Ex-con Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, left) enters into an agreement with young trader Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) in Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. (20th Century Fox)Back in 1987, Gordon Gekko came to embody the Reagan era. The evil corporate raider from Oliver Stone's Wall Street was Scrooge McDuck in suspenders — a ruthless capitalist with slicked-back hair, an omnipresent stogie and a honking-big cell phone. And man, could he spin the macho maxims: "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good;" "Lunch is for wimps;" "I create nothing — I own." Michael Douglas delivered those lines with relish — and a bit of mustard on his ham — and won a best-actor Oscar.

Stone and Douglas team up again in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which sees Gekko dropped smack-dab in the middle of the 2008 economic meltdown. It's a gigantic I-told-you-so from the director. Given the recent subprime mortgage madness and those massive bonuses doled out to bank CEOs, 1980s-style greed seems almost quaint by comparison.

As always, Oliver Stone delivers a glossy product that's long on testosterone and short on subtlety.

As always, Stone delivers a glossy product that's long on testosterone and short on subtlety. As the story starts, Gekko seems to have ditched the hair gel and his brass-balls philosophy — he's just been released from prison, having served time for insider trading and securities fraud.

Cut to a few years later, in 2008, and Gekko is almost penitent as he promotes his new book, Is Greed Good?, on the financial network talk shows. He's issuing a warning about imminent economic collapse, but no one's listening to the ex-felon. Douglas is in fine form as the de-clawed titan who's aching to restore his reputation, get back in the big-money game and establish a relationship with his estranged daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan).

Oh, and he also has to deal with Winnie's boyfriend Jake (Shia LaBeouf), a Wall Street trader who wants to avenge the mysterious death of his mentor, Lewis Zabel (Frank Langella, excellent as always). It just wouldn't be an Oliver Stone movie without a father figure/mentor theme. There's some nice cat-and-mouse chemistry as Jake and Gekko realize they can help each other achieve their goals.

The cast is uniformly solid. LaBeouf is given a ton of screen time and manages to hold his own against Douglas, Langella and Josh Brolin, who shines as a creepy hedge-fund manager. Mulligan does what she can with her underwritten role. Stone's strength has never been developing his female characters.

It's fun to watch Gekko gradually rediscover his oily mojo, but the main problem here is the pacing. Stone is trying to deliver another critique of the culture of excess, but, ironically, he doesn't apply similar standards to his own plot. At 133 minutes, there's just too much story here. The domestic drama featuring Gekko and his daughter ultimately falls flat. The script would have been better served by focusing solely on the complex tale of high-finance revenge.

For better or worse, Stone has always been a huge advocate of 1960s counterculture values. Wall Street was obviously intended as a denunciation of the betrayal of those values. To his chagrin, he has spent much of the past 23 years listening to young Wall Street traders tell him that the slick Gekko character actually inspired them to choose their profession. Given the current economic mess, the director couldn't resist taking another kick at the can, and chiding all the proto- and mini-Gekkos for their irresponsible behaviour.

It's an understandable impulse, and Stone has taken enough care to ensure that the film features first-rate actors and lush cinematography — the Manhattan skyline has rarely appeared quite this seductive.

Still, the film lacks nuance and loses much of its momentum by the time we reach the finish line. It's tough to imagine this sequel having anything close to the cultural clout of the original.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps opens on Sept. 24.

Greig Dymond writes about the arts for CBC News.