Oliver Stone's 1987 film Wall Street was a devastating critique of the go-go 1980s and at its dark heart was Gordon Gekko, played to Oscar-winning effect by Michael Douglas. In this companion piece (not a sequel, more an epilogue, Stone insists), Gekko has served his jail time for illegal wheeler-dealing and is apparently a changed and penitent man. He sets about promoting his writing career and attempting a reconciliation with his daughter (Carey Mulligan), who is dating a young swashbuckling trader (Shia La Beouf). But has he really changed? Stone directs with his usual propulsive efficiency, provides a moderately gripping storyline with a ripped-from-the-headlines feel and draws effective performances from his cast, particularly La Beouf and Mulligan. But the strength of the original was mostly in Gekko and his ruthless personification of 80s greed. And though Douglas does his best, a more conflicted, ambivalent Gekko just isn't as much fun.

As the global economy teeters on the brink of disaster, a young Wall Street trader partners with disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko on a two tiered mission: To alert the financial community to the coming doom, and to find out who was responsible for the death of the young trader's mentor.