Wall Street (1987)

 Okay, I must say it. Charlie Sheen was the lead in this film but still, he didn't receive top billing, that went to Michael Douglas as the rich, greedy and malicious Gordon Gekko who is also a chain-smoker. I also think that's gross. But Bud Fox (Sheen) admires him and manages to get in, giving him some good tips to earn Gordon even more money. He's a broker and a damn good one and with Gekko on his side, finally Bud is making the money of his dreams, buying and renovating a building on the upper east side, which is his dream location only to have everything blow up. 

Bud wants to buy and save dying little airline Bluestar and at first, it appears that Gordon has the same idea but Bud's father, Carl (Martin Sheen) sees right through that and bad mouths the plan in front of Gordon, embarrassing him so he cancels his plan, and instead plans to tear up the business to make him even more money so Bud double crosses him and pulls Gordon's plan out from under him. So Gordon retaliates and gets Bud arrested and then Bud double crosses Gordon and gets him to admit he is guilty of insider trading so now, they are both probably headed to jail so at least there is some justice in the world.

While the film is decent and well-acted, I found Sheen to give the better and more relatable performance while Douglas is given less to do while he does it well, it was a role down before as it isn't layered but rather a surface performance. Still, it paved the way for the brilliant masterpiece Wolf of Wall Street so I must give credit where credit is do. And it was realistic and the screenplay was tight so while it was far from a bad film, I wouldn't recommend it. Grade: B

Side Notes:

-Daryl Hannah is an interior designer who apparently dated Gordon at some point and is also in a deep relationship with Bud but in the end, picks money over love. While her performance wasn't spectacular, I didn't think it was bad enough to earn her a Razzie.

-Because of Hannah's Razzie win, this is apparently the only film to win both an Oscar and a Razzie. That is not a compliment. 

-The supporting cast also included Sylvia Miles (the funky real estate agent), Sean Young (Gordon's hot wife and mother of his young son), Millie Perkins (Bud's mother), Hal Holbrook (Bud's older, wiser co-worker), James Spader (a young lawyer friend of Bud), and Terence Stamp (Gordon's main rival). 

-Despite Bud's attempts to get his father to quit smoking, he nevertheless picks up the habit by the end of the film, even after his father flicks the cigarette out of his mouth in his hospital room no less.