Jordan Minter Reviews: WALL STREET : MONEY NEVER SLEEPS

Starring Michael Douglas and Shia LeBoef

The roll that won Michael Douglas an Academy award a few decades ago is brought back to life in this Oliver Stone sequel and for the life of me I cannot figure out why.
Some of this movie borrows from the headlines of the past few years and the collapse of the financial district and the other parts borrow from High School Musical.
People spread rumours and gossip about the ones they hate, promises are broken and friendships go south. Lives are destroyed and fortunes are made and then ruined.
Shia LeBoef does a reliable job playing a reluctant hero as he has in every single thing he has done before this. We get a tease of Gordon Gekko getting released from prison in the opening credits but then we have to wait more than half an hour before he shows up again as Stone tries to make you care for the younger characters this time around. You don't. Another thing you wont care for courtesy of Mr Stone are his version of hi tech special effects and imagery peppered through out the film. You could have actually made this a 3D movie with all of his smoke and mirror nonsense. Maybe it would have cured my boredom.
I did however spring back to life at one point when a very pleasant and surprising cameo popped up out of the blue. But alas at that point I had already given up and I could not be saved.
All I could think about during this one was the fact that Michael Douglas has stage 4 tongue cancer in real life from a lifetime of drinking and smoking and they sort of glorified that aspect of his lifestyle in the movie. They even used the C word 3 times during the film as it related to peoples behaviour and such. It was kind of tough to watch him chomp on expensive cigars and drink with every meal knowing what we do now. Do you suppose he gives a shit in real life that this sort of portrayal will lead to people wanting to emulate that lifestyle? It probably hasn't even occurred to him.
Oh yeah, Susan Surrandon is also in this one and guess what...she smokes too. Way to go Hollywood.
This movie bored me to the point that I almost left but to be honest with you the popcorn was very good and so I stayed to finish the bag. It was overlong and in my opinion should have been an Oliver Stone documentary on the actual financial meltdown of late. That would be worth watching.

Rating 1 1/2 bail outs out of 5