The Town – Movie Trailer
Oct 1st
Boston bank robber Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) falls for a woman his gang had previously taken hostage after feigning a chance meeting with her to ensure that she can’t identify them in Affleck’s adaptation of author Chuck Hogan’s novel Prince of Thieves. The son of a tough Charlestown, MA thief, Doug passed on his chance to walk the straight and narrow in favor of becoming a career bank robber. Not only is Doug’s crew one of the most ruthless in Boston, but they’re also one of the best; they never leave a trace of evidence, and always make a clean break. Over the years, Doug’s fearless partners in crime have become something of a surrogate family to him; Jem (Jeremy Renner), the most dangerous of the bunch, is the closest thing Doug has ever had to a brother. But a divide begins to open between the two career criminals when Jem takes bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) hostage during a particularly tense heist, and the group subsequently discovers that she hails from their own tight-knit suburb. When Jem proposes that the gang make an effort to find out just how much Claire recalls about the crime, Doug fears that his volatile partner may do more harm than good and volunteers himself for the job. Later, Doug turns on the charm while pretending to bump into Claire by chance, and becomes convinced that she doesn’t suspect him of being the same man who just robbed her bank. As the feds turn up the heat on the gang, Doug finds himself falling for Claire, and searching desperately for a means of cutting his ties to his criminal past. But with each passing day, Jem grows increasingly suspicious of Doug’s true motivations. Now caught between two worlds with no chance of turning back, Doug realizes that his only hope for finding a happy future is to betray the only family he’s ever known.
“Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps” Money Talks, Too
Sep 30th
“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.”
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps – Movie Trailer
Sep 29th
“Greed is Good.” This is the credo of the aptly named Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), the antihero of Oliver Stone’s Wall Street. Gekko, a high-rolling corporate raider, is idolized by young-and-hungry broker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen). Inveigling himself into Gekko’s inner circle, Fox quickly learns to rape, murder and bury his sense of ethics. Only when Gekko’s wheeling and dealing causes a near-tragedy on a personal level does Fox “reform”-though his means of destroying Gekko are every bit as underhanded as his previous activities on the trading floor. Director Stone, who cowrote Wall Street with Stanley Weiser, has claimed that the film was prompted by the callous treatment afforded his stockbroker father after 50 years in the business; this may be why the film’s most compelling scenes are those between Bud Fox and his airline mechanic father (played by Charlie Sheen’s real-life dad Martin). Ironically, Wall Street was released just before the October, 1987 stock market crash.
