Kevin's Watch

Saw a trailer for this last night, Michael Douglas gets out of jail to reprise the career of Gordon Gheko. Plot seems to be about a grown up daughter and her intended and the lamp to the moth that Gheko is.

The shots of him looked great with him falling into the role with such ease, the cigar, the expensive tailored suits etc. I hope the rest of the cast can keep up the way the Sheens and Darryl Hannah did in the first one.

Timing is cute, appropriate to the villainy of those who caused the GFC but far enough after to not be too opportunist..... a trait I'm sure Gordon would have hated!

I went last night and am yet to decide whether I liked this move or not; if it were Ridley Scott I'd certainly wait for the Director's cut.

Gecko leaves Jail a changed man or not, he's actually a decent man or not, Wall Street is the waiting room for hell or not?????

Oliver Stone can make really good movies but he's also put out some lemons, this is bitter sweet. The performances are good imo, but I can't help but feel the two sidedness of human self interest was not handled as deftly as Stone is capable of and left the peformers wondering who and what they were portraying. I think some of this comes from the beating-the-dog-agenda of Stone for the Financial Crisis, which seems as much a reason for making the movie as anything in the way of an extended plotline. As such, for me Josh Brolin steals this movie: his character is simple....he's the bad guy and has no requirement to be more than one dimensional.

I also felt that there should have been more explaination of the mechanisms of the wealth business. We see fortunes made and lost but the 101 basics of the money business we were led through in the first film are missing and we do not..........

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.........see or understand how Gecko adjusts from jail and later re-makes his fortune, thus I found it had no dramatic gravitas or entertainment value in showing how the old master reclaimed his crown....a bit like Rocky without the actual fight!

There's a feel of a potential sequel, but that might have to be son/grandson of Gecko if Douglas' illness does not improve. I saw the preview and felt Gecko/Douglas put on the persona like a favourite suit of clothes; comfortable and worn into. Having watched the movie I don't feel that now.

I finally got around to seeing this last night.

For the most part, Michael Douglas and Josh Brolin were fantastic. I don't agree that Brolin's character was so one-sided; sure, he took advantage of the first investment firm's troubles to make money but, as he said himself, he didn't create those troubles. Shia's boss made some really bad business decisions, and his firm went down for it; why shouldn't Brolin make what money he could off the situation?

As for Douglas, Gordon Gekko is one of my all-time favorite characters. He has a dedication and drive which I admire, along with a healthy lack of naivete. The only problem I had with him is that

Spoiler

his change of heart at the end is too abrupt, as well as not costing him anything. Sure, he wrote a check for $100M.... so what? It's not like he spent the money, he just invested it in a company that Shia LaBeouf liked. It's still an investment for him... besides, he was worth around 12x that much, so even if he did just lose that money, his fund was still over $1B.

The real weak points here were the kids. LaBeouf and Mulligan both gave a good effort, but LB's character was too starry-eyed and idealistic. In fact, he personifies many of the attitudes that lead to investment bubbles, to wit, "I believe in this company, I know they're going to succeed, let's keep throwing money at them!"

Mulligan had the only truly one-dimensional character in the film. Her role is that of the injured daughter who hates her dad, and she never adds anything else to it.

I agree, but I was actually very impressed with Douglas (who is not an actor I generally like) because I thought he got the part of a former Player/high-roller/a-list honcho who just spent the last 20 years in jail spot on. Other than that, I didn't find the movie that interesting or original.