Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

This movie has more Gekkos than it knows what to do with - Gordon Gekko Original, Gordon Gekko Reformed, Gordon Gekko Original Redux, Gekko Daughter with Daddy Issues (Carey Mulligan) Gekko Wannabe I (Charlie Sheen), Gekko Wannabe II (Shia LaBeouf), Gekko Retread Without Charm (Josh Brolin). Michael Douglas makes a commanding return as the genuine article, but he is distinctly a supporting character here. Shia LaBeouf is tasked with carrying the movie, and on the basis of the evidence, simply can't do it; he was charming as golfer Francis Ouimet in Bill Paxton's historical sports drama The Greatest Game Ever Played, but is not ready to go mano-a-mano with a Douglas or a Brolin. One IMDB commenter rightly notes that he "cannot pass off as being anything more convincing than a working intern." He is certainly nowhere near as fun to watch as Charlie Sheen was 20 years ago.

Brolin does as well as he can in a thankless role, but I could not build up any hatred for him, or, indeed, any feeling at all, because the conception of the character is tired. Also, Josh Brolin is way too young to be playing someone who is supposed to have been a player in Gekko's early days.

Carey Mulligan serves as another warning of the perils of Stone's Flavor-of-the-Month casting. She tries to give her all but is never remotely credible as the daughter of Gordon Gekko; their DNA is completely unacquainted. You should at least see a hint of the father in the child, even if the child is trying to resist it. The movie raises but then glosses over the interesting issue of the downward trajectory of the sons of white-collar criminals - the sons of Bernie Madoff and Jeffrey Skilling went on to kill themselves, as does Gekko's unseen son in the movie. (Actually, the movie raises a lot of potentially interesting issues and then drops them; it's exceptionally scattered in focus.)

The first act of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is tedious, the last act is ill-conceived (plot twists have become so de rigueur that the only twist nowadays would be no twist). That leaves all the juice (and most of Douglas's performance) in the second act, which has its moments, especially Charlie Sheen's welcome cameo ("So, does Blue Horseshoe still love Anacott Steel?"). The notion that the Bud Fox character turned into a version of the actual Charlie Sheen is the sort of clever thrust this film could have used more of.