There was a time when an Oliver Stone film would approach its topic in much the same way that a pit-bull would approach a burglar's meaty calf. Films such as "JFK," "Natural Born Killers" and "Salvador" knew exactly who their targets were, and didn't mince around trying to be "fair" or objective; it was teeth on bone all the way, baby.
Thus, it's been surprising to see the relative restraint with which Stone has approached such bogeyman biopics as "Nixon" and "W." (as in George Dubya Bush). Perhaps it's an attempt to look less partisan and more reasonable — empathetic even! — but his post-"Nixon" films suffer from the lack of that old wild-eyed righteous indignation.
That's certainly true of his latest, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," a sequel to Stone's 1987 hit "Wall Street," which featured a memorable performance by Michael Douglas as slick-haired, alpha-male trader Gordon Gekko, with his era-defining mantra "Greed is good." This film appeared at the height of the junk bond/insider trading scandals of the '80s, when superstar financiers such as Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky made billions through opaque methods before the whole caboodle went up in flames; both men wound up doing jail time for their shady dealings.