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Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)
2010 | Drama
Money Never Sleeps
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps- is a good film. Its suspenseful, dramatic, thrilling and action packed with drama.

The plot: Following a long prison term for insider trading, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) finds himself on the outside looking in at a world he once commanded. Ostensibly hoping to repair his broken relationship with his daughter, Gekko forges an alliance with her fiance, Jake (Shia LaBeouf). Although Jake comes to view Gordon as a father figure, he learns the hard way that Gekko is still a master manipulator who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals.

Its a good film.
  
Wall Street (1987)
Wall Street (1987)
1987 | Drama
Greed Is Good
Wall Street- is a good drama thriller. It has a good cast and director.

The plot: On the Wall Street of the 1980s, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) is a stockbroker full of ambition, doing whatever he can to make his way to the top. Admiring the power of the unsparing corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), Fox entices Gekko into mentoring him by providing insider trading. As Fox becomes embroiled in greed and underhanded schemes, his decisions eventually threaten the livelihood of his scrupulous father (Martin Sheen). Faced with this dilemma, Fox questions his loyalties.

I do recordmend watching it.
  
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Michael Korda recommended Paths of Glory (1957) in Movies (curated)

 
Paths of Glory (1957)
Paths of Glory (1957)
1957 | Classics, Drama, War

"All right, Stanley Kubrick was a genius, the master of the big, ambitious film that stuns the senses, like 2001: A Space Odyssey. But Paths of Glory is one of the last great triumphs of black-and-white filmmaking. It is also a tribute to the talent of Kirk Douglas, who here takes on the role of a French colonel in the trenches of the First World War with such explosive energy that one realizes how many films (and directors) were unworthy of Kirk’s genius as an actor—his first acting role, by the way, was onstage as the servant in Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, with Catherine Cornell, Judith Anderson, and my mother as the sisters and Ruth Gordon as the dreadful sister-in-law. Nobody has ever captured the First World War better on film (except perhaps for Jean Renoir in Grand Illusion, which is in a class by itself). A heartbreaking giant of a film, not a bad shot or a wasted frame in it; perfect filmmaking."

Source
  
Wall Street (1987)
Wall Street (1987)
1987 | Drama
When looking to review a film like this, there are two distinct points of view to take in to a account:

The first being the contemporary context. That being that this was made in 1987, at the height of the Wall Street boom and that, at the time, this must have been a revelation for so many people, who still had either faith or ignorance about the financial institutions which had metamorphosed into the corrupt capitalist cancer which we all know today.

The later half of the 80’s was to herald the fall of the Gordon Gecco’s and this film, whilst reflecting its time, was also ushering in an era of doom for Wall Street, as well as the continuing propagation of this corruption which would lead to the 2008 crash which are still reeling from today.

So given that like so many films which have essentially whistle blown in there own time, Psycho (1960) also springs to mind, the impact is lessened by thirty years of dilution, in which case it would be unfair to judge the film harshly on the fact that it does not really tell us anything new today.

But when it comes to judging how well the film was made, that is surly timeless.

And considering that Oliver Stone put this together, I was disappointed. The characters where not only dislikable, which I am sure was intentional, they were also poorly written. People just come and go throughout and with the exceptions of Michael Douglas’ Gorden Gecco, Charlie Sheen’s Bud Fox and his real life father, Martin Sheen as Bud’s blue collar dad, the rest of the cast seemed to be wasted.

The plot was all over the place, inconstant and littered with goofs and continuity errors right from the get-go. In fact, it only took a few minutes before I was aghast that a film which begins in 1985 made a reference to Gecco’s ruthlessness by stating that he made money out of the Challenger disaster, which did not occur until January 1986!

Charlie Sheen’s character is difficult to sympathise with, not only because he is trying to be the villain, yet of course he finds his soul by the end, but that he is so utterly naive that it is beyond belief!

It is never clear how much money is being made, who has what or what the real gains or losses are by the end, to the point that whist it is implied that Sheen will be jailed for his insider trading, the film ends before he enters the court and Gecco, who has been recorded by Sheen confessing to his involvement, is never resolved at all!

By the end I was really annoyed by how shallow and lackadaisical the script was, seemingly only really interested in showing the power hungry greed of Wall Street traders at this time.

“Greed is good”.

Well, Mr Stone, so is some exposition.
  
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Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated Mammoth in Books

Mar 15, 2018  
M
Mammoth
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Also find my review here: http://bookbum.weebly.com/book-reviews/mammoth-by-douglas-perry

NOW AVAILABLE IN THE UK!

Thank you to Netgalley and Amberjack Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this in an exchange for a review.

Not quite what I was expecting, which I think is the general feel judging by others reviews. Be warned, this isn’t a creepy paranormal, alien type of thing. I don’t think that’s a spoiler either, I wouldn’t want you to pick this up and be greatly disappointed. If you love character focused novels then this will be your kind of book! This gives you some really in depth information about each of the characters, but it can get confusing because there are <i>so</i> many characters! There are <b>eleven</b> main characters, plus more characters that relate to these characters in little sub plots.

<u>Characters: </u>
Tori
Billy & Becky
Jackson & Sam
Hicks & Lloyd
Oscar - “King”
Melvin & Gordon
Winnie Lloyd

If you find it difficult to keep up with lots of different people in books then this won’t be for you. It can get a little confusing at times and I often forgot what was happening to one character by the time we got back to reading about them after having read about 4 characters in between.

I though this novel was superbly written. Possibly one of the best written books I’ve read in quite a while! There is some really grotesque imagery in this book, not in a violent way though, so I wouldn’t give it any trigger warnings, though rape is implied. My only problem with the writing was that sometimes it was really difficult to understand where the characters were in Mammoth View or Bakersfield or what. That was my one annoyance, I wasn’t able to keep a grip on where each character was.

In terms of the plot that there was, which wasn’t much, it was an interesting storyline. Lots of things going on a once which could definitely add to the confusion. I feel as though Perry had created seven(ish) separate short stories and then tried to mash them into one… which in my opinion worked. I felt let down by the ending in a way but at the same time I thought it was really unique. You do find out why panic ensues in the small town of Mammoth View and I can bet you won’t see it coming… Though now I’ve told you it’s not paranormal or aliens then maybe you might…

If you like to really get to know a character and don’t really care about a well developed plot then this book is a definite read for you, but if you’re expecting something scary or creepy form this then don’t bother as it isn’t that kind of thing. I will definitely look out for more of Perry’s work!