Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps - Movie Review

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Before I saw the film, I told my roommates that I was going to watch the Wall Street movie. All of them then said that it was really good but when I said it was the second one, they said it was pretty bad compared to the first one. After viewing it, I completely agreed with them.

"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" revolves around a young adult named Jacob Moore, who is played by Shia LaBeouf. As a trader at Wall Street, he idolized Louis Zabel, played by Frank Langella, and considered him to be a father-figure. However, when Zabel kills himself by jumping in front of an oncoming train after being refused to be bailed out by Bretton James, the leader of a rival firm called Churchill Schwartz, Moore focuses on seeking revenge for those responsible for the death of Zabel. He spreads false rumors about Churchill Schwartz that cost the firm over $100 million. Bretton is impressed by Jacob's resiliency and offers him a job. Eventually, Moore is able to make his girlfriend Winnie give $100 million to Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, so that he can fund an investment in a fusion research company. However, Gekko receives the money and runaways to London with it. In the end, with the help of his girlfriend Winnie, Moore is able to get Bretton fired because of a story that exposed all of the firm's wrongdoings. The concluding scenes show Gekko returning and saying that he deposited the $100 million and everyone was happy.

The first half hour-or so of the movie was very promising. The opening where we see Gekko being released from prison made me think that the movie will be very controversial with a lot of action going on when in fact it had none. After the scene where Zabel kills himself, the movie starts to go downhill because it gets very boring. The relationship between Moore and Winnie seems to slow down the movie, as well. Overall, the movie was longer than I had imagined and the director, Oliver Stone, could have substituted some scenes with more interesting ones. "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" had potential but it failed to deliver. If it had cut down on some of the storylines, especially with the girl, and focus more on Moore's revenge against Bretton, the film could have done a lot better. After watching this, hopefully the first Wall Street movie is better because as we all know, the original is usually better than the sequels.

Wall Street is depicted as a very tough and intense working environment. In the beginning, we see all the traders on the phone talking to others about the financial situation and whether they should buy or sell. It was very hectic and busy, as it should be. Therefore, this movie depicted Wall Street very well, which was one of the few positives in the movie. However, it might have been over exaggerated how someone would kill himself when he was about to file for bankruptcy.

Fordham