Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
As the global economy teeters on the brink of disaster, a young Wall Street trader partners with disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko on a two tiered mission: To alert the financial community to the coming doom, and to find out who was responsible for the death of the young trader's mentor.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is a belated sequel that struggles to recapture the sharp, morally urgent energy of the original. The plot is overstuffed and melodramatic, mixing the 2008 financial crisis with a revenge subplot and family drama without fully convincing on any front. Douglas slides back into Gekko with some charisma, but the character is softened and narratively sidelined in ways that feel like a betrayal of what made him iconic. LaBeouf is serviceable but lacks the magnetism to carry the film. Stone's direction has moments of visual flair — kaleidoscopic market montages and stylized NYC imagery — but the cinematography is busy rather than distinctive. The film's engagement with the 2008 crash had some topical relevance at release but it doesn't illuminate the crisis with any genuine insight. The ending is particularly weak, opting for an unearned sentimental resolution that undercuts whatever cautionary tone the film was building toward.