Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps starts with Gordon Gekko(Michael Douglas) getting out of jail in 2001 after being imprisoned for insider trading. Flashforward to 2008 with the world on the brink of a financial crisis. Gordon Gekko is now an author and a icon to young stock brokers. One of the young guys that idolize him is Jake Moore(Shia LaBeouf) who also happens to be in love with Gekko daughter Winnie(Carey Mulligan). As the company that Moore works for gets caught up in a scandal and begins a quick decline into bankruptcy (loosely based on what happened with Lehman Brothers). The head of the company ends up committing suicide and Moore takes it personaly and wants to take down the guy who he blames for the downfall of his company. Moore and Gekko make a deal where Moore will help Gekko reunite with his daughter and Gekko will help Moore get his revenge. The bad guy in the movie is Bretton James(Josh Brolin) who represents all that is greed on Wall Street.
Michael Douglas was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the first Wall Street and he reprises it here. He is back and just a ruthless and greedy as ever. The dialogue is fast and furious even if a lot of the financial mumbo jumbo went over my head. But the plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The revenge aspect didn't work for me. Or it could be that I wasn't paying that close attention because I was putting together baby furniture.
There is a scene early on in the movie where all the head of finanial institutions are around a table trying to decide how best to stop the financial meltdown. This scene was a reenactent of what happened during the financial bailout. Too Big to Fail takes that one scene and makes a whole movie out of it. In Too Big to Fail we get a behind the scenes look at the negotiations that went on to try and save Lehman Brothers in 2008 that eventually led to the TARP financial bailout. The movie focuses on Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson as he tried to find a way to save Lehman Brothers and other banks and investment firms that are rapidly losing money. The movie does a good job of explaining all the mumbo jumbo like derivatives. The movie also has an incredible cast with James Woods, William Hurt, Paul Giamatti, Bill Pullman, Tony Shalhoub, and Topher Grace. It really gives some insight to how intense those negotiations were and how close the whole financial system came to collapsing. It is nominated for four Emmy awards including Best Made for TV Movie, Outstanding Lead Actor in a TV Movie for William Hurt, and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a TV Movie for Paul Giamatti and James Woods.
While the two movies revolve around some of the same issues I think Too Big To Fail is better and more engrossing. Maybe because it is based on fact but also has a great cast. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps with all its snappy dialogue losses momentum part way through.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps: C+
Too Big To Fail: B+
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