Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

To say that “money never sleeps” is to be clever, and possibly profound, although logically inaccurate, as “money” never lives either. It’s also cheesy and kind of lame, and in the case of Oliver Stone’s Wall Street sequel, entirely inconsequential.


What’s in a name? In Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, it’s everything. In this title we find a sequel, and with it fond reminiscence – of 1987 era Michael Douglas as Gordon Gecko; of a dangerous, edgy moral thriller; of Hollywood classicality. We also recognize a dated setting, a financial capital breaking down from the big money steroid injection some twenty years ago. We find chest-puffing posture, an out-of-touch attempt at being cool with tough talk that really means nothing (Air never sleeps. Water never sleeps. Death never sleeps. Look at what a big thinker I am!). So it should be no surprise that the movie itself lacks the edge, the freshness, the sparked ambition of its predecessor.