Cinetopia

For more than 20 years the only Gecko in town was small green and single-track minded on selling car insurance. When Gordon Gecko was jailed in the 1987 classic Wall Street, starring Michael Douglas (as Gordon Gecko), Charlie Sheen and Daryl Hannah, we slowly forgot about how he wronged society, assuming we would never again see the Oliver Stone creation. Little did we know, Gecko would make a similar return to mainstream glory in 2010, similarly coordinated with jailed NFL quarterback Michael Vick, as the original movie was finally granted a sequel, with the release of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.Douglas reprises his role as Gecko, like Vick, supposedly a changed man after his incarceration. Stone once again sits in the director’s chair and even Charlie Sheen makes a cameo appearance playing an aged version of his original character Bud Fox. Up and coming star Shia LeBouf joins the cast as the movie’s central protagonist, Jake, a young go-getter dating Gecko’s estranged daughter.The delayed making of a sequel allowed realistic time to pass for Gecko to serve his fictional prison sentence, not to mention a movie-worthy occurrence on real life Wall Street. The film centers around the 2008 near-collapse of the United States financial structure, with the always savvy though not always savory Gecko attempting to warn investors and stock market authority’s about the dangers of pre-2008 practices. At the movie’s onset, Gecko is now an author and lecturer, penning the book “Is Greed Good?” which explores the economy as it relates to inherent human limitations for integrity. Simultaneously, Jake plans marriage with Winnie, yet struggles to balance his career with his curiosity about Gecko and Winnie’s reluctance to let her father back in his life.Ultimately this is a timely movie, with an all-star cast and firm rooting in both film history and reality. Reviews so far have been positive, making it a prime choice for viewing in the coming weekends.