NOW PLAYING at East Towne Cinemas.

“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”

Twentieth Century Fox presents a film directed by Oliver Stone. Screenplay by Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff based on characters by Stone and Stanley Weiser. Running time: 133 minutes. Rated PG-13 for brief strong language and thematic elements.

“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” like many of Oliver Stone’s movies in the recent past, has a lot of things going for it but somehow can’t eek Stone out of trend of mediocrity.Cast & Credits
Michael Douglas ….. Gordon Gekko
Shia LaBeouf ……… Jake Moore
Carey Mulligan ……. Winnie Gekko
Josh Brolin ………… Bretton James
Frank Langella ……. Louis Zabel

Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, and Carey Mulligan star in the continuation of the 1987 film “Wall Street” of which only Douglas headlined, as a daddy/son-in-law/daughter triangle along with a new nemesis played by Josh Brolin.

Like most of Stone’s films as of late—W., World Trade Center, South of the Border—”Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” tackles on a piece of recent history, The Crash of 2008, almost immediately after it’s occurred.

And, Stone’s blend of history and fiction is effective and culturally necessary. The biggest strength of the film is how he handles the financial jargon. There are few dull moments even as characters seemingly never stop going over financial positions and figures.

The content of the crash is given a quick refresher in a semi-journalistic approach as to not bore the audience with a history lesson most every audience member is familiar with.

But, as far as the action, there are some extremely cheesy moments—a LaBeouf and Josh Brolin (Bretton James) motorcycle race—however they are few and quickly forgotten when matched with beautifully acted drama between LaBeouf and Mulligan
and Mulligan and Douglas.

LaBeouf is given the most of the on-screen time but doesn’t seem to ever overcome Douglas’ presence. Not that he needs to, or can.

The film lacks any sort of edge other than a matter of plot. The former Wall Street capitalist and white-collar criminal’s daughter runs an extremely leftist news blog.

It’s terribly commercial—a huge production without a story to match its size in terms of dramatic weight.

There’s a lot of money being thrown around throughout the entirety of the movie without enough emotion to back it up.

Again, there are certain, specific, but yet few great qualities about “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” There’s just not quite enough bite or drama in the material to push the wonderfully blended and culturally significant story over the edge and into greatness.