Its 2008, the American economy is in shambles and Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is out of jail.  Gordon Gekko has written a book on his times as a money man and is out trying to make a life for himself again.  Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is a young investment banker who’s planning on marrying Winnie Gekko (Carrie Mulligan).  Jake is trying to put his life in the fast lane while at the same time trying to help Gordon repair his broken relationship with his estranged daughter that he hasn’t seen in over a decade.

Full disclosure: I have yet to see the original film in this franchise, Wall Street, so I went into this film blind.  All I knew is that Douglas played a trader who went to jail for insider trading, and that’s all you really need to know.  The movie begins with him being released from jail in 2001, and then quickly jumps to 2008 where the economy is crashing all over and he’s trying to hustle a dollar through this book he wrote.

The main story line of this film is Gordon Gekko’s resurgence in the world.  However, we end up spending so much time following Jake and his aspirations of being the next youngest billionaire that we never get enough time with Gekko to get his real deal.  It becomes even more muddled once we insert Bretton James (Josh Brolin) and this completely useless bike fetish which culminates in this one really boring race between the two.

Does the film comment on the economy? Yes, but with a limited interest.  The point of this film isn’t to depress its viewers even more, who probably know more than most about how terrible the US (and world) economy was two years ago, and still is today.  I think the only time that I got a feeling like the world was really coming to an end as we knew it was early on when we saw the plotline for Louis Zabel (Frank Langella).  It’s a moment that you realise that there probably is no hope for the banking world anymore and the only thing that’s probably best to do is what most countries do when their economy hits rock bottom; wait for it to hit rock bottom and start all over again.

Oliver Stone is one of those directors that I’ve never taken a real liking to.  I’ve also not seen too many of his films.  However, my problem with him is how unrecognizable he makes his films to me.  It never feels like he brings anything to the table other than what a first year student would do, try to make it the scene speak for itself and not try to muddle the content.  This isn’t a bad tactic sometimes, especially when the film is filled with so many factors that you can barely notice them all on first viewing, but this isn’t one of those kinds of movies.  It felt like a lot of unneeded flavouring when it came to dialogue, especially since 90% of that dialogue was of Jake or Gordon (or some other minor character) trying to sell me – and their clients – on a product/business to invest in.  It just felt unnecessary.

The truth of the matter is that I was a lot more interested in Gordon’s reuniting with his daughter plot then maybe Stone was and even though the film wasn’t a complete waste, it wasn’t the best investment for my money at the cinema.

IMDB says 6.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 56%

I say 5.5/10