Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Michael Douglas, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin, Susan Sarandon, Frank Langella, Charlie Sheen

132 mins

★★★

THE last time Gordon Gekko was on screen he told us that “Greed is good”. After eight years behind bars, he returns to the real world to find that greed is legal.

The money men have certainly had a hard time of late. Bankers are the new villains, more reviled than any James Bond baddie. The timing is right for writer-director Oliver Stone to revive Gekko in another story of greed with Michael Douglas reprising his Oscarwinning role.

%movie(15595)

Gekko has written a best-selling book, telling his readers that “the mother of all evil is speculation”.

The audience includes ambitious trader Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) who has an intimate connection with Gekko – he’s dating his estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan, the British actress Oscar nominated for An Education in 2009).

Stone has crafted a fast-paced drama that helpfully explains all the financial jiggery-pokery while getting all sentimental over the father-daughter relationship.

Somehow Gekko as a doting grandfather – that’s right, Winnie’s pregnant – doesn’t ring true.

Douglas shows why he won an Oscar in the first place with a portrait of a devious, slippery character whose business brain hasn’t been dimmed by a spell in prison.