“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” is a film directed by Oliver Stone that was released into theaters Sept. 24, 2010. This movie is the sequel of the movie “Wall Street” which was released into theaters in 1987. The film was rated PG-13 and was nominated for the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. The run time for this movie is two hours and seven minutes.
After being incarcerated for seven years, Gordon Gekko is released after serving his sentence for insider trading, only to find no one waiting on him when he gets out. Hungry for success and money again, he does anything he can to get back on top – even if it ruins his important relationships. Gekko gets a chance to relive the old days and has to choose between money and time.
Gordon Gekko, played by Micheal Douglas, is the distant father and businessman with a tarnished reputation and ulterior motives. His daughter Winnie, played by Carey Mulligan, is a girl whose heart is hardened and doesn’t want to forgive her father. She blames him for the death of her brother Rudy, who died of a drug overdose.
Jacob “Jake” Moore, played by rising star Shia LaBeouf, is a determined young man who wants to make a name for himself amongst the Wall Street traders, and has taken it upon himself to take down the men responsible for driving his mentor to suicide.
Lewis Zabel, played by Frank Langella, was Jake’s mentor who committed suicide after selling the stock of his company for practically pennies, leaving his company in ruins and many people without jobs.
Bretton James, played by Josh Brolin, is a company manager who gives Moore a job because he feels that Jake would be a good addition to his team. This is a perfect chance for Jake to get closer to the man he thinks is responsible for the death of his mentor while also furthering his career.
During the movie, Moore was continuously trying to advocate for green energy, whereas the other people he worked with were invested in oil. They could make more money with oil because it isn’t renewable. Jake was working with a scientist to try and fund his research on a new green type of energy that took sea water and used fusion to produce energy.
I liked the transitions and different camera angles used in the movie. All throughout the movie, the stock market line graphs became cityscapes with matching rises and falls. I thought it was really interesting how that was done.
I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars. The end was a little cliché, but it was a happy one. Throughout the movie, right up until the end, you didn’t really know what was going to happen next. You would think one thing was about to happen, but it didn’t. But when everything started crumbling around them and things looked like they wouldn’t be resolved, they did get resolved.
I liked how the movie tried to shed light on the Hollywood-version of the current financial situations. I would recommend this movie most to people who somewhat understand the concept of the stock market and Wall Street. Having known very little about the stock market and Wall Street made parts of this movie a bit confusing for me, but overall it was a pretty good movie.