My Mini-Review of Wall Street II-Wait Till I Get My Money Right aka Money Never Sleeps
Ok…take three. This is the third attempt I’ve had at writing this review. Aside from the T-Mobile debacle that took an entire morning to resolve, I’m working on something that is due by the end of the week that is so tedious I may have a drinking problem after resolving it. Going to keep this short and sweet since I’m still bitter (yup, I’m a grudge hoarder) about losing the previous attempt at a review.
The movie centers around Shia LaBeouf who plays a trader whose bank crashes and goes to work with the new badass villain played by James Brolin. Shia goes to seek revenge for his mentor, played by the always good Frank Langella (who you have to see the movie to see what happens but damn). He goes to seek his partner in revenge and meets with Gordon Gekko, who is now a finance writer and has been released after eight years in jail and who is also his girlfriend’s estranged father. So of course they both use each other Douglas to reconnect with his daughter and Shia to put Brolin under.
Now I understand the schlong battle between Brolin and LaBeouf but it’s clearly obvious that Brolin could slay this kid in real life but of course in the movie world Brolin’s character well you have go to go see what happens. The Ducati racing scene alone between them was basically a whip it out and measure battle.
Does Shia manipulate Gekko to help him take down Brolin? Does Gekko get the heartwarming reconciliation with his daughter? You just gotta go check out.
Shiz that I Loved/Hated
Brolin had the Goya painting “Saturn Devouring His Son”. Brilliant placement in his office adds another level of intimidation by Brolin as a villain. Since Humanities was one of my majors, I knew it right off the bat.
<pats self on back>
Charlie Sheen cameo….really? I mean if his appearance was a sandwich at a deli, it was so bad that I would send it back. It was difficult to watch.
Michael Douglas is the GOAT. Seriously, how long has it been since the last movie? He’s still captivating as ever and it’s hard to take your eyes off him. He’s definitely gotten better with age and his hair, yes I said it his hair was a sub-character and seemed to follow him around like a mood ring waiting to change upon how he was feeling. Even though the element of him being a father will soften him, his core is still the name, always with the “game can be fixed” mentality and that’s why the Gordon Gekko character still holds up.
Shia, ehh. I know that this was supposed to be his first big boy role but I think lacked cajones to run with the big boys like Douglas and Brolin. His performance was bit underwhelming but the whole bright eyed factor was there, he had it but left me wanting a bit more gusto from him and dare I say he was a bit boring.
Let me not forget…the suits!! The suits we’re definitely a properly developed character in the film. The costume designer who died earlier this summer, you can tell definitely used all his resources to make them stand out. The perfection in the suits, matched the tailoring and the intricacies in the details, you know I was in heaven. Well done Michael Dennison. I mean…have you ever walked by Wall Street and see those boys ahem men. Men walking down Wall Street in their suits is the equivalent of a woman looking fly walking down Madison Avenue. FACT.
Overall it was a pretty rich movie. Lots of drama filled this movie, financial, father-daughter, political and romance, and although there was no need to some of it, it was pretty entertaining. Visually it was stunning, the work of Oscar-nominated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and the soundtrack by David Byre and Brian Eno added a nice touch to it. Somebody asked me if they should go see “The Town” or “Wall Street”….”The Town” for sure. I know lots of people might get dragged down by the financial business theme of “Wall Street” but it was still damn good.
The guy I went to go see it with has been in the trading/banking business for the last 10 years so his excitement for the film surpassed mine. Luckily he was able to explain to me certain things about the film that I wouldn’t have had any idea about. Like the way that the firms in the movie mirrored specific companies and how the background to the bank buyouts resembled those as well. Now it’s not that I’m an idiot and couldn’t have figured these things out on my own but my extensive experience that I’ve had with banks was how to get out of an overdraft charge taken off but it doesn’t take a genius to know that the what the bankers did pre-bailout was pull the biggest heist in our time AND they got billions after. WTF. Modern criminals at their best. *Sidenote* It’s a lovely thing to have a guy explain something to you that your knowledge is limited on. Especially if it’s something that they are passionate about, they want to rein you into what they know and there is a certain excitement for them about it. It’s kinda sexy.
I won’t bore you with the details of our dinner at Tao after (I’m still dreaming of the Fortune Cookie dessert we had). We have a convo about what greed really is. Is greed really good/bad? Greed can be that thing that keeps you working hard on a passion, it can be that drive that keeps you pushing to finish, it cuts through the bullshit that may try to stifle you and keeps pressing on. Certain forms of greed aren’t that bad and few of us are/seem capable or curing this “addiction” but the true evil is unbounded greed…that is the succubus.
