Oh Sally Sparrow, I love you so.I went to the movies on Saturday with every intention of seeing the new Ben Affleck flick "The Town." Much to my surprise the two seven o'clock showings were sold out, despite this being its second week in theaters. (That may have something to do with my trying to see the movie in Boston, where the only thing we love more in life than sports is movies that make our citizens look like hardened gangsters.) Rather than wait around an hour for the next showing, I took a quick look at what else was playing and decided to check out Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
The previews had looked promising enough, at least as promising as any twenty year old sequel featuring Shia Labeouf can look. Michael Douglas was back as Gordon Gecko, with Oliver Stone directing, though the script was not by him. It plays largely like a remake of the first movie, with Shia standing for Charlie Sheen, Josh Brolin in the corporate raider role, and the mortgage crisis taking the place of insider training. This part of the story is fairly paint by numbers, but it was mostly redeemed by the other aspects of the story. Its basically a fictionalized version of the collapse of Lehman Bros, and the bursting of the housing bubble. The scenes that take place in the Fed board room are fascinating and feel like something out the Godfather. They even feature the fantastic Eli Wallach, who played a mafia Don in the otherwise forgettable Godfather Part III. It's reminiscent of Stone's other heightened history films like "W." "JFK" and "Nixon", and I gladly could have watched a whole film based around these scenes.
The other factor the film has going for it is Michael Douglas as Gecko. He's spent eight of the last twenty years locked up for his crimes, and the remaining years remaking himself into an author and cable news guest staple. After Shia looses his mentor at the beginning of the film he seeks Gecko out, ostensibly to reunite him with his estranged daughter, but what Shia really wants is someone to Sherpa him through the underworld of Wall Street. The film tries to play coy with Gecko's real motivations, I won't spoil what it is, but you shouldn't be surprised. I will say a last second "twist" feels tacked on, as if the producers were afraid to commit to the logical ending to story. Which is really too bad, as the scene that preceded, Gecko, alone in his office, staring at the gift Shia had given him would have been a powerful end for the character.
Overall, I'd rate the movie a B-. It's a sequel that no one was clamoring for, but its not the disaster it could have been.
The previews had looked promising enough, at least as promising as any twenty year old sequel featuring Shia Labeouf can look. Michael Douglas was back as Gordon Gecko, with Oliver Stone directing, though the script was not by him. It plays largely like a remake of the first movie, with Shia standing for Charlie Sheen, Josh Brolin in the corporate raider role, and the mortgage crisis taking the place of insider training. This part of the story is fairly paint by numbers, but it was mostly redeemed by the other aspects of the story. Its basically a fictionalized version of the collapse of Lehman Bros, and the bursting of the housing bubble. The scenes that take place in the Fed board room are fascinating and feel like something out the Godfather. They even feature the fantastic Eli Wallach, who played a mafia Don in the otherwise forgettable Godfather Part III. It's reminiscent of Stone's other heightened history films like "W." "JFK" and "Nixon", and I gladly could have watched a whole film based around these scenes.
The other factor the film has going for it is Michael Douglas as Gecko. He's spent eight of the last twenty years locked up for his crimes, and the remaining years remaking himself into an author and cable news guest staple. After Shia looses his mentor at the beginning of the film he seeks Gecko out, ostensibly to reunite him with his estranged daughter, but what Shia really wants is someone to Sherpa him through the underworld of Wall Street. The film tries to play coy with Gecko's real motivations, I won't spoil what it is, but you shouldn't be surprised. I will say a last second "twist" feels tacked on, as if the producers were afraid to commit to the logical ending to story. Which is really too bad, as the scene that preceded, Gecko, alone in his office, staring at the gift Shia had given him would have been a powerful end for the character.
Overall, I'd rate the movie a B-. It's a sequel that no one was clamoring for, but its not the disaster it could have been.
No comments:
Post a Comment