I loved "Wall Street". Michael Douglas' portrayal of Gordon Gekko was legendary and his performance deserved the Academy Award.
I had mixed feelings for a sequel: I was initially excited but then thought about the state of Hollywood films in the 21st century. While there are many exceptions, in my opinion, the films today are inferior compared to when the original was released: if the script stinks--just add a lot of CGI! Then I saw the cast: I knew I would wait for the film on TV when I saw Shia Labeouf cast as Gordon's to be son-in-law. I also groaned when I saw Susan Sarandon and Eli Wallach cast as well. One can see that when a director is out of it for a while or off his game--like Stone and George Lucas--their casting magic is lost. The original film had such realistic and charismatic casting (ok--except Daryl Hannah). Eli Wallach's hammy acting partially ruined "The Godfather III" and this film as well. Labeouf looked like a high school sophomore and didn't even physically look the part. It was a joke when he confronted Josh Brolin late in the film. Oooooh! I'm sure Brolin was shaking in his boots. Speaking of Brolin, he was one of the few reasons for watching. Carey Mulligan looked like Heidi trapped in New York.
The reason we all saw the film was to see Douglas' Gekko adapt to life in the 21st century. He looked eerily like Bernie Madoff with his unkempt hair flaring at the ears, until the last 30 minutes when we see him with his hair slicked back as we all remember him.
This is definitely inferior to its predecessor--mainly for the casting reasons--but it wasn't horrible.
I had mixed feelings for a sequel: I was initially excited but then thought about the state of Hollywood films in the 21st century. While there are many exceptions, in my opinion, the films today are inferior compared to when the original was released: if the script stinks--just add a lot of CGI! Then I saw the cast: I knew I would wait for the film on TV when I saw Shia Labeouf cast as Gordon's to be son-in-law. I also groaned when I saw Susan Sarandon and Eli Wallach cast as well. One can see that when a director is out of it for a while or off his game--like Stone and George Lucas--their casting magic is lost. The original film had such realistic and charismatic casting (ok--except Daryl Hannah). Eli Wallach's hammy acting partially ruined "The Godfather III" and this film as well. Labeouf looked like a high school sophomore and didn't even physically look the part. It was a joke when he confronted Josh Brolin late in the film. Oooooh! I'm sure Brolin was shaking in his boots. Speaking of Brolin, he was one of the few reasons for watching. Carey Mulligan looked like Heidi trapped in New York.
The reason we all saw the film was to see Douglas' Gekko adapt to life in the 21st century. He looked eerily like Bernie Madoff with his unkempt hair flaring at the ears, until the last 30 minutes when we see him with his hair slicked back as we all remember him.
This is definitely inferior to its predecessor--mainly for the casting reasons--but it wasn't horrible.