TRAILER: Oliver Stone’s Tired-Looking ‘Wall Street 2′
by John NolteTwenty-three years have passed since the first ”Wall Street” and a decade since news of an upcoming Oliver Stone movie elicited anything above the level of an eye roll. A director who once captured and even created a zeitgeist is now pathetically chasing after it like a dollar bill tied to a string.
After the disastrous “Alexander,” both “World Trade Center” and “W.” were essentially television-level productions self-consciously obvious in their desperation to feel relevant. Arguably, “WTC” ended up being an above-average TV movie but “W.” was a complete embarrassment for everyone involved, especially those Leftist critics who carried its water one percentage below a fresh rating. And now comes a sequel nobody wanted with a truly terrible title: “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” which hits theatres April 23rd.
And as with all Shia LaBeouf movies, the first question that must be asked is: Shia LaBeouf?
Go back and watch the original “Wall Street.” It’s a terrific film with some great acting courtesy of Martin Sheen and Michael Douglas and a compelling story that immediately grabs you as you’re taken on a tour of how things work in the fascinating world of the stock market at the very top level. One of my favorite shots in all films is our first glimpse of Douglas’s Gordon Gekko through his office door just before it closes. Just like Charlie Sheen’s young Bud Fox, oh how we want to know what goes on in there. Great moviemaking.
I also have warm memories of the original “Wall Street.” The wife and I saw it in ‘87 for the first time while vacationing in Los Angeles — I think at Universal City. It was our first vacation together. We lived in Milwaukee at the time and L.A. seemed so…so… Well, like the one-story ghetto it really is. Why did I move here? Anyway…
Judging by the trailer, this sequel looks and sounds tired — exhausted, in fact. Reportedly the plot surrounds Gekko’s attempt to rehabilitate himself (that’s no fun) and there might even be some kind of murder mystery involving the LaBeouf character’s mentor. None of the elements that made the original so re-watchable (Faustian bargaining, a 101 tutorial on how the market works) looks to be here. Most dispiriting are the attempts at fish-out-of-water comedy. Big 80’s phone jokes are so 90s.
As is always the case, once the lights dim my hope will spring eternal. However, should disappointment be the end result of the 64 year-old director’s last desperate gasp, there is always that unofficial “Wall Street” sequel/remake, ”Boiler Room” … which doesn’t star Shia LaBeouf.
NOTE: This post openly violates the rule that only allows Leftist critics to speculate about upcoming films they haven’t seen.
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68 Comments
It is almost impossible to re-capture lightning in the bottle. More time than not, you end up electrocuting yourself or some unfortunate soul. In this case, perhaps a whole lot of unfortunate souls.
A sequel to Wall Street? That's about as welcome as the sequel to Basic Instinct and we all know how that turned out.
Mr. Nolte, I'm with you regarding Shia LaBeouf. Why does this charisma deficient person have a career in movies?
I enjoyed Wall Street, except for the gratuitous Oliver Stone Politics Scene, where Gecko goes off on a tangent about how we don't really live in a democracy. It's hard even to disagree, let alone be offended, considering how out of the blue it is. All I know is dramatically it is poison. Stone has a tendency to let these mad screeds get in the way. As evidence, see the entire film JFK.
John,
Living in LA is the sacrifice you are making for the Cause.
We New Yorkers appreciate it – Wouldn't want to be ya' !
well, there aren't any new ideas in Hollywood's incestuous gene pool…
That is part of the problem, plus Stone is the Reifenstahl of the Left without her ability. His last good movie was 'U-Turn' (which is pretty good) but that was some time ago. And the incredibly haggard looking Michael Douglas hasn't been able to open a film since- well, the 80's.
But they have mansions to support, expensive Viagra habits (both of them) and other sundry bills to pay.
Let someone else pay them; we won't…
Oliver Stone gives new meaing to the line "Useless Idiot." He should seriously "stop" making movies from those annoying little voices in his head. He is and always will be a legend in his own mind. I argee that the first Wall street was epic (fail) noting: a gigantour film with no coherent storyline just the same lefty inept diatribe of naïve moralising: Capitalism bad. It is a crying shame that they pay this man when there are many fresh filmakers out there who deserve the $$$ that they throw at Stone.
I hated Wall Street so much that it was my first and last Oliver "I hate America" Stone's movie. I won't even watch a trailer for one of his films and can't understand why anyone would support this Chavez fanboy.
No, Oliver, "Greed is good" is not how most businesses operate. "Profit" is what most Americans want because it puts food on the table, a roof over the head, and a chance to watch a DVD of (sigh) even your stuff.
The sequals are almost never as good, and yes the question must be asked:
Shia LaBeouf???
I watch this trailer and ask myself – what in the H*LL is this film about? Come on, are you put up against a wall and shot if you actually have a point to all this? Films used to have a story, a plot – but now they're all just posing like those stupid male models in Madonna's 'Vogue'. Come on, can there at least a damned plot to all this?
Speaking of plots, it's so typical of Stone that when faced with a stunning plot literally in front of his nose (i.e., Gekko's greed destroyed companies but Wall Street now destroys countries) Stone instead chooses to stick his nose into his own navel to sniff the lint of a has been film and even more has been actor.
Nolo…
What's funny is how the original WS backfired. Stone made the world seem so exotic, sexy and important it worked as a recruiting tool for the real Wall Street, an irony "Boiler Room" played on quite effectively.
Other than Gekko's Big Speech about capitalism, the film really isn't all that political. Just a classic tale involving the selling ones soul to the Devil. A very simple story, well-told, with a superb twist involving Papa Sheen's Blue Star airlines.
I also like that working-class dad (Sheen) is the wise one. WS was produced in 1987, before Hollywood turned on the working class (especially males) and made them out as either buffoons or victims.
It's Father who knows best in WS. It's an excellent touch we can appreciate all the more today and ultimately a very touching subplot.
Once upon a time, Oliver Stone was a helluva storyteller.
Is Bud Fox a czar in obama's administration?
How dare you assume this move is bad without having first paid to see it!
Isn't that illegal…or something?
I thought it was funny.
Please say its not so! I loved WS and I want a sequel!
I liked the original WS alright. It was a very entertaining movie with a satisfying ending. But The Gordon Gekko character was out of a cartoon. His name might as well have been Snidely Whiplash. The only thing he was missing was the handlebar moustache and a black cape.
The limo scene was kind of funny…but that's about it. Pass.
There is also new movie out for rent or sale called “Stock Shock” that exposes the down and dirty schemes behind the glitter of Wall Street. “Stock Shock” was an eye-opener and some say it deserves an academy award. trailer is at http://www.stockshockmovie.com
Is it just me, or did that trailer totally rip off The Blues Brothers?
It's his complete lack of a chin that really bugs me. I can't respect people with no chin. Watching him take backseat to post-third-wave-stereotype-feminist Michelle Monaghan in "Eagle Eye" just sealed the deal.
Couldn't agree more. WHAT is with the love fest over Shia Lebeouf among directors?
Yeah, where the hell is Bud Fox?! Is this LaBuouf kid destined to sink every movie franchise he touches? He looks like a kid I used to beat up down the street from me.
I absolutely LOVE Michael Douglas and it's good to see him playing Gecko again. I ran across Romancing the Stone the other night and had forgotten how charming, funny and tough of an actor he can be. In hindsight, it appears he got typecast (perhaps unfairly) by Fatal Attraction. That said…
I don't like seeing iconic characters dredged up, "updated," reimagined or otherwise revisited. I always hark back to the made-for-TV sequel to Patton, showing him in his final days; George C. Scott was wonderful as always, but I was sad along with him, and it wasn't the good type of dreariness. The only purpose it served was to make me want to the original in all its glory. That seems to be what most sequels do with very few exceptions.
So, I'm skeptical, to say the least.
Big time. Many films have ripped that scene off, including John Landis, who had Frank Oz repeat the same character in Trading Places.
And for what? A cheap dig at the cellphone Gordo used in the original.
Wink, wink, nod, nod….we know you're still hip Oliver. No need to force it.
I'll see this film because I like Shia and Michael
Yes, Stone is a terrible hack, especially compared to the genius who made the original Wall Street. I can't remember — what was his name again?
Yes, I'm particularly fond of Salvador.
I loved the first one. I saw it as a celebration of prosperity. Ironically, it led me to question wether insider trading should be illegal. And it's certainly no crime to buy a company and sell off it's parts.
Obviously labor unions don't like that but they fear change.
I am a little conflicted about the original Wall Street because as Mr. Nolte pointed out Mr. Stone can be a good story teller and the fact that, like most powerful lies, his stories contain a grain of truth.
No, capitalism is not evil, but it is amoral. The distinction makes all the difference in the world.
Most businesspeople want to grow a business by making sure it produces goods or renders a service at a price that the market will bear and therefore make a profit. They repeat this process and grow their business thereby employing people and building an economy.
Yes, there are a-holes in business that will gladly cannibalize companies to enrich themselves (e.g. "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap and most private equity funds) but this is not the norm.
Stone exploits the amorality of business by creating caricatures of money men and holding them up as the norm.
The conservative answer to Wallstreet was Danny Devito in "Other People's Money".
In the end it is the greedy Republican that cares the most!
So John whaddya think of Other People's Money
My fellow Stockholders you just heard the Prayer for the Dead and you forgot to say Amen!
Oliver Stone and anything he has anything to with are on my permanent black list. As for Shia LabBeouf, what is it with these guys casting all these effeminate no talents like Dicaprio, Efron and LaBeouf anyway? I think the old "Hollywood casting couch" is still alive and well.
I changed my opinion of Efron when i saw "Me and Orson Welles." check it out.
Labeouf in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints >>>>>>>>>>> Efron in me and orson welles
Having no first hand knowledge of how people get cast in movies I still invoke my "internet" rights to opine on this issue.
My theory is that the studio tools (a.k.a. Executives) look at the demographics of who buys tickets and DVDs and conclude that these "effeminate no talents" will draw in that demographic.
In other words, grown ups don't buy enough tickets and or DVDs to justify writing and casting movies for grown ups. The modern day Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, et. al. have been pushed aside for the hairless man-boys.
Just my opinion, what do I know?
Maybe a good shot in the ass is what they need ! Douglas gets his through Viagra.
OPM is a terrific film. When we first launched BH I posted Devito's buggy whip speech in a top 5 most conservative moment list, or something…
Efron was good in that "17" movie, too.
I met him a couple of time right before his star took off. Very likable guy and when he left the room we all said, "That kid's gonna be a star."
Less than a year later he was everywhere.
Speaking of Me and Orson Welles, did B.H. do a review?
And while i have your attention, how about the Coen Brother's movie, "A Serious Man."
No Bud Fox, Nobody cares. I think it is Stone staring into the abiss these days.
Spielberg loves him and will cast him in anything. That automatically guarantees that other directs will cast him too. I think he ruins every movie he's in, and avoid him like the plague because of it, but Hollywood doesn't really care whether I go see their films or not.
I thought I was the only one who likes Shia. He was great in his TV work and quite good in "Holes". Great comic timing. I think he is in a weird in-between stage casting-wise though.
Didn't see Orson Welles but i did do a capsule review of Serious Man a couple weeks ago. It's in a post with about 5 other reviews… Gave it a meh.
I think Stone's "Any Given Sunday" was underestimated.
BTW: "Boiler Room" was a good film!
Sadly, this is only the beginning of the horrible regurgitation of 80’s movies. The trailer for the remake of The Karate Kid was just released, the remake of Clash of the Titans is coming up soon (which, admittedly, I’ll probably give a try simply to see Liam Neeson), and coming down the pike are a remake of Footloose, a sequel to Tron, a TV reimagining of Teen Wolf, and the greatest of all sins against the 80’s: a remake of Red Dawn.
Will Cameron Douglas be providing the party-favors on set??? oops
It's not a cheap dig. It's a perfect example of the basic film making rule of "show, don't tell". He's been in jail for a long time, and that legacy cell is perfect to *show* that—instead of *telling* the audience in dialog or VO.
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Clash of the Titans is going to be in 3D too.
I dont know what will be worse: LeBouf''s acting, Stone's directing, or just the obvious- Michael Douglas looks old as he!!. And the subtitle really does bite.
And don't forget, he wrote Conan!
Ok. Here’s where WALK THE TALK comes into play. I do not want a single dollar of my money to enrich those who belittle We The People and, through their treasonous behavior, hurt this country.
For some time now, I have not been willing to overlook those little “jabs at conservatives.” Or those little junkets to Cuba or South America. Or singers with big fannies, and bigger egos, who call a Vice-Presidential candidate nasty names.
If We The People cared enough to “deprive” ourselves en masse of these types of “entertainment,” it wouldn’t take overlong before our point was made – and things changed.
I can't wait to see how Gekko is going to blame his incarceration on the Bush Administration.
Drug addled holy men (Stone, Douglas) should do a little preaching on the evils of drugs and drug traffiking. They have preached that drugs should be legalized, that drug traffikers are poor victims(Midnight Express). Now Douglas finds his own kid in deep shit for trafficking crystal meth. Will the holy men tell the judge. It should be legal and traffickers are the real victims?
Hm….I have to give you a thumbs-down. Sorry.
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I think they're desperately searching for the new "hot, masculine" actor who can fill Golden Hollywood's shoes.
Everyone else is too old (Will Smith) or too crazy (Tom Cruise).
The studios use to "make" the actor. That clout is now in the audience's hands.
Doesn't Will Smith, essentially, play the same character in almost all of his movies. I know that all seem to sound and say the same things and have the same characterization.
a remake of Red Dawn
———————————
Let me guess: it will be about San Francisco fighting off an invasion of flyover-country Christians wanting to put Wal Marts everywhere.
I understand that, and what you say is totally true in an economic, storytelling sense. But it's also used as a joke, and I think it makes the legacy of the original look rather ridiculous in an obvious wink-wink kind of way. I just think it's cheesy. It presents Gekko as if he's been cryrogenically frozen, a la Austin Powers. Very cartoonish. And, to top it all off, it "borrows" the scene from another movie that cornered the market on it 30 years ago. Since then, it's practically become cliche.
If they tell the truth – this will be a great movie.
It's that innocent "I won't screw your sister" look about him.
Wall Street was well acted, and I thought Sheen's performance was memorable, but it was CHARLIE (about whose politics I know nothing) and not his communist father Martin. Martin's a very fine actor, too, but his politics really stink. Could there be something in the water out there?
As to a sequel, Stone is out of chances with me. I will not pay good money to be screamed at by a liberal, and that's what his films are these days, just screaming rants. I'm done with 'em.
I don´t know but he´s gone away and not coming back.
Conan is 100% John Milius.
Stupid politics aside, all his movies between Salvador and JFK are passionate, involving, energetic, uncommonly well made. This is true even though (for example) JFK is a total pack of lies. I even liked The Doors. Stone had the ability to drag you along.
Stone lost his mojo between "Heaven and Earth" and "Nixon". These movies still had some memorable moments. In "NBK" and "U-Turn" you can see the downward slide in progress. Increasingly, he´s falling back on his bag of cinematic tricks, easy cynicism, disregard for his subject and characters, no ability to step outside his own head. After 1995, he was just a horrible man and a mediocre director.
If they found a hot, masculine actor in the US, Hollywood wouldn´t know what to do with him.
Yes, well he's listed as a writer, per IMDB. But who knows, maybe that means he just contributed a word or two. You know how these things can go.
But Milius is definitely known as pretty conservative, so you're probably right.
We like Wall Street because we like Bud Fox. We root for Bud Fox. The danger here is that we will be asked to lroot for a new, squishy, reformed Gekko who gives money to orphans and voted for Obama. It won't work.
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