Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps

I am a huge fan of the first Wall Street installment so I was pretty excited when I seen this come out. I guess I thought I would get more vintage Gordon Gekko, Bud Fox and his busted high priced girlfriend. Turns out it's another two decades late sequel with that clown Shaia LeBeouf front and center. I thought Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin and a soundtrack by David Byrne could save it but it's not enough.

The story takes place in 2008 whilst investors were getting fucked out of their money in ways I will never fully understand. It involves all the buzzwords... toxic loans, credit default swaps, etc. The whole story was forced to fit the events of 2008... and I mean forced. I don't want to get too far into it because the movie isn't really worth talking about but in the end...

Gordon Gekko develops enough of a conscience to invest $100 mil that he stole from his daughter and her wall street exec boyfriend(LeBeouf)in a renewable energy company that the boyfriend was trying to attract investors to the whole movie. This delights the daughter who is pregnant. The plot also involves Josh Brolin's character who, as far as I can gather, is making money off the failure of his own company. In the end Shaia LeBeouf writes a piece for his girlfriends homegrown liberal website exposing him and putting him on the hot seat with the SEC. This delights Gordon Gekko. These common victories unite the three in the end and they all seemingly reconcile any differences they may have had with each other.