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Sunday, October 3, 2010
Wall Street icon Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas)has been in prison for eight years for money laundering, inside trading and securities fraud. During his time behind bars, what was his family has dwindled down to an estranged daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan) who blames him for the death of her brother and wants nothing to do with her father. It is now 2008, Gekko is free and looking to get revenge. "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps": Michael Douglas won an Oscar for his portrayal of Gordon Gekko in the 1987 "Wall Street."
Gekko has been cooling his heels in jail. He re-enters society with the overwhelming desire to heal the relationship with his estranged daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan). Jake (Shia LaBeouf) is a young trader whose star is rising and whose heart is thumping for Winnie. He also yearns to avenge his mentor's death (Frank Langella) whose demise was caused by Bretton James' (Josh Brolin) ruthless business practices
Gekko is well placed to mutually aid Jake while pulling together all the film's plot contrivances.Viewers expected a cutting- edge financial procedural, but instead got something more like waiting in line at the ATM. The interesting stuff is lost amid an overly long affair.
Viewers commented: "The plot never got exciting," … "An embarrassment to the original," (many) … "Very slow," (many) … "Didn't have any anger that should have been pointed at corporations," (many) and "Bland. Nothing special.""Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole": Based on the books by Kathryn Lasky, this animated children's epic tells of the young owl Soren (Jim Sturgess), who longs to live in his father's stories of owl warriors fighting against the evil Pure Ones.
An incident with his bother Kludd (Anthony LaPaglia) finds Soren searching with other brave owls for the Great Tree and saving the kingdom. This is only an average children's adventure (73 percent approval).
Viewers reflected: "Good versus evil again," … "Not fast paced enough for most kids," and "Beautiful animation." (many)
"You Again": In this "getting the lovers to the altar" construction, the building materials arrive early.
Marni (Kristen Bell) learns that her brother (James Wolk) is going to marry Joanna (Odette Yustman) who 10 years earlier was her bitter high school nemesis when she was a nerd and not the successful PR person she is today.Joanna's aunt (Sigourney Weaver), we come to find out, was the bitter high school rival of Marni's mom (Jamie Lee Curtis). Reliable grout for the comedy material is provided by the popular resurgence of Betty White whose observations glue together machinations of the warring tribes.
Kristen Chenoweth stands out as the wedding planner. This talent mixture should have produced something better than a disappointing 59 percent approval.Viewers said: "Instead of being funny, they were annoying," … "I thought Betty White would make it funny, but she didn't help at all," (many) … "Enjoyable. Not as bad as the critics said it was," … "The critics were right, it's awful," and "Funny in parts."
"The Virginity Hit": This crass mockumentary follows the videotaping of four friends and their march to strip one of their ranks of his virginity. Some adolescent potty humor films, like "American Pie" or "Superbad" can be comforting because their filth feels sincere. "Virginity Hit" works too hard at being vulgar and misogynistic, discarding its sense of playfulness along the way.
Moviegoers reflected: "Terrible. The characters weren't the slightest bit funny," (many) … "That was sad," and "Usually I like these films but this one was just no good."
"Lovely, Still": Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn, two Academy Award winners, star in a little film from director/writer Nik Fackler, whose gentle lighthearted romance becomes a noteworthy drama.The couple awkwardly sorts out their long forgotten dating schema in the gentle romance portion of the film. Hints surface and soon it deals with the insights and losses that accompany a long life's journey.Viewers said: "A good mixture of the funny and sad things about growing old," … "Tender. It was affirming," and "Predictable twist. Very slow."
Douglas, who also has daughter Carys with Zeta-Jones, recently revealed the family moved to New York so that 10-year-old Dylan could attend a special school.
'New York is where we live now. We lived in Bermuda earlier. One of our kids has some special needs and it was recommended he go to a special school in the New York area,' he said.
'Dyslexia runs in the family, even my brother has it. My son goes to a special school. We're old-fashioned parents, our kids have got British nannies and we get nice compliments from people. Our children make us proud,' contactmusic.com quoted Douglas as saying.
'We just want them (kids) to be good citizens of the planet. They're not spoiled or obnoxious. They're well-mannered, confident, pretty worldly,' he added.
Jacob Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is young, loyal and has a strong passion for green energy and a company that is working on turning sea water to energy. He is also an ambitious investment banker at Keller Zabel Investments on Wall Street. Jake's mentor and father figure is the owner of the company, Louis Zabel (Frank Langella). Rumors have surfaced that Keller Zabel is heavy in debt and Louis must go before the Federal Reserve to fight for the life of his company. Bertton James (Josh Brolin), partner of Churchill Schwartz investment firm, stages a hostile takeover and ruins Zabel
