Watched this last night.  Actually rewatched the original Wall Street on Netflix streaming Sunday, as it was the last day it was going to be available.

First of all, I was not impressed with the original (I saw it at the theater, years ago, when it was originally released, but not since).  I didn't dislike it, I just wasn't very impressed with any aspect of it.  Very by the numbers, cliched, unrealistic, unlikable characters.  I did like Michael Douglas' Gordon Gecko, though.  I just wish the film had taken him a bit further...revealed a little more of him.

As for the sequel?  $70 Million budget.  Weak, disappointing $52 Million NABO, $135 Million, respectable WWBO.  Definitely viewed as a big disappointment though.

I couldn't even get through it.  First time, I haven't finished a Netflix Blu-Ray...ever.  Is it that bad?  No, it's not bad, per se...it just wasn't my thang.  I was bored.  I didn't like the characters.  I didn't believe the setup and premise.  I didn't care what was going to happen.

I got through about an hour of the 2 hour and 7 minute runtime, and realized that was enough for me.

Haha I saw this movie third in a triple-feature day at the cinema.  I actually thought the first act was pretty neat -- I liked all of the stuff with Frank Langella -- but this quickly became mind-numbingly boring.

Great to see Michael Douglas up there doin' his thing, but the rest just didn't really seem to have anything interesting going on at all.

Jeff, if you had seen the third act...you would be a lot less happy with it than you are now.  Ha!  What a mess.

Yeah, the first act was OK, but it started getting dull quick, and I didn't like or relate to Shia LeBeau'd character.  Glad I didn't slog through the last hour.

Thanks, Chris.

I guess I;m going to be in the minority here, i actually liked it, i liked michael douglas, i loved the cell phone bit at the start, i liked learning about something that for one, i don't find interesting, second, i don;t understand. Oliver Stone, by using visuals along with dialog, gave me at least a little bit of an understanding how things work, now I wouldn't pass a test, but i know a lot more now then i did before. I also thought Josh Brolin was a pretty good bad guy, so in the end something i thought was dull gave me some interest, and something i didn't understand made a little more sense, and on that the movie worked for me.

Shia Leboef is one of the most difficults actors to watch I've ever come across.

He's like watching paint dry....got absolutely no charisma whatsoever. Can't begin to imagine how he's managed to get in so many films.

A surprisingly soft and sappy message film follow up to the sharp original.
Turning Gordon Gekko into a sympathetic character sounds daring on paper.
But, if there's no one to be the charismatic antagonist in the sequel, it's a yawner.

It takes a lot to get me to sympathize with rich people, cuz they're friggin' rich!
Shia LeBouf can't carry the weight the emotional arc of this film requires of him,
I was invested while Langella was around, the fallen mentor role worked for me.

The drama couldn't mask the ham fistedness of Stone's personal agenda.
The clumsiness of the message about global economy was not well handled.
While Gekko as a good guy on paper sounds great, on film, not so much.

E.D.

I agree with Rick on this point.  Shia LaBouf is pure poison to every film I've ever seen him in.  His mannerisms are grating, his voice is cringe-inducing and he seems to perform every scene in the same tone and emotional note.  Dude's got depth like a kiddie pool.  Shia LaBeof is no Charlie Sheen.  God, did I just say that?  

This movie really was a slog. I liked the Gekko character here, but knew he was not to be trusted, so his betrayal of Shia's character was about as surprising as the sun rising in the east.  The first Wall Street, IMO, dramatized and presented a compicated industry in a palatable and relatable way to the average filmgoer.  The story moved from the opening scene and was populated with much more interesting people, including the Terence Stamp character as Gekko's nemesis.    

This movie made no such attempt.  Are we really supposed to care about the nerdy professor and his energy project?  Ugh.  The script seemed to rely on Shia's character to explain everything that was going on.  And the romance with Gekko's daughter...better left unsaid.  That was really a bad idea.

This could have been interesting, given the present state of the stock market.  An 80's shark being released into new waters, but they went for sap over story.