Michael Douglas reprises his role as Gordon Gekko from the original film getting out of prison for insider trading and being a dick (if I recall the charges correctly). He goes off and writes a book about the new crop of Wall Street making him look like a girl scout. Meanwhile we meet Shia LaBeouf who is shacked up in a $6MM loft with Gekko's estranged daughter Carey Mulligan. She runs a liberal website, he claims he cares about green energy though seems to mainly say that to make himself feel better making tons of money producing nothing of any lasting value. Then we meet one of the many bad guys of the story Josh Brolin who plays the current crop of Wall Street's big swinging dicks. Brolin screws LaBeouf, LaBeouf screws him back and then we wait for Gekko to screw everyone. All this plays out against against director Oliver Stone trying to explain why the whole crazy culture of running money is corrupt and owns us all and everyone is screwed while the government helps. Which while possibly being quite true does not by itself make a movie nearly as interesting as just reading any book by Michael Lewis including his new one on the same topic, The Big Short. Maybe it's just hard to care about the problems of folks who get cut million dollar checks when they fall on slightly hard times. Or maybe it's just not a particularly interesting movie. I personally thing it's roughly 50/50 on that.
Screening Notes:
Only thing more disappointing than the movie was the theater experience. I went to the Gold Class Cinema (yes, the way too expensive movie place). I still cannot believe how many people were either talking or lighting up their freaking phones. Complained about one couple twice - even though the place is so small and they have a press a button system so it's obvious who's complaining. After the second time they offered to move my seat. Which I did even though I pointed out that was ridiculous as I picked the seat I wanted when I paid their high rates to go and the folks talking should move. After relocating eventually I saw the offending couple leave. But the crazy part is that even the original people next to me were talking to (though slightly lower) and after I moved there was some dude literally waving around a lit cell phone around. I don't think I'm that picky - but this was beyond silly. After the film I found the manager just to say WTF? He told me they had kicked the couple out (they didn't just leave on their own) which made me feel slightly better. But I'm not too sure he got my point that perhaps they should take a page from the alamo's playbook and actually tell people to SHUT THE FUCK UP before the film. No refund but some vague promise to cover my next visit. We will see....
Oh, and if you've never been to an Alamo Drafthouse theater here's an example of the type of trailer they've crafted to remind folks to behave properly. Just one of many great examples.
TROLL 2: MAXIMUM HOSPITALITY from BLACKMAGIC ROLLERCOASTER on Vimeo.
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