Michael Douglas, of course, reprises his role as the greedy former titan of industry Gordon Gekko.  The beginning of the film sees him released from prison around 2000, and the passage of time is made annoyingly obvious by the return of his Saved by the Bell model cell phone.  Gekko uses the next eight years to write a book.

Shia LaBeouf is the new Gekko named Jake, a young up-and-comer on Wall Street who seems to be a bit more idealistic, but is blinded by the multi-million dollar bonus checks, and billionaire mentors.  Jake just so happens to be engaged to Gekko’s estranged and pregnant daughter Winnie (a fantastic Carey Mulligan).

As you can guess, the markets fail, the government bails out investment banks before the world economy crashes.  Rich white men, steal and cheat other rich white men, while riding Ducatis and attending $10,000 a plate fundraisers where Charlie Sheen shows up dating twins.

Allan Loeb (Things We Lost in the Fire) and Stephen Schiff (The Deep End of the Ocean) worked together to come up with the usually tight, and well paced film.  But it’s Stone’s style that really brings the ridiculous atmosphere of Wall Street to life.  Although sometime he’s borders on the ridiculous (for some reason if a scene is shot in a night club, it’s shot all psychedelic-like).  At a few points in the film, it gets to be slightly too much, overly simplistic in its condemnation of Stone’s own characters (like in W. when he intimated Bush was so stupid, he got his entire cabinet lost on his own ranch).

But with all these complaints, I left Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps feeling like I had experienced a solid Zeitgeist film that ended on a weak note, but provided plenty of satisfying moments on the way.  Stone was very much aided by a terrific cast.  As much as I’d like to dismiss Shia LaBeouf as the next Spielberg golden boy, and nothing more, he actually put out a solid performance.  And Mulligan as Winnie is as perfect as anyone could hope the character could be.  Josh Brolin, Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon, they’re all great.  As much as I like to despise Stone’s work, he didn’t do such a bad job on this one.

3 out of 4 stars

I’m not sure it’s director D.J. Caruso’s fault either.  The script he had to work with is a big steaming pile of poo.  It’s no secret that Eagle Eye had not less than six official re-writes of the script…a script that was co-written by John Glenn and Travis Wright (both of whom haven’t really written anything before this).

The story follows Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBoeuf, a fiercely independent copy boy who hates his family and the world.  One day, he finds his bank account balance about $750,000 higher than it usually is.  His apartment is filled with guns, fake passports, and enough materials to build several large bombs.  It’s here that he gets a phone call from a mysteriously emotionless female voice that gives him directives that will keep him alive and out of the reach of the FBI.  Meanwhile, Rachel (Michelle Monaghan) receives a call from the same voice, threatening the safety of her son if she doesn’t comply to the directions she’s given.  In this panicked state, the two are thrown together and are sent all over the place doing whatever the voice asks, breaking laws, and leaving innocent bystanders dead in their wake.  Two high ranking government officials (Rosario Dawson and Billy Bob Thorton) are hot on their trail the whole time.

Caruso did what he could with the materials he was given.  There were actually some very impressive explosions, car chases, graphics.  But harping on these same stupid themes that have plagued our theaters for the last 7 years (i.e. fear of all middle-easterners, fear of being mistaken for a terrorist, fear of ‘Big Brother’), the viewer is just offended (or should be) fifteen minutes into the film.  There were also some serious continuity issues as well.  Logic was thrown out the window on this one, so don’t expect a very coherent narrative.

Michelle Monaghan is, as always, great.  Although after last year’s Gone Baby Gone, I can’t figure out why she’d stoop to this (maybe it’s because Steven Spielberg is listed as an executive producer).  And as much as I love to hate LaBeouf, I really didn’t have a problem with his performance.  All in all, this is slightly less-than-average popcorn flick, that will entertain you, but leave you sad you watched it as you walk out of the theater with your head hung with shame.

1 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 27% – Cream of the Crop: 23%