Director Oliver Stone wanted to do a film about the recent financial crisis. So rather than making a new film he has decided to do a sequel to his previous work.
He says it is not a sequel but it is. I think Oliver is getting soft in his old age. He used to make hard hitting films about real events but his recent films have been anything but. This film is the perfect example. I think it would work fine if it was not related to the first film. It does not tell you anything you did not already know about Wall Street and how ruthless the people who work there can be. I will admit that most of the financial language I did not understand but I was able to get the gist to know what was going on. As further proof of Oliver's softness is the story he has given his famous villain Gordon Gekko. Gordon has a daughter involved in the story so it makes him softer and more relate able. I suppose that can be a good thing where you learn to not see him as a ruthless money grubber. But it also means the villain role is passed to someone else. But he can still be bad.
I've always been a fan of Michael Douglas and look forward to seeing him in anything. Gordon Gekko is probably one of his most memorable characters and so he does a very good job here. Shia LaBeouf is not an actor that impresses me. He has not really done anything I'd rate as being great. When he's not living in the shadow of famous older characters he is being chased by robots. Everyone is raving about Carey Mulligan but I'm not that impressed yet. I see potential and hope she does more challenging roles in the future. Josh Brolin makes a nice villain though.
An enjoyable drama but not as great as the first film. We do not learn anything about finance that we did not already know. But we do learn more about an old favourite.
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