I got asked along to a preview of the new Oliver Stone film, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps on Wednesday which is awesome cause I am actually getting paid to watch a film. Which is different to my average day where I’m paid to write about surf, skate and snow… Jealous?

First up, titles and overall feel stay pretty true to the original film. There are some super impressive shots of the buildings in New York City (particularly the night shots of the Gehry designed IAC building) but these are mixed with some confusing and sometimes drawn out setup shots that didn’t seem to add much to the story to me… As the film is at 133 mins I feel like you could lose a few of them and improve the film but hey, that’s just me. And I haven’t (yet) directed a blockbuster so maybe I should just shut the hell up.

Anyway, the setup for the characters is the real drawcard for this film. The 23 year gap between films has been used to brilliant effect by Stone and the writers (Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff) who used Gekko’s time in jail, as well as the time taken for conviction and sentencing to fill all the gaps and deepen the story. Shia LaBeouf plays a gifted trader by the name of Jacob Moore, on his way up in the world who happens to be engaged to Gekko’s estranged daughter. As Gekko warns of impending financial doom to a Wall St audience who ignore his cries and the young Moore gets caught in the collapse, their relationships and trust become tangled with their economic ambitions.

I’m a big fan of the original film, so there were things I loved and things I hated in here. References to the original film were awesome but sometimes a little too in your face. Some subtlety with them would have been great. I also should have managed my own expectations better – I wanted this to be like Avatar, Lord of the Rings and Titanic combined… and on crack. I hate sci-fi and fantasy but I love political/financial thriller sort of films, so I wanted to see Michael Douglas pull out a scene like Alex Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross, or Ben Afleck in Boiler Room. Something you know traders and sales people all over the world are imagining themselves delivering. But the opportunities for these moments were spent on far less meaningful or powerful dialogue. Having said all that, I’m not going to rubbish the film cause it didn’t meet my own ridiculously high expectations… Far from it, the film was engaging, well shot, amazingly acted and definitely worth seeing. On a scale of one to amazing, how amazing is it? Amazing.

Wall St. Money Never Sleeps is out September 24th 2010.

TRAILER