Movie Review: Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps

I was fortunate enough to be invited by the organizers from the 20th Century Fox (Philippines) to the movie premiere and press screening of the much anticipated sequel to the 1987 film "Wall Street" entitled, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" starring Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Frank Langella, Josh Brolin, and Michael Douglas who reprises his Academy Award winning performance from the old "Wall Street" movie as Gordon Gekko.

The day September 23, 2010, will now be in the history of MovieNews.Me as it is the first time our website was invited to a movie premiere exclusively for press and celebrity screenings. We at MovieNews.Me were so excited about the movie premiere we immediately cleared all our commitments that day to attend the premiere night and not to miss this once in a lifetime experience. Because of the trust that the 20th Century Fox Philippines gave us, we would like to extend our sincerest gratitude for giving us this opportunity. Here at MovieNews.Me, we promise you to give you relevant movie news that only matters to you! And now for the movie review of "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps".

About the Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps is a 2010 American movie drama written by Stephen Schiff, screenplayed by Allan Loeb, and story conceptualized by Bryan Burrough based from the characters that writer Stanley Weiser and director Oliver Stone created in the 1987 film, "Wall Street" starring Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas. The film is directed by Oliver Stone himself. It is set in the same old Wall Street with a modern twist and Michael Douglas reprises his role as the ever-scheming Gordon Gekko.

Shia LaBeouf, the guy lead to the hugely successful car-transforming robots, "The Transformers" was casted by director Oliver Stone to play the role of Jacob "Jake" Moore. According to Stone, Shia reminded him of a young Tom Cruise having the same drive, work ethic, and energy in making films. LaBeouf is the best artist to play the role of Jake. According to LaBeouf, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" is a breath of fresh air because he's been doing fantasy films lately (Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). He wanted to do something new, and getting this project with director Oliver Stone really hits the jackpot. On the side note, Charlie Sheen made a cameo appearance also reprising his role as Bud Fox.

Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps summary/plot/synopsis

The film is set 21 years after the first film, in the year 2008, when Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is starting to promote his new book, entitled "Greed is Good" and has been out of prison for seven years already. Despite his attempts to warn the people from Wall Street for the forthcoming financial crisis (it will be remembered that the year 2008 was the crucial year for world markets because of the US recession), no one ever believed him from the business sectors because of his reputation for committing financial crimes in the past. Because of this, Gekko decided to just focus and fix his broken relationships with his estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan).

Meanwhile, a young trader named Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), is an ambitious employee who works for Keller Zabel, an investment bank in United States. He is engaged to Winnie and is expecting a love child. When his boss and mentor, Lewis Zabel (Frank Langella) committed a suicide, Jake Moore suspects that the hedge fund manager Bretton James (Josh Brolin) was behind all of this financial turmoils. He then seeks for revenge with the help of his new-found mentor Gordon Gekko, in an exchange for helping the latter with his daughter.

Movie Review: Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps

Deception, manipulation, and greed — these are the three words that I can say best describe the totally of the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

Money is all about deception which can lead someone to act foolishly. Foolishness would lead to manipulation of people and wanting for more. Wanting to do or have more would only lead to greed. Which lead us to the conclusion that truly is, money is the root of all evil and money really never sleeps.

Michael Douglas returns as a cold-hearted, manipulative, ever-scheming, money-hunger kingpin showing only that the movie did not have its redemption from the first "Wall Street" film. However, the film clearly created a realm where Gordon Gekko is the king, but at the same time he is also the victim to the this entire money deception. His acting is quite dominant than the rest of cast, even surpassing the character of Shia LaBeouf. His mere presence on-screen would tell you that "Hey, I am Gordon Gekko, greed is good, and I am one!" kind of thing.

Shia LaBeouf on the other hand is charming to look at on the screen, maybe his child-like features would tell us so, or maybe we will always remember him as the guy from that car-transforming robot movie who dated a very hot sexy vixen. His portrayal as Jake Moore could have been better he could have been a little buff or something that you can separate him from his previous role, perhaps like Topher Grace in Spiderman 3, away from his skinny teeny-bopper role in "That's 70's Show". But I think, Shia LaBeouf would fit the role very well. My image of Jake Moore is more like of his features, than that of Topher Grace.

Carey Mulligan's Winnie role could have been better if she portrays the woman behind the man's success kind of role thing. But because of her 'issues' with her father whom she still blames because of the suicide of her brother in the first "Wall Street" film years ago, her character did not shine well. However, it is forgivable because her character asks her to do so. The other characters are quite impressive, and of course, manipulative as well, I am just looking for some bipolar characters in the movie, unfortunately, I did not find any.

There are some scenes that I like in the movie that really retained in my mind. I like the scene where the directors of different financial institutions gathered around as they solve the problems in the stock market. And the turning point scene of Jake Moore in the movie which you should watch out, because that is quite scary, heart-pounding, and realistic!

Technically speaking, Director Oliver Stone has done a great job despite the fact of different negative reviews of the film. His depictions of modern Wall Street is quite visual, the setting of the film is believable for the moviegoers like me. I just don't like the graphics where everyone on the market is talking to each other when they have received a rumor through email somewhere in the film.

I would like to praise the writers of the film for doing a great job for their research on green energy. Call me bias but promoting green energy rocks!

Even though I haven't watched the first "Wall Street" movie yet, I still would say that the movie "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" is independent from the first one. It has different storyline and plot, but the elements of deception, manipulation, and greed revolving around one source of evil, which is the money, is a movie that is okay to watch, just don't expect some intimate scenes because they don't have them with it.

Overall, the movie "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" gets a high rating to me of 90% out of 100%. The movie may have lack of something that is hard to find, but if you just focus on the plot and money that revolves around the storyline, you will find yourself saying that this movie can also kick some ass.

Photos are provided by 20th Century Fox Philippines. If you want to watch movie trailer of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, you may want to click on the link below. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is showing in theaters on September 29, 2010.

• Watch the trailer of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.