver Stone, and A Conversation with Oliver Stone and the Cast of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. The Blu-ray release will include all of that plus a 5-part look at the real Wall Street ("Unfinished Business: Oliver Stone & Cast Revisit Wall Street", "Gordon Gekko is Back: Character Study", "Lifestyles of the Wall Street Rich and Infamous", "A Tour of the streets of Wall Street", "Trends, Schemes, and Economic Collapse - How did it Happen?"), deleted and extended scenes, an In Character With feature, and a digital copy of the film. Also available from the 21st will be a 2-pack DVD ($34.98) with the first film. We've attached the official package artwork for each release below: