Money Makes Me Sleep

It was only about 5 years ago that Anthony "Ace" Cornell would come shuffling into the family room at 83.5 Harpswell Road, Brunswick, Me and slap the original Wall Street into the DVD player for the second time in a week and the opening bars of Sinatra's "Fly me to the Moon" would queue the cracking of beers in anticipation of the brilliance that was Oliver Stone's masterpiece of '80's financial greed. Thus, it was with great anticipation that I went to see Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps this weekend.

I'll let Joe Noccera's review of the movie in the NY Times handle the details of my reaction because his views are pretty spot on, but the bottom line is the movie leaves much to be desired when compared to the original. Granted, most sequels don't match up, but in this movie it's hard to figure out what exactly the central theme(s?) or message is. There's way too much awkward rehashing of classic lines from the original - Bud Fox asks Gekko at a charity event whether or not "Blue Horseshoe still loves Anicott Steal?" - and way too many soft story lines pursued. You'll understand if you - dare I say - waste the ~$8 to go see it.

I expected more from Stone and Gekko.