"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps"

With "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" Oliver Stone provides a blast from the past that has never been so relevant to the state of times.

Serving an eight-year sentence on the charges of insider trading and securities fraud, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is released in 2001 with no one to greet him at the door of freedom. Fast forward to 2008, Gordon has milked his experience, and is now a sought-after book author ("Is Greed Good?") and speaker. Never missed a beat, he foretells the great financial crisis of 2008 and promotes his book in front of the "ninja generation" (lost generation facing chronic unemployment).

Douglas is back at the top of his game with his sharp and smarmy Gekko persona. He projects an authoritative presence that dominates the screens he shares with estranged daughter, journalist Winnie (Carey Mulligan) and soon-to-be fiance, stockbroker Jake Moore (Shia LeBouf).

Winnie blames Gordon for what he's done and the lost of her brother who overdosed and died. LeBouf (who wouldn't be on my roster for playing this role), known for his blockbuster "Transfomer" and "Indiana Jones" movies, doesn't pull off the financial whiz look believably. But he's surprisingly good with his love-hate dynamic with Gordon and shrewd trading efforts in bridging a father-and-daughter reconciliation. Young and idealist, he specializes in green energy idolizes his mentor, Louis Zabel (Frank Langella).

Mulligan plays off Douglas well as the emotional anchor in the relationship. When it comes to his infamous father, she knows that nothing is neither straightforward nor simple.

Has prison changed Gordon? Does he truly want to reconcile with her daughter? When confronted with dollar signs to the tune of $100 million, is time really the primary asset in life or is it too high of a price? What does Winnie know that Jake doesn't? Can Jake be trusted or does he have his own agenda?

In the meantime, years of reckless excess and abandonment slowly but surely spirals Wall Street out-of-control. The Manhattan skyline is marvelously outlined, following the ups and downs of the market. Greed gets greedier (and apparently legal) because everyone is now "drinking from the same koolaid." Mortgage-backed securities, leveraged debts, government bailout make their way into our vocabularies.

"Pious piranha" Bretton James (Josh Brolin) pushes Zabel's firm over the edge, along with its chief. He offers to buy out the shares at $3 each during a terse Federal Reserve meeting, plunging from $79 per share in the month prior. Together with Gordon, Jake worms its way into Bretton's side and plots for revenge (although it can be said that his illegal dealing is ultimately his own downfall).

The complexity of the transactions may not be easily understood in laymen terms (then again, had they made sense, we probably wouldn't have been in this mess in the first place!), but the story centers on money manipulation as much as family relationships. 'Wall Street' may not rock the charts, but it's pretty much right on the money as far as entertainment value goes.

DVD: http://tinyurl.com/2dx99am

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"The Town"

Ben Aflleck goes back to his roots and puts on a director's cap with "The Town," a gritty realist crime drama that has become the talk of town. After his directorial debut of powerfully shocking "Gone Baby Gone" and a second solid return, he proves that directing is in the cards for him(perhaps more so than acting).  

Set in Charlestown, a rough blue-collar suburb of Boston, the town has been a breeding ground for criminals for generations; murderers, armed robbers, carjackers. Mafia head (Pete Postlethwaite) brazenly conducts businesses behind innocuous storefront and strong-arms even hard-core perpetrators.

Having a convicted killer felon as a father (Chris Cooper) and a mother who left him (there's more than meets the eye) at six years old, Doug MacRay (Affleck), goes back to town after his short career in pro-hockey ended before it began. He joins the brotherhood of crimes; James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner, "The Hurt Locker"), Albert Magloan (Slaine) and Owen Burke (Desmond Eden). Sleazy sister Krista Coughlin (Blake Lively, "Gossip Girl") with a kid, presumably Doug's, rounds up the main players. While the story revolves around Doug and this may be Affleck's film, Jeremy is the star here. His trigger-happy James can turn predictable into unpredictable.

Doug's fate seems to be sealed in crime, until he falls for and pursues a relationship with a bank manager, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), whose bank he has robbed, and is blissfully unaware about the real identity of her new guy. Complications soon arise as the FBI (Jon Hamm and Titus Welliver) is closing in and Claire is clued in.

The Bostonian fast-talks among tightly-knit characters occupies a lot of screen time, but it's evenly enthralling. There's a stretch of chase-and-getaway sequences that will keep your pulse racing. And the rapid-fire shootouts during the Fenway heist to the finish is adrenaline-pumping good.

Doug is clearly a bad guy; there's no shade of gray about it. I don't normally root for the bad guy, but somehow I found myself pulling for an escape route for him - and to give him an earnest chance to truly turn his life around. The ending, which could have swerved differently, is as realistic as it can be and it's just "right" at different levels.

DVD: http://tinyurl.com/2dmscnq

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"The American"

I don't know how to make of "The American." It's not an action spy movie and it's not a suspense thriller either. If you're expecting a fast-paced flashy "James Bond," a gritty "Bourne," or even an international intrigue like "The International" (starring Clive Owen), you'd be sorely disappointed. It's simply not that kind of movie. The trailer is misleading, unfortunately. It's a foreign film set in a foreign country, which happens to star George Clooney, as yes, the only American.

Jack (or Edward - who knows), a former assassin-for-hire, lives a secluded life in a remote, picturesque Italian village on a hill. Constantly fearing for his life, he's persistently paranoid and always looking over his shoulder - for good reason. It seems that his past has caught up with him; other gun-trotting, shadowy figures are tracking him down. Although it can be said that when Jack's on the job, he doesn't leave anything behind.

For whatever reason, he agrees to accept a one last assignment from his obscured employer. And this time, he doesn't even have to kill. His job is to build a custom-made weapon, a compact rifle with machine gun capability. He's had exchanges with the buyer, a femme fatale with ever-changing hairdo (Thekla Reuten), to ensure that the specs will be precisely as ordered. Along the way, he has lurid encounters with a prostitute (Violante Placido), and somehow lust turns into love. He also befriends a priest (Paolo Bonacelli) with a sordid past.

"The American" is more like a character-centric drama (or rather, lack of the latter) with a languorous pace. It's been dubbed as a "character study" or "mood film." I am actually one of those who believe there's a beauty in silence and subtleties, but here the story just isn't there for me.

We're subjected to almost-still pictures of the day in-and-out in the life of a one-dimensional character. It's as if someone takes a camera, points and shoots at the minutiae of what someone does from the moment he wakes up in the morning until he goes to bed at night - only against the backdrop of majestic vistas.

For a character-centric film, it lacks a lot - background, history, motivations, emotions, meaningful connections - in other words, all the dimensions that would make Jack's character compelling. Whilst the ending exposes the purpose of his last job and hits the intended target with a bulls eye accuracy, I'm afraid that it's a little too late to care when everything comes to a disastrous end.

DVD: http://tinyurl.com/2bemwgd

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