Rating: 2.75 of 5  

I have to admit, I was surprised by this movie, and that doesn’t happen often. I should have probably given it an extra half star, just for that. But it’s not at all what I thought it’d be from the marketing.

I didn’t like the first Wall Street when I had to watch it in college. I was glad I’d seen it so I understood all the pop culture references, but I wasn’t impressed. And I certainly didn’t see a need to get Gordon Gekko out of retirement for a whole other movie.

But this is much less cynical than the first one. And by the end I thought it was absolutely a good reason to reexamine the world of Wall Street because this movie had a surprisingly worthwhile and timely focus on family and the things that are really important in life. It was actually a little like Up in the Air, in its commentary on our current economic crisis but with slightly different messages but in the same vein.

Even though I didn’t understand half of the business talk, I still really enjoyed this which surprised me. and I pretty much never like Oliver Stone. He should get another half star just for that.

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