Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. (15.)
Directed by Oliver Stone.
Starring Shia Labeouf, Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Frank Langella, Eli Wallach, Susan Sarandon. 133 mins
Of all the sad sack, lame brained sequels that have been foisted on us, why would anyone consider that now was the time for Wall Street 2? Twenty three years ago Gekko captured a mood and coined a few good catchphrases (“Greed is good,” “lunch is for wimps.”) But then so did Loadsamoney and you don’t see Harry Enfield dragging him back.
The original Wall Street was a fairly midrange product that struck lucky; expecting the same thing to happen again seems absurd. Following a successful film there is a limited period in which it is seemly to make a sequel, after that it smacks of desperation.
Compare this to the Colour of Money, a quarter-century-on continuation of The Hustler. That may have been a shadow of the original but at least Newman had some new dimensions to add to his Fast Eddie characterisation, as well as getting the Oscar he deserved for the original. Douglas already has his Oscar and has nothing new to add to Gekko other than lighter hair.
The pretext for bringing him back is the credit crunch but the terrible thing is that Gekko just doesn’t resonate anymore, there’s no excitement or even interest in seeing him back on the screen. When he turns nasty he’s like a pantomime villain, Captain Hook puffing out his chest as the children boo and hiss him or Dirty Den returning to the Queen Vic.
It’s not just Gekko whose time has passed; this film also demonstrates that the period of Oliver Stone being a front line director is firmly over. The bold, bombastic, reckless Stone of the 80s/90s has been replaced with the dull, responsible Noughties Stone. His handling of Wall Street 2 is sluggish and clumsy. His big visual metaphor for the speculative bubble that finally burst in 2008 is, er, bubbles. When the market crashes he illustrates it with a line of dominoes falling. Even ITN wouldn’t resort to an image that hackneyed.
He isn’t to blame for a script that mixes incomprehensible economics with all too comprehensible soap operatics, but he is for having it drag on for over one hundred and thirty three long and winding minutes. It sits there as if just by virtue of being Wall Street 2 it somehow warrants respect, but it delivers neither entertaining drama nor any kind of insight.
And it’s so boring. I saw this in an audience of five people and you’ve never seen or heard so much fidgeting and phone checking. As this bloated, outmoded, over staffed, unproductive institution rambles tediously on you yearn for some ruthless venture capitalist to swoop in and hack away all the waste and excess.
Directed by Oliver Stone.
Starring Shia Labeouf, Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Frank Langella, Eli Wallach, Susan Sarandon. 133 mins
Of all the sad sack, lame brained sequels that have been foisted on us, why would anyone consider that now was the time for Wall Street 2? Twenty three years ago Gekko captured a mood and coined a few good catchphrases (“Greed is good,” “lunch is for wimps.”) But then so did Loadsamoney and you don’t see Harry Enfield dragging him back.
The original Wall Street was a fairly midrange product that struck lucky; expecting the same thing to happen again seems absurd. Following a successful film there is a limited period in which it is seemly to make a sequel, after that it smacks of desperation.
Compare this to the Colour of Money, a quarter-century-on continuation of The Hustler. That may have been a shadow of the original but at least Newman had some new dimensions to add to his Fast Eddie characterisation, as well as getting the Oscar he deserved for the original. Douglas already has his Oscar and has nothing new to add to Gekko other than lighter hair.
The pretext for bringing him back is the credit crunch but the terrible thing is that Gekko just doesn’t resonate anymore, there’s no excitement or even interest in seeing him back on the screen. When he turns nasty he’s like a pantomime villain, Captain Hook puffing out his chest as the children boo and hiss him or Dirty Den returning to the Queen Vic.
It’s not just Gekko whose time has passed; this film also demonstrates that the period of Oliver Stone being a front line director is firmly over. The bold, bombastic, reckless Stone of the 80s/90s has been replaced with the dull, responsible Noughties Stone. His handling of Wall Street 2 is sluggish and clumsy. His big visual metaphor for the speculative bubble that finally burst in 2008 is, er, bubbles. When the market crashes he illustrates it with a line of dominoes falling. Even ITN wouldn’t resort to an image that hackneyed.
He isn’t to blame for a script that mixes incomprehensible economics with all too comprehensible soap operatics, but he is for having it drag on for over one hundred and thirty three long and winding minutes. It sits there as if just by virtue of being Wall Street 2 it somehow warrants respect, but it delivers neither entertaining drama nor any kind of insight.
And it’s so boring. I saw this in an audience of five people and you’ve never seen or heard so much fidgeting and phone checking. As this bloated, outmoded, over staffed, unproductive institution rambles tediously on you yearn for some ruthless venture capitalist to swoop in and hack away all the waste and excess.
