A young stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a greedy corporate raider. [imdb]
Nominated for 1 Oscar:
Best Actor: Michael Douglas (WINNER)
I'm gonna act like this was the first time I was seeing Wall Street even thought I had catched scenes of it on TV before. I remembered the main plot, but definitely not the details. And, well, the film hasn't aged in a graceful manner: it is dated, but even so: there's something attractive about it, the sharpness that Michael Douglas brings to the table.
Michael Douglas won the Oscar and Daryl Hannah won the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress. He didn't fully deserve it, but she did. While Michael is easily the best thing about Wall Street, those who've seen Jack Nicholson in Ironweed (yet many people haven't) might agree with me that he gave a better, more complex performance. Even so, Gordon Gekko is a delight.
Charlie Sheen is too cocky for the role, but Martin Sheen gives a very good supporting performance. I wasn't sure at first about Daryl's acting, as I thought the character might be stupid and in sleepwalking mode; then I convinced myself that the character could've actually been something had it not been played by a dummy who can't even open her mouth and say the lines. Great in Kill Bill, awful here.
My rating for the film: 6.5/10. Even if it should never go beyond a 6, the beginning and the ending feel strong. It's the middle that almost kills it.
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It's a film that generated very mixed feelings for me.
ReplyDeleteDouglas was good, but not really excellent. Sheen was the real lead, and he was quite good. I just wished Hannah had less in this, but I didn't really care for her.
It's very dated, sometimes not that engaging, but, yes, the beginning and ending were really strong.