Reviewed by Alicia Glass

Rating: 7 Shorted Stocks

After serving his prison sentence, the dangerous Wall Street trader Gordon Gekko re-enters trading with the fiancé of his daughter.

I don’t have any particular objection to Shia LeBouf, but come on movie-people – a Wall Street stock trader? Really? Most of us know Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen did a fantastic back-biting job in the first movie, their characters seemed cut out for the life. (Sheen gets a cameo in this movie too.) But for some reason LeBoufs’ character Jake Moore really does not come across as being able to handle any of this mess. Which, hey, is no shame, but really, get the hell away from Wall Street as soon as you learn that.

So, Jake Moore wants to marry Gekko’s daughter Winnie. Gordon Gekko just got out of prison and appears to be settling in to the lifestyle of a learned sage, repentant of his sins and eager to share his somewhat jaded views of the economy and such, like a teacher. Does that mean he’s changed even a bit? N-o. Jake’s mentor Louis Zabel is getting snowed by the competition and betrayed by his own company, and Jake decides, against all good advice, to seek out Gordon to try and get his help. Oh, and to get permission to marry his daughter. Winnie warned him, nothing good can come of her re-associating with her father; sufficient to say, she was right.

It’s fine for a sequel, although once again I really fail to see the point in making the sequel to this particular movie. The first one was made more than 20 years ago, for real. And frankly, for a wall street movie, Boiler Room did it better, but I digress. If you’ve seen the first one, the sequel is actually better, but let’s be honest, that’s not hard. Wall Street 2 Money Never Sleeps gets a rating of 7 Shorted Stocks.