I've written before that the 80s were a weird time for me. While most of my friends were seeing mainstream movies, either at the theater or on VHS (VHS!), I was trying to track down as many obscure gore or foreign (or foreign gore) movies as possible. Thus, I missed some of the biggest movies of the decade, in several different genres. One of these films was 1987's Wall Street. Despite the fact that it was a box-office hit and an Oscar winner, I never got around to seeing it. But, I wasn't going to make the same mistake with the sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

In case you've forgotten, Wall Street dealt with Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), a high-roller broker who was busted for insider trading. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which is set in 2008, opens with Gekko being released from prison. Meanwhile, Gekko's estranged daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan) lives with her boyfriend, Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), a Wall Street trader, who works for Louis Zabel (Frank Langella). When Zabel's firm falls on hard times, Jake becomes convinced that a competitor was behind the downfall. Jake approaches Gekko at a book signing, informs him of his relationship with Winnie and asks for help. Gekko advises Jake to pursue an offer from Bretton James (Josh Brolin), despite the fact that Jake thinks that James could have been after Zabel. Jake also agrees to help try and mend things between Gekko and Winnie. As Jake tries to juggle all of these things, he realizes that big business may be more dangerous than he knew.

Again, I haven't seen the first Wall Street, so I can't compare the two. What I can say about Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is that it's funny that it's named after a particular location, because this movie is all over the map.

The movie tackles several different plotlines, none to a satisfying conclusion. We've got the relationship between Jake and Winnie, but this remains too low key. We never learn how they met or what they see in each other, as he's chasing profits and she writes for a left-wing website. We actually learn more about Jake's relationship with his mentor, Zabel. The whole thing with Jake going to work for James never feels genuine, unless of course we accept the fact that James is so blinded by greed that he can't understand why Jake would be out to get him. And then we have Gordon Gekko's story. I'm sure that there are fans of the first film who went to this new movie just for Gekko, and I'm sure that they were disappointed that he isn't in the movie that much. The story focuses on Jake and Gekko only appears from time-to-time to move the plot along.

And then we have Oliver Stone's direction. To say that it's heavy-handed would be an understatement, and to say that it's comicly heavy-handed at times would be much more accurate. The movie has a surprising amount of devices such as montages and split-screen (I could almost sense Brian DePalma shaking his head in disgust) in the movie, some of which are truly distracting and rob the movie of its seriousness. My favorite moment came when Jake needs to make an important decision and a vision of Zabel appears beside him. When did this become A Christmas Carol? And what the hell was that Eli Wallach bird thing?

I don't want to come down too hard on Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, as the aspect of the movie which makes it unique is the one which hurts it the most. Writers Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff have clearly worked hard to make the film sound authentic, as it takes place during the crash & bail-out of 2008. The movie doesn't shy away from using a ton of technical jargon from the world of finance and some scenes where the future of the firms are discussed probably sounded word-for-word like meetings which really happened. The movie could have easily by-passed all of this and simply focused on the characters, but Stone and the writers decided to take us inside of this world. The problem is that the lingo and talk of banking and trading gets old very fast and it can easily drive those of us who don't know big-business right out of the movie. I was willing to hang in there when the ending of Trading Places got incredibly confusing, but not so with Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps decides that a motorcycle race seems like a good idea on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 25 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing little grain and no defects from the source material. The picture is never overly dark or bright, and the colors look very good, most notably reds. The image is crisp and shows a good amount of depth, most noticeably during the motorcycle race scene. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. For a drama, the movie offers several scenes with notably good sound, including, yes, you guessed it, the race scene and those scenes involving the noisy trading floor. Stereo effects are nicely reproduced and the surround effects help to ensure that the viewer feels as if they are there.

The Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Blu-ray Disc contains a few extras. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Director Oliver Stone. "A Conversation with Oliver Stone and the Cast of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" (16 minutes) has the director having a sit-down with Douglas, LaBeouf, Brolin, and Mulligan, as they discuss the story, the evolution from the original film, and their experiences working on the movie. "Money, Money, Money: The Rise and Fall of Wall Street" (50 minutes) is a five-part documentary which explores the two films (with an exploration of how they reflect their times) and the real-life foibles of Wall Street, including an explanation of trading. The Disc contains fifteen DELETED & EXTENDED SCENES which run about 30 minutes and can be viewed with commentary by Stone. Most of these fall into the extended scene category and there's not much new information here. "Fox Movie Channel Presents In Character With" offers five different segments, as Douglas, LaBeouf, Mulligan, Brolin, and Langella are profiled. Finally, we have two TRAILERS for the film.