After the teaser trailer left a bad taste in our mouth, with its heavily cliched dialogue and awful score, we had pretty much written off “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”. However, with the arrival of the international trailer, our interest is back up, though with reservations.
This two-and-half-minute plus trailer thankfully ditches the awful score from the teaser and instead takes a page from Martin Scorsese’s handbook and sets the entire thing to the Rolling Stone’s “Sympathy For The Devil.” We also get a much better look at what to expect from the film, and the hint that (surprise, surprise) Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) isn’t as reformed after his stint in prison than we might expect. There is also a first look at a smarmy Josh Brolin as a competitor/enemy of up-and-comer Jacob (Shia LaBeouf). In the middle of all of this is Winnie (Carey Mulligan), Gekko’s daughter who tries to warn her future husband Jacob that her father is not what he appears to be. The spot also displays what looks to be some great work by cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (“Babel,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Broken Embraces”). All around, this trailer plays much, much better than the teaser.
But whether or not the film will stand up remains to be seen. The trailer pretty much gives away the whole the story, but if director Oliver Stone doesn’t take the film too seriously , this could be a fun, slick and popcorn ready b-movie cautionary tale. It definitely feels like a throwback to some of the “issue” based dramas of the ’80s and ’90s but hopefully without the earnestness of trying to drive home a “message” (though Stone isn’t exactly known for subtlety or nuance so we’re not holding our breath). We’ll have to see when the film opens on April 23rd.
