Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps 2010

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Gekko's still a wolf in wolf's clothing. The question is: How big is his hunger? Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: The rare sequel that feels not only relevant but necessary. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Money Never Sleeps is never boring, even as its plot descends into cheap melodrama and the script runs out of banter about the "the NINJA generation -- no income, no job, no assets." Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: ... it's Douglas who makes Stone's sequel worth a watch ... Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: This movie is by turns brilliant and dumb, naive and wise, nowhere near good enough and something close to great. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Douglas is having a ball in his signature role, and Stone gets many of the details right. Yet the movie, lazy to begin with, slackens once all the daddy issues come into play. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: As with many recent Stone projects, it's hard to tell what the focus is supposed to be. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The story certainly holds your attention, but it's a dramatic bubble about a financial bubble. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: If you're not looking for anything particularly profound, it's entertaining, thanks to the zest of the cast and the stylish look of the film. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: The first time around, Wall Street felt like a warning about the perils of excess just as excess started to exact its toll. This one's little more than a reminder that we all got, and remain, screwed. Noted. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Stone is a great technical director, and he uses his skill to excellent effect here. He loads the screen with information - montages of cable-news reports, stock listings, more, more, more. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The film's lack of focus is almost criminal, but schadenfreude energizes Stone. Everyone here is dancing on a bubble, and no one has the guts to admit the bubble is about to pop. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Some welcome skulduggery ensues, but the movie's ultimate agenda of rehabilitating a classic bad guy is a big disappointment. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: [It] has its satisfactions, thanks mainly to a cast skillful enough to finesse what is effectively two films sharing the same screen. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Money Never Sleeps doesn't get inside the sociopathology of the money culture. In a sense, it is a product, an expression, of that culture. Maybe that's why it's so disagreeably agreeable. Read more

Christopher Kelly, Dallas Morning News: Subtlety has never been Stone's strong suit, but few filmmakers pick at our rawest societal scabs with quite as much brio and determination. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The story of Jake, Winnie and Gordon makes us wonder if there is any other bedtime story so lulling, so disarming, as moviedom's falsely wrought "happily ever after." Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Stone handles the financial stuff quite well. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Stone loves to throw himself into the macho bloodiness of a cinematic fray. That's his strength. But here he also wants to murmur a trite and pious lullaby about how children-are-our-real-wealth, la la la. Read more

Sean Means, Film.com: The old Gordon Gekko would have torn this movie apart with his gleaming teeth, while today?s Gekko seems content just to nibble on the edges. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: For those interested in bubbles and the speed at which a few dedicated souls can cripple an economy, there's much to admire here. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The film has more moving parts than a pricey Rolex, and they are not all in sync. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: Stone and the script shortchange the characters, forcing them to do things that seem phony and having them recite lines that sound stilted and overly didactic. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The undeniably polished and professional work of a once-iconoclastic filmmaker who appears to be mellowing with age. I liked him better when he was ruthless. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Everyone involved with Oliver Stone's sterling sequel to his '87 classic brings their A-game. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: I liked Gordon Gekko better before he turned into Paul Krugman, but in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps he is still at his core a seductive high priest of the money-changers' temples. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is a movie only a hedge fund manager could love. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Money Never Sleeps is diverting enough. But as a cautionary tale of personal and business ethics, the film has all the urgency of snail mail. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There are times when iconic characters should be left alone to bask in the glory of a single appearance and, unfortunately, that's the case with Gordon Gekko. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Great to see Douglas back in the role that won him an Oscar. But even when he's offscreen, he's a bigger presence than LaBeouf. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's an entertaining story about ambition, romance and predatory trading practices, but it seems more fascinated than angry. Is Stone suggesting this new reality has become embedded, and we're stuck with it? Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Stone used to know in his gut that a sermon belongs in the pulpit, not the multiplex. No more. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Stone's new film expresses a more personal, intimate sense of moral hazard, which more broadly indicates the possibility that one or more parties to a contract may lie, cheat, steal or otherwise behave badly. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The movie provides entertainment and catharsis in lavish dollops. Read more

Tom Horgen, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Eventually, Stone allows the squishy love story between Jacob and Winnie to take center stage. It's a mistake. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's a wholly successful sequel -- audacious, entertaining and bracingly pertinent. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: [A]gainst all probability, 'Money Never Sleeps' is a watchable enough movie for its first hour or so.... But as the financial bubble pops, so too does the cinematic one. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Saddled with this hollow script, Stone pads with elaborate set pieces. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Moving as fast and recklessly as a trillion-dollar fat-finger stock-market transaction, the film has the drive, luxe and sarcastic wit of the snazziest Hollywood movies for most of its two-hours-plus running time. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: This is a pulp novelisation of the banking crisis and its pleas for relevance ring hollow. Read more

Matt Zoller Seitz, The New Republic: In a perverse but amusing way, Money Never Sleeps sometimes seems like film noir for CNBC junkies. Read more

Scott Bowles, USA Today: Douglas gives Money Never Sleeps what it needs most: a defiant face to the corruption. Greed may be good, but Douglas is better. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: After his attempts to branch out slightly with World Trade Center and W., Money Never Sleeps finds Stone at ease in a way he hasn't been in years. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: [An] unwieldy mixed bag. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Stone has a knack for pacing, detail and atmosphere that manages to feel authentic and fancifully allegorical at the same time. Read more