It has been 23 years since Oliver Stone originally introduced us to Gordon Gekko and probably 10 years since Stone has put out a decent movie. The man is best when he is angry about something. Right now America is mad about two things, the building of a mosque at the site of an old Burlington Coat Factory and the economy. But I doubt Stone is very angry about his economic stature and it shows in his sequel with one of the worst subtitles I've seen since Cradle 2 The Grave.Michael Douglas reprises his academy award winning role as the Wall Street investor who declared at a stock holders meeting that 'greed is good." The book his character writes is titled, "Is Greed Good?" which seems to be theme of the story even though that question was answered in the first movie, and in much better fashion. But with so much star power the movie is still able to deliver some pop.
Shia LeBeouf takes the Charlie Sheen role in this one as the young investor looking to make a buck himself. And while there is not much difference between his character and the money hungry investors he works with, Stone tries to differentiate his character, Jake, by implying that he has a stopping point, that once he makes a certain amount of money he will be able to walk away. He has also attached himself to fusion energy in order to help the environment, so he can't be all bad. LeBeouf finally seems to find an adult role I don't hate him in. Or maybe my natural distrust of investors and my animosity towards them make LeBeouf the perfect match for a character that seems likeable and yet still somehow a dick.
The story is at its best when it is discussing some of the issues of the market collapse, and while some of the dialogue still went over my head I understood that there are a lot of greedy men out there who are using my money to get rich by betting on me to fail. Josh Brolin plays Bretton James, this movie's antagonist and a modern day Gekko, while the actually Gekko seems to be the moral center of the sleazebags. Bretton James is using the tricks that made headlines months ago to make most of his money. Brolin is very slick and conniving in the role and seeing as his recent movie, Jonah Hex, flopped as hard as it did it is easy to see why he wasn't out there promoting it with Douglas and LeBeouf.
The movie gets murky when it dives outside the economic pool into sub plots featuring romance, marriage, a baby and such. Carey Mulligan does most of the heavy lifting in this aspect of the film which is unfortunate as she is a wonderful actress but there is nothing she can do to save this aspect of the film. Stone, as do many people, see there is some evil goings on in the current economic system and he has something to say about it. Much like The Other Guys he doesn't want to come out and scream it at you, but rather insert some theatricality at you and hope you take something away. The Other Guys does this much better, as towards the end of the film you can see Stone screaming there is more important things than money.
The movie is kind of all over the place with the combo of business life and personal life. The reason this movie gets a sequel is due to the similarities this country faced in the early eighties, same cast of characters just a different plot. Except I hear that story everyday on CNBC with an ensemble cast starring Jim Crammer, who is way more freighting and awful to me than any character a writer can dream up. If you need to see a well done story about the d-bags on Wall Street see the original movie. The sequel is a fun movie but the wayward plot loses some of the fury that made the first one a classic. C+
No comments:
Post a Comment