Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps

Yes, 'Money Never Sleeps' really is the title. Does this sound like a Bond-spoof to anyone else? Good lord.

So, here we are in 2010 with two different sequels to originals made in 1987. Predators was first (which to be fair, never really went away, what with sequels and comic books enough to fill Lucas Oil Stadium).

The second is the sequel to 'Wall Street,' a film which I have yet to see but it currently sitting at #16 on my Netflix queue. Despite never having seen all of it, I am familiar with Gordon Gekko, his famous, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good..." speech, and the scene where Charlie Sheen is led past all of his co-workers in hand cuffs. I will be sure to catch it before the sequel hits.

Caught the trailer over the weekend at (ironically) a showing of Predators and it occurred to me this is a good trailer to review.

Featuring the return of Michael Douglas to his iconic role, the cast now includes Josh Brolin and Shia LeBeouf, who looks very interesting in the part of Charlie Sheen. In all seriousness, I enjoy LeBeouf. I enjoy his twitchiness and that he is the embodiment of the fact that geeks rule the world. Anyone who doubts me, watch Transformers and notice how despite being an action star in the sweatiest Michael Bay movie of them all, he is far too anxious and jumpy to be cool. Which just makes him cool.

The trailer only tells enough of the plot to learn that Gekko is released from prison, Shia is about to marry his daughter (who hates her father) and that Gekko is up to his old tricks, and pulls an Emperor/Anakin Skywalker relationship with the kid.

Whether Shia LeBeouf doesn't get the high-ground during his climactic fight with Obi-Wan, resulting in severed limbs and a giant black iron lung remains to be seen.

Either way, the trailer plays out well, even though it does run a bit long, and brilliantly features the Rolling Stones' 'Sympathy for the Devil' during the great majority of its run-time. Entirely appropriate if you a) know the character of Gordon Gekko or b) are Oliver Stone and are trying to say something about Wall Street in general.

Performances and technical specs look like they will be solid across the board, as tends to be the case with Oliver Stone.

Despite the previously-mentioned run-time of the trailer that could benefit from having about 10 seconds cut out of the middle, the return of Gordon Gekko looks promising, and we can only hope he gets what is (once again) coming to him. Before he turns Shia to the dark side, of course.

This earns an "In Theaters."

Until next time!