Dramatically inept, the film also muddles its naïve moralising.
Wall Street (1987)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:44
Fresh:34
Rotten:10
Average Rating:6.9/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 6 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Oliver Stone opened fire on the greed decade of the 1980s with this morality tale set on Wall Street. It stars Charlie Sheen as Bud Fox, an ambitious rookie stockbroker from a blue-collar... Oliver Stone opened fire on the greed decade of the 1980s with this morality tale set on Wall Street. It stars Charlie Sheen as Bud Fox, an ambitious rookie stockbroker from a blue-collar background who is mesmerized by Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), a Mephistophelean superbroker who specializes in corporate takeovers. Despite his initial resistance to Bud's entreaties, Gekko finally takes on the eager beaver as his protégé, schooling him in the kind of slash-and-burn maneuvers that have taken Gekko to the top. This style is far more attractive to Fox than the more prosaic but principled approach to investing preached by veteran Lou Mannheim (Hal Holbrook). And, at first, it's impossible to dispute his preference; as Bud's life moves into the fast lane, he quickly acquires an upscale apartment and a girlfriend to match, interior designer Darien (Darryl Hannah). But when Gekko demands that Bud not only break the law but directly undermine his union-leader father, Carl (Martin Sheen), and jeopardize the jobs and lives of his friends and family, he realizes that the cost of success might be more than he's willing to pay. WALL STREET is a riveting, testosterone-fueled tour of the Street's upper echelons, featuring standout performances by Michael Douglas and Martin Sheen. [More]
Starring: Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, Daryl Hannah
Starring: Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Terence Stamp, James Spader, Sylvia Miles, Sean Young, Hal Holbrook, John C. McGinley, James Karen
Director: Oliver Stone
Director: Oliver Stone
Screenwriter: Stanley Weiser, Oliver Stone
Producer: Edward R. Pressman
Composer: Stewart Copeland
Reviews for Wall Street
A big, glossy movie that satirises the whole yuppie ethos more than anything else.
A hard-hitting morality tale about how the lines between right and wrong are being blurred in the very compettive marketplace.
Wall Street isn't a movie to make one think. It simply confirms what we all know we should think, while giving us a tantalizing, Sidney Sheldon-like peek into the boardrooms and bedrooms of the rich and powerful.
a compelling drama that is exceedingly well acted (with the obvious exception of the wretched Daryl Hannah)
Stone's attack on the excesses of the Me Decade could easily be dubbed Mr. Smith Goes to Wall Street.
Stone's most impressive achievement in this film is to allow all the financial wheeling and dealing to seem complicated and convincing, and yet always have it make sense.
'Greed is good... greed works,' Gekko intones famously in Wall Street, and it was meant to be a shocking pronouncement at the time. That's the attitude that feels old-fashioned now.
With its posturing politics and cardboard characterizations, Wall Street is not up to [Oliver Stone's] past standards.
Stone's direction is solid and confident without being overtly flashy.
Wall Street is Stone's snarling condemnation of the Go-Go junk bond king buy 'em, break 'em, and sell off the parts '80s.
...blustery and unsophisticated, like many of the movies of Oliver Stone.
Wall Street was inspired by Stone's personal history...It is a pity his father didn't tell him a more interesting and original story he could adapt into a film.
Though it's set in urban New York, the jungle in this morality tale is similar to the one in Stone's former film, Platoon: In both, Charlie Sheen plays a youth torn between two father figures representing Good (Martin Sheen) and Evil (Michael Douglas)
A great film worth seeing, not only for the message it delivers, but also for the smoothness of it that makes it entertaining.
The sensibility of this movie is so adolescent that it's hard to take it as seriously as the filmmakers intend us to.
Director/co-writer Stone, with [Michael] Douglas at the epicenter, erects an overdone behemoth of a movie that, like Boesky himself, is an ageless -- and, at times, clichéd -- cautionary tale.
Watching Oliver Stone's Wall Street is about as wordy and dreary as reading the financial papers accounts of the rise and fall of an Ivan Boesky-type arbitrageur.
Latest News for Wall Street
September 22, 2009:
First Shot of Michael Douglas on Wall Street 2 ![]()
More than 20 years after his deeds landed him in the slammer, Gordon Gekko's walking free -- and here's the first shot of Michael Douglas from Oliver Stone's "Wall Street: Money... More...
September 08, 2009:
Josh Brolin, Charlie Sheen to appear in Wall Street sequel ![]()
Director Oliver Stone tells the New York Times that Brolin will play the film's villain and Sheen will return for a cameo as Bud Fox. More...
August 26, 2009:
Sarandon Contemplates Move to Wall Street ![]()
Susan Sarandon is in talks to join the cast of Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" sequel, in which she'd play the mother of Shia LaBeouf's character. More...
August 10, 2009:
Frank Langella Moves to Wall Street ![]()
Frank Langella has joined Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf in Oliver Stone's "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps." More...
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