“Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps” Money Talks, Too

“Money Talks, Too”

“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS is the sequel to the 1987 WALL STREET, also directed by Oliver Stone and starring Michael Douglas in his Academy Award-winning performance as shady financier Gordon Gekko.

In fact, this film opens in 2001, and Gekko has spent almost eight years in prison for insider trading. He is released, given back the personal belongings he had when he went in–one of which causes a laugh from today’s audience–and there is absolutely no one to greet him on the outside.

Then it is seven years later, and Gekko has written a book entitled IS GREED GOOD? which is a reference to his famous statement in the first film.

Meanwhile, we meet young Jake Moore, played by Shia LaBeouf, a hotshot investment banker on Wall Street. His girlfriend is Winnie, played by Carey Mulligan, who just happens to be the estranged daughter of Gordon Gekko, and she even refuses to watch him being interviewed on television.

Jake is given a “spot bonus” check of over $1 million by his boss for his work, but this is just before the crisis that sent stocks plummeting.

Jake’s boss is Louis Zabel, the managing partner of an investment bank and played by Frank Langella. Jake asks Louis, “Are we going under?” and is told that is the wrong question. The right question is “Who isn’t?”

So, when their firm does fail, Jake goes behind Winnie’s back to seek out Gekko for some advice and learns that the man probably responsible, Bretton James, played menacingly by Josh Brolin, has a “history” both with Jake’s boss and with Gekko himself. Both of them now have a reason to seek revenge on James, but Gekko needs some money to play with.

The story hits close to home in a lot of ways both personal and professional, and Mulligan is simply great in her role, whereas LaBeouf isn’t so bad himself. Of course, Douglas is always good, and Stone must be laughing all the way to the Academy Awards next year.

Just as “Greed is good” is a shortened version of what was really said in the first film, “Money never sleeps” is also a shortened version of what Gekko says.

WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS also brings to mind “Money talks, but all it says around me is “Goodbye.”

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”