Wall Street

UK Release: 29th April 1988

Watched on Recorded TV: Wednesday 11th January 2012

Rating: 15

Genre: Crime, Drama

Runtime: 2hrs 6mins

Tagline: Every dream has a price.

IMDb Plot Synopsis: A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider who takes the youth under his wing.

My Review: I wasn’t sure about Wall Street at first. After watching films such as Inside Job I knew that financial films weren’t necessarily my cup of tea in terms of understanding what they were talking about. And while occasionally I found it hard to grasp the plot the general story here is more about Charlie Sheen’s character and how his greed and ambition eats away at all that is good in his life.

For all the bad press Sheen’s had recently it can be easy to forget that he is actually an actor and, having never seen his work before, it was interesting to see whether he was any good or not. And... he was ok. To be frank it was nothing special but he managed to play a young wall street broker desperate to reach the top with conviction. 

The acting was adequate, the plot mildly exciting and the look of the film very 80’s but I couldn’t help but feel disconnected due to the lack of investment I had with any of characters as they weren’t particuarly likeable. It was a shame as obviously it is a ‘classic’ and I can see how it captured that moment in time very well but it just wasn’t for me. 

Score: 7/10