Weekend Box Office: Shia LeBeouf Now Has Six Straight No. 1 Movies... Who Let This Happen?

"Money Never Sleeps" indeed. Who takes the credit for the "Wall Street" sequel opening? As little as this might mean ($60 million domestic seems like the ceiling for latter-day Oliver Stone), it's a victory when studios can get a September release to an opening around $20 million. Credit to the headliners - the combination of one-time heavy hitter Michael Douglas in his signature role (akin to Stallone returning to Rocky or Rambo) and box office kid dynamo Shia LeBeouf likely meant a safe bet for curious viewers, in addition to fans of the $43 million-grossing first film twenty-three years ago.

We'll guess this is a vote for topicality, so regardless of the quality of the movie (irrelevant - this is a box office discussion), good for the American people. If they completely rejected this film (and, mind you, this opening isn't exactly a record breaker), then you could have considered it a referendum against the increasingly not-with-it Oliver Stone, but also yet another rejection of a film about topical issues. The war in the Middle East has yet to produce a hit, but here we are in the recession and people will pay to see Michael Douglas bilking people out of their cash and smiling all the way to the bank.

It looks like Warner Bros. is gonna take a mulligan on "Legend of the Guardians." With Zack Snyder behind this action epic, they were likely hoping similar results to when George Miller directed "Happy Feet." Of course, even with 3D-inflated prices, this opening is less than a fourth of what "Happy Feet" scored in its opening frame in 2006. The problem probably lies in the animation-style, as the owls in the picture appear difficult to distinguish. Having no big names above the title also didn't help, but let's face it - sometimes no one wants to see a movie. And whether it's Zack Snyder or Jean-Luc Godard, you're not going to get modern-day audiences, adults or kids, into a theater to watch an animated action picture about owls.

Fortunately for the studio, "The Town" continued to do solid business, approaching $50 million after two weekends. Ben Affleck's crime thriller is most likely the biggest step in rehabilitating the one-time A-Lister. The question is, does he try to pursue more lead roles, or does he become a Redford-like hyphenate? He's only got the new Terrence Malick picture on deck, so could we see a return to the action hero Affleck? Maybe he'll direct a third crime picture set around Boston based on a best-seller? Or maybe his promise will wither in another "Gigli."

Screen Gems benefited from a solid hold for "Easy A," which was impressive not only in that it managed a strong second weekend, but the film also outdistanced the similarly-themed "You Again." Even with the suddenly-everywhere Betty White, 'Again' couldn't score numbers equal to Kristen Bell's other DOA lead role of '10, "When In Rome." This likely puts her leading-lady career on ice for now, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see her pop up in more ensemble comedies.

"Devil" had a typical horror slide into sixth, just barely getting past "Resident Evil: Afterlife." Both are pretty much done, though "Devil" is going to need a stretch to get to $40 million. No such negativity for 'Afterlife,' easily the highest-grossing film in the series worldwide, and this a series that usually scores massively on DVD. 'Afterlife' can thank the 3D prices, but that was only a small consolation to "Alpha And Omega," which plummeted in weekend two, and may be the lowest-grossing wide release film in 3D ever.

In limited release, Woody Allen's latest "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" took in a total $163K on 6 screens, but was topped on per screen average by "Waiting for 'Superman'." The Davis Guggenheim-directed doc about the American education system premiered on only 4 screens, taking in an average of $35k each: a solid opening for the sophomore effort from the same team that brought us "An Inconvenient Truth." Meanwhile, Ryan Reynolds-in-a-coffin thriller "Buried" opened on 11 screens, bringing in a modest $104.5K. Our review from TIFF was lukewarm, finding Reynolds' strong performance to be under-served by a plot line that was "ultimately marred by a number of implausibilities and some tepid political commentary." The picture is currently at 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, so it remains to be seen what a wider opening and Reynolds' name can do for the take on this one.

1. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Fox) - $19 million
2. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls Of Ga'Hoole (WB) - $16.3 million
3. The Town (WB) - $16 million ($49.1 mil.)
4. Easy A (Sony) - $10.7 million ($32.8 mil.)
5. You Again (Disney) - $8.3 million
6. Devil (Universal) - $6.5 million ($21.7 mil.)
7. Resident Evil: Afterlife (Sony) - $4.9 million ($52 mil.)
8. Alpha And Omega (Lionsgate) - $4.7 million ($15.1 mil.)
9. Takers (Sony) - $1.6 million ($54.9 mil.)
10. Inception (WB) - $1.2 million ($287 mil.)

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Review: 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps' Is Messy But Still Entertaining

As soon as that dopey 75th Anniversary version of the 20th Century Fox logo dissipates, the first sounds we hear in "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" are of a prison gate opening, and someone shuffling through it. It's followed up by a good gag: Michael Douglas, as Gordon Gekko, the role that nabbed him a Best Actor Academy Award oh-so-many moons ago, collecting his personal belongings, having intoned to him gravely by a prison guard, things like "A money clip with no money in it" and a briefcase-sized cellular telephone.

It's when he walks out of the prison, though, that the current state of his character is really revealed: there's no one there to pick him up. The year is 2001 and Gordon Gekko is hopelessly alone; bridges burned, prestige squandered, his slicked-back hair has gone slack and gray, and he looks more like a teacher of comparative literature at Hampshire College than a wolf of Wall Street. And just as soon as we're introduced to shaggy Gordon Gekko, we leave him. We flash forward 7 years and are introduced to the real central character of 'Money Never Sleeps,' Shia LaBeouf, continuing his fine career path of being "younger versions of already established characters," as an enterprising trader named Jake Moore.

Jake, unlike Gordon, has some moral bearing, at the very least: he's been tutored, affectionately, by the head of his firm, Lewis Zabel (Frank Langella), and has at least one earth-conscious venture he's trying to funnel money towards (it involves lasers; don't ask us). When it becomes apparent that the corporation is going under, Zabel makes a desperately plea to the Feds to be bailed out. Here he's met with resistance, chiefly from the film's villain, a smarmy hedge fund shark named Bretton James (Josh Brolin) who wears really well tailored-suits (you can tell by the sharp angle of his shirt collars). Devastated, Zabel takes his own life.

If there is any emotional hook to hang the big, ungainly hat of "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" on, it's revenge. Jake wants revenge on Bretton James for killing his company and causing his mentor to commit suicide, and in order to exact said revenge, he makes a devil's bargain with Gordon Gekko. Gekko, it's revealed, wasn't imprisoned for the charges Charlie Sheen's Bud Fox lobbied against him as a result of the first movie, no, he was put away by somebody else altogether (who could it be? Oh right it's Josh Brolin, that was fairly obvious).

And what does Gordon want in return? He wants to reconnect with his daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan), who just so happens to be engaged to driven, determined Jake. But is Gordon actually ready to make amends for being a dickish, reptilian asshole? Or will he go back to his old ways again, with the slicked-back hair, and go-go Reagan-era ethos? This should be fairly obvious, too.

The first "Wall Street" was made before Oliver Stone made bold, splashy, big budget movies that often incorporated extremely experimental elements (at least editorially), and for all of its big talk about consumerism and greed it was rigidly formulaic, as square as anything else in Reagan's America. This film is happening after Stone has gotten his ya-yas out and gone back to making oddly mundane movies, like the toothless "W.," and it's good to see him having fun again. Stone adds some pretty embellishments (iris ins, split screens, overlapping images, camera movements that scale entire buildings) and the movie moves along at a clip, even if it is at least 20 minutes too long. Kudos should be also handed to composer Craig Armstrong, with a nicely atmospheric score (the less said about Stone's insistence on using some Brian Eno/David Byrne songs, the better).

But "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" is a mess; this much is certain. There's so much going on, both visually and plot-wise, that, coming out of the movie, you're not sure exactly what the thing was about. It's peppered with genuinely touching moments, but they often gets lost in a swarm of subplots and byzantine finance world mumbo jumbo that is rarely, if ever, explained. Was the movie a barbed critique of the current economic crisis? Was it a character piece about a reptilian alpha male who learns to become human again? Was it a revenge parable? A love story, maybe? Or a whirligig look at the way that the financial system works (visualized, gloriously, as glittery towers of information)? Maybe it's all of these things; or none. The raw power of "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" is that it leaves you with the sensation that none of that really matters; that no matter how scatter-shot the film may seem it is unifying in one key way — it's really, really entertaining. And as good as greed is, for a big budget Hollywood confection, solid entertainment is even better. [B]

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