Wall Street

Starring:Frank Adonis, John Capodice, Franklin Cover, Michael Douglas, Faith Geer, FranÃ§ois Giroday, Hal Holbrook, James Karen, Dani Klein, Leslie Lyles, John C. McGinley, Josh Mostel, Suzen Murakoshi, Chuck Pfeiffer, Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, Ann Talman, Tamara Tunie, Lisa Zebro
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

The intense soundtrack of Boiler Room is a fitting underscore for this movie, which pulses with the vigor of young, rich, amoral men wreaking havoc. This is not the antisocietal havoc of Fight Club, but the more deliberate mayhem that comes from greed run amok. The testosterone-junkie brokers of J.T. Marlin (the only female in the office is Abby, the receptionist and love interest, played by Nia Long) are out to make the sale, and whether that sale is legal or ethical doesn't matter.

Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi) is a 19-year-old college dropout who strives for approval from his father (Ron Rifkin), a judge who is horrified that his son operates a 24-hour illicit casino. When an old friend visits the casino with a fellow broker, Davis is impressed by their wads of money and yellow Ferrari, and decides to join the firm. In no time he's making sales and settling into the groove of the office and all the after-hours perks, but the dream fades when Davis discovers the scam that is making all of the brokers wealthy beyond their dreams.

Borrowing heavily from Wall Street and Glengarry Glen Ross, Boiler Room is at its best when dealing with matters of money, and powerful scenes of Davis learning to be a "closer" showcase the significant talent of Ribisi, Nicky Katt, and Vin Diesel. The movie flounders when developing the relationship between Davis and his father, becoming sentimental and trite. However, as a fable of modern society and a nostalgic vehicle about the days of yuppies past, Boiler Room is right on the money. --Jenny Brown

Customer Reviews:

Triple X.......2007-06-02

Vin Deisel wimps out in this movie. At the end when the FBI is gonna raid the office he should kick butt!! He doesn't, so it sucks. The best scene is where the Boss tells one of the Stockbrokers that he can't sit down ever again! He has to stand until he makes a sale hahaha. Ben Affleck isn't as good as Alec Baldwin in Glen Gary GlenRoss. He tries to be, but can't. It just isn't good enough of a performance to equal Mr. Baldwin's. Vin Deisel should shoot people with machine guns in the film. He should shoot Affleck hahaha. Go Triple X!!

Good Movie.......2007-05-14

I spent some time in the car business at one point in my life and I developed an appreciation for taking what is yours and making it mine. With that said, if you liked Wall Street and Rouge Trader, then this 90's movie with a similiar storyline should find its way into your collection. For the price, you can't really go wrong.

Good, but cannot overcome "Wall Street".......2006-07-20

Both "Wall Street" and "Boiler Room" have the same moral outline. In both movies, young, ambitious, and smart individuals are looking to make an enormous amount of money in the quickest time possible. Both are doing it on the stock market. Both want to make their fathers proud, and both quickly learn that the only way to get the fast "wall street" money is to get it illegally. Once they realize they are committing crimes, they do it anyway. Then, of course, comes a braking point. Both movies open with shots of New-York city. Only in the "Boiler Room", the soundtrack is rap music. That shows us the evolution of time since "Wall Street" came out. Well, the tastes in music changed, that's for sure, but no change occurred in human nature. "Greed is good", said Gordon Gekko. Greed still reigns supreme in "Boiler Room".

The love story does not end anywhere in "Boiler Room". In this story, the love interest is not a whore and does not like him for the money. And she really needs the job. In this movie, she is a positive character, whereas in "Wall Street", the love interest is a negative character.

Also, in both movies, we do not see the main characters really enjoying their new found wealth. Yeah, Bud Fox did buy a nice apartment, but we never see him free of worry, free of self-doubt and guilt. The same applies for Seth.

Vin Diesel, an excellent actor, ads flavor to the movie, along with Jamie Kennedy and a bunch of other young actors trying to prove themselves. Ben Affleck is in the movie too, although you only see him once or twice and the movie could have gone on without him. That's too bad. I don't know why he agreed to such a mediocre part.

Overall, an enjoyable, easy to follow movie. Not as glamorous, not as flashy, but gets the point across. However, not able to surpass "Wall Street".

Boiler Room May Boil Your Nerves.......2006-07-10

Some folks might rent or buy this DVD for its well known names, but Vin Disel and Ben Afflec play very small roles It is Giovanni Ribsi that shines. He plays a young college drop out, who turns to an in-house, illegal gambling den to help him release his inner rage and built up anxieties towards his demanding father.

(SPOILERS)
But it is his discovery of a Boiler Room operation hawking non-existent stocks and bonds for non-existent companies that really steers this movie.

Fantastic interactions between the main character, and Vin Disel character. I appreciated the relationship beteen Giovanni and the secretary character, but I felt it was under-developed and weak. Could have been left out, or developed better.

I saw this one in the theater, and now own on DVD, and would recommend it to any Pre-MBA student, or Wall Street wannabe. It is great training.

MC White said: Check it out!

(:D) ....ok .......2006-06-08

This movie gives you the chills, it reminds you of the all-time classic ''Wall-Street'' with Bud Fox & Gordon Gecko. Only this time it is played by Seth Davis as Bud Fox. Boiler Room has an all-star cast with Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, & Ben Affleck... If you haven't seen this film, you are missing out, it is unforgettable and it is one of those keeper DVD's to have in your collection. - Chad Castorina

Average customer rating:

BDSM Movie
Kim Basinger is so beautiful and Mickey's rugged, macho
9 1/2 Weeks
Probably worth seeing once
when a man loves a woman

9 1/2 Weeks
Starring: Mickey Rourke , Kim Basinger , Margaret Whitton , David Margulies , and Christine Baranski
Director: Adrian Lyne
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Wild Orchid
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ASIN: B00004XMV6
Release Date: 2002-06-11

Amazon.com

Frequently given short shrift as a blue movie (which it is) and as mindless (which it isn't), director Adrian Lyne's follow-up to Flashdance (insert own joke here) is a thoughtful, smutty film about a bad sexual relationship. It follows the two-month affair between Elizabeth, an art-gallery dealer, and John, a Wall Street exec. The relationship spirals downward into raunchier sex (filmed, by the way, quite nicely) but principally is about two adults doing adult things but not acting anything like real adults. Attempts at actual human connection, about the longing to be "good," are present here and make this an above-average erotic film. Rourke is just honing his scumbag, bad-boy persona; but it doesn't overwhelm. Lots and lots of Kim Basinger. --Keith Simanton

Customer Reviews:

BDSM Movie.......2007-06-20

This is not your average soft porn - this movie is about a BDSM relationship. If you don't know what that stands for, this may not be the movie for you. If you do, this is one of the best you'll ever see. The seduction and the energy between these two is incredible. Kim Basinger's striptease, performed to Joe Cocker's "You Can Leave Your Hat On," is absolutely classic. They even managed to make the midnight snack scene hot, even though I kept thinking, "Who's going to clean that up?"

This film has a well-deserved cult status in the genre. If you're able to appreciate the beauty of this type of relationship, the only real disappointment is the way the movie ends.

If you love the story, I would also recommend the book this was based on, Nine and a Half Weeks: A Memoir of a Love Affair. However, if you find the ending of this movie depressing, you definitely don't want to see the sequel, Another 9 1/2 Weeks, unless you just can't get enough of Mickey Rourke scowling.

Kim Basinger is so beautiful and Mickey's rugged, macho.......2007-05-23

pre-pro boxer face are very sexy indeed. My problem was with Elizabeth (Kim), with this type of encounter, either you're into it or your're not. Don't try to make it anything else than it is. Either enjoy it or leave. Which is what she did at the end. Once this type of relationship is exposed to light it dies, because it was all an illusion anyway. But very erotic. Enjoy!

9 1/2 Weeks.......2007-03-09

It was HOT! For couples who are feeling frisky, this might add a spark that'll lead to a flame. Kim was a her best, so was Mickey.

Probably worth seeing once.......2007-01-23

The physical dvd itself is encased in a rather flimsy cardboard and plastic folder. The opening scenes looked like the transfer to dvd was made not from a master but rather from some well-worn film salvaged from a cellar. Beyond these superficial but distracting esthetics (I guess you get what you pay for) the movie starts out with reasonable characters and circumstances. The mental and emotional submission is gradual, calculated, and believable. Unfortunately, the movie seems to go downhill very quickly after Basinger's first violently achieved submission to Rourke -- or perhaps Basinger's plight just became too unmistakably sad and relevant for the movie's message to be well-received. Any possible maturation in Rourke's character as hinted by the end of the movie is weakly developed at best.

when a man loves a woman.......2007-01-23

A perfect duet of Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger makes you forget about everything, lose your head and yourself in the world of love, passion and sexual fantasy.

Perfect style of movie, perfect match of actors - that makes big value of film. Very sensual movie that have nothing to do with all bad things that was said about it.

5 stars for actors, scenario, directing and perfect act.

Average customer rating:

I LOVED YOU IN WALLSTREET!!
Great!!
The higher the building the higher the pile of ...
Oliver Stone's Best FIlm...
Arguably Oliver Stone's best film

Wall Street
Starring: Frank Adonis , John Capodice , Franklin Cover , Michael Douglas , and Faith Geer
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00003CXDB
Release Date: 2000-11-07

Amazon.com essential video

Michael Douglas won an Oscar for perfectly embodying the Reagan-era credo that "greed is good." As a Donald Trump-like Wall Street raider aptly named Gordon Gecko (for his reptilian ability to attack corporate targets and swallow them whole), Douglas found a role tailor-made to his skill in portraying heartless men who've sacrificed humanity to power. He's a slick, seductive role model for the young ambitious Wall Street broker played by Charlie Sheen, who falls into Gecko's sphere of influence and instantly succumbs to the allure of risky deals and generous payoffs. With such perks as a high-rise apartment and women who love men for their money, Charlie's like a worm on Gecko's hook, blind to the corporate maneuvering that puts him at odds with his own father (played by Sheen's offscreen father, Martin). With his usual lack of subtlety, writer-director Oliver Stone drew from the brokering experience of his own father to tell this Faustian tale for the "me" decade, but the movie's sledgehammer style is undeniably effective. A cautionary warning that Stone delivers on highly entertaining terms, Wall Street grabs your attention while questioning the corrupted values of a system that worships profit at the cost of one's soul. --Jeff Shannon

Description

In this riveting, behind-the-scenes look at big business in the 1980's, an ambitious young broker (Charlie Sheen) is lured into the illegal, lucrative world of corporate espionage when he is seduced by the power, status and financial wizardry of Wall Street legend Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). But he soon discovers that the pursuit of overnight riches comes at a price that's too high to pay.

Customer Reviews:

I LOVED YOU IN WALLSTREET!!.......2007-06-20

What a great line from Hot Shots 2!! This movie was great. Sheen gets thrown in the slammer, and Douglass acts like a big shot the whole movie. Ten piece suits and a lot of other stuff. Sheen probably became a garbage man like in the movie, "Men At Work" after being released from prison.

Great!!.......2007-06-19

Flawless acting by Michael Douglass (Gordon Gecko), and Charlie Sheen (Bud Fox). Great Movie!

The higher the building the higher the pile of ..........2007-06-05

The film avoids as much as possible the sentimental side of things and concentrates on the financial depth of the business. There is a slight touch of romanticism with the cover-girl, sorry home decorator. There is a little bit more feeling with the father, maybe because the father is playing the father and the son is playing the son, though it remains essentially business, in this case union business. Then there is nothing but buying and selling, owning and dumping, saving and killing, and the game is only pleasant if it is always both together. To kill one by saving another and to buy one in order to make the other sell and then buy him out. Even the police and justice are used that way. I expose you to the police to humiliate you and have you arrested, but then you trap me for the police with a tape-recorder and you will get a rap on the fingers from the judge while I will get to prison. When you know that that I was the one who wanted to kill a certain company that that you decided to save by having it bought by the sworn enemy of that I, you understand what inside business and inside dealing and inside embezzling and inside anything you want means. Just read or watch American Psycho, Unrated Version, and you will have the schizophrenic reading of the same situation. This film is maybe slightly too technical, but it is the way we are totally messed up in our lives by a bunch of psychopaths who have enough money to buy the federal government out of the federal reserve at Fort Knox, or vice versa, which might even be funnier. As Gekko said so simply: "You're not naive enough to think we are in a democracy. It's the free market." And we are the bait to catch the fish or the fish caught by the hook, or even maybe nothing but the hook itself to catch the shark.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

Oliver Stone's Best FIlm..........2007-02-27

Oliver Stone is one of my favorite "Hollywood" filmmakers, and I have enjoyed many of his movies over time. While I haven't seen a few of his works, he has given more than his share of fine cinema from his beginnings, and I count "Platoon," "Born on the Fourth of July," "JFK," and "Nixon" as among his better efforts, and I applaud and repeatedly watch parts of all of these. However, to me, Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" is, overall, his best.

For one thing, it avoids a lot of the overlength and filler in many of his other films, as well as his sometimes uncomfortable mixture of fact and fiction/speculation. "Wall Street" is pretty much a standard length and mainstream studio production, and while, as in almost all Stone films, it has a message to preach, in this one, he goes for a much lighter, more obscure, and subtle but just as powerful approach. And while this is fiction, and does not really deal with actual known historical or present-day people, the message here, both moral and profound, seems as timely these days as when the movie was first released in the 80's. That "morality" message posits that pursuit of profits and materialistic riches above any/most other considerations, especially above individual human integrity and decency, is an eventually losing proposition for any truly decent, thinking person, with true integrity.

Being a more "conventional" film, the "morality message" here may pass way over a lot of people's heads, especially those Oliver Stone haters who've never seen this and/or who are automatically turned off to any Oliver Stone effort, but the message remains Stone's most powerful, if obscure. And this is a must see, and Stone's overall best movie.

Charlie Sheen, (and to a lesser extent, his real life father and cinematic icon Martin Sheen, who amazingly enough plays the main character's real life father), as well as an outstanding performance by oscar-winning Michael Douglas, and other acting gems, as well as a fast-pace, little filler, linear plot and execution, add up to something really special.

The junior Sheen plays an up and coming and hoping, Wall Street, poor, "player" wannabe, who works as a going nowhere fast financial investments seller within the legal stock market system, whose main goal is to get close to one of the real players in the American financial market. After much effort, he finally and with dogged persistence, gets a short "meeting" with an all powerful, super-rich, almost legendary established player in the form of Michael Douglas.

Selling his soul early on, "Bud" (Charlie Sheen) soon begins to throw aside all of his roots and basic decent, moral upbringings, as well as the fate of his father and many decent working folks, in order to happily fall under the spell of his sociopathic leader/teacher (Gordon Gekko - Douglas), and enjoys enormous financial "success" within the philosophy of his indecent mentor. For awhile, the almost religious mantra of Gekko's "greed is good" more than succeeds, but for a short time only.

Before long, Sheen finds himself in a swank upper-east side Manhattan apartment, with money and the company of a beautiful, intelligent, but shallow girl (the best that can be bought), and sees a promising future as a true Wall Street player and wealthy corporate parasite. Trouble is, he loses his soul and moral fiber somewhere along the way, and realizes that for all his material gains, he has hurt the real people closest to him, and has betrayed them and his own self as well.

While Oliver Stone could've resolved and ended the film in a way he might've these days (strangely and sadly and even more so the same as it ever was concerning rich versus poor, haves versus have-nots, etc.), when corporate interests and money hunger rules over substance, he gives us instead a character who finally and deeply realizes the evil he has helped create, and does something about it.

If only the true humanitarian message and morals of this film could be realized and understood by our present day corporations, CEO's, power brokers, and by our indecent PTB and politician/law-makers (and the superficial and sensationalist-driven mainstream media and Hollywood elite), this world would be, I believe, a lot better one in which to live.

This is a film as topical as anything since, unfortunately, but the lessons have yet to be learned, and if anything, the PTB (powers that be) have only since gained more and more, at the expense of others less fortunate. For those viewing this as simply a pretty decent flick, without any heavy moral undertones, it is still Stone's most satisfying and easily understood filmic experience. In addition however, for those who read between the lines, and truly get the under-the-surface morality message here, it simply but powerfully renders upon the viewer a deep questioning of what "success" really is, and at what acceptable cost.

"Wall Street" was produced in the 80's, but its message and power, seem as true today as ever. Unlike so many other murky or over the top Oliver Stone films though, it remains, and probably will for some time, the definitive cinematic morality play from one of America's greatest filmmakers. Its message is clear, upon repeated viewings, and that is that reality is, we are all in this together, we sink and/or swim together, and harming others in the pursuit of selfish gain, is a moral philosophy doomed to spiritual and individual failure, in the end. No matter how great the temporary materialistic gains.

If you only see one Oliver Stone film in your life, let it be his best, in my view, this one. If its subtle but sublime morality message does not grab you at first, it probably will eventually, as you think about it more and more later on.

Arguably Oliver Stone's best film.......2007-02-19

Wall Street is the story of young, naive stockbroker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) who is too impatient to go through the right channels to success and instead lets him impatience get him in trouble. Sick of cold calling, Bud Fox goes straight for the big fish... in this case, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) an entrepreuneur who is often written about in Fortune magazine, aka the Bible. When Bud gets involved with Gordon, before he knows it he's losing all his inhibitions, caring nothing about the consequences of his actions, and is involved in an insider trading scam that threatens to ruin his family.

Wall Street is arguably Oliver Stone's best film, and has the solid acting, stellar film quality, and impressive use of light and sound to earn itself the title. It's even more relevant in the insider trading obsessed climate of the early 21st century, and I think its tale of backstabbing and betrayal will--sadly--always have a place in modern society. Charlie Sheen shines as a naive, impatient young buck who refuses to take the necessary time to achieve success on his own and instead is willing to cut any corners on the path to fame and fortune. Michael Douglas plays the villain perfectly, without remorse and with no qualms about who gets crushed in the process. For anyone who enjoys Oliver Stone films or impressive drama with a solid cast, I'd recommend Wall Street.

Average customer rating:

A good movie for the family
Truly disappointing; leaves a bad taste
Family First - Always
Cute Movie
Swearing

The Family Man
Starring: Nicolas Cage , Téa Leoni , Don Cheadle , Jeremy Piven , and Saul Rubinek
Director: Brett Ratner
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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It Could Happen to You
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ASIN: B00005JCCC
Release Date: 2001-07-17

Amazon.com

Jack Campbell (Nicolas Cage) is the quintessential Wall Street shark, scoring killer deals by day and shallow escort sex by night. His round-the-clock routine of empty luxuries is disturbed one lonely Christmas Eve when a gun-packing punk (Don Cheadle)--perhaps an angel of mercy--responds to an altruistic gesture from Jack by giving him "a glimpse" of the life he could have had. Could have, that is, if he had married the girlfriend (Téa Leoni) he'd abandoned 13 years earlier, raised two adorable children, worked in his father-in-law's retail tire outlet, and lived happily ever after in suburban New Jersey. Thrust into this "glimpse" of the path not taken, Jack's a single-malt man in a lite-brew world, wondering if he'll ever return to his "better" life of callous wealth and solitude--or if he even wants to.

Carp all you want about this derivative premise, with its marginal stereotypes and biased embrace of domestic bliss and dirty diapers. The simple fact is, The Family Man works like a charm. Under the assured direction of Brett Ratner (Rush Hour), this holiday crowd-pleaser offers comedy and chemistry in equal measure, making the hilarity of Jack's predicament a smooth catalyst for that rarest of movie romances: the marital love story. Leoni is Cage's perfect match as Jack's idealized but imperfect wife, and the movie's appeal largely derives from its awareness that any life has its pleasures and pains. While it only flirts with the dark desperation that makes It's a Wonderful Life a classic predecessor, The Family Man is an irresistible what-if fantasy, and even its debatable ending rides on a wave of genuine warmth and sentiment. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

A good movie for the family.......2007-06-06

This is an inspriation movie that helps you take pause in your life and consider possibility. Nicolas Cage has once again done an excellent job of taking the character and making them real. This is a movie that I share with my family and that we all enjoy and talk about. It's in my library and shall remain their for quite some time.

Truly disappointing; leaves a bad taste.......2007-03-26

This is the typical film that looks uplifting when you see it, but that when afterwards you start thinking about it, you realize how phony and manipulative it is. Here, Nicolas Cage is an arrogant yuppie businessman in Manhattan, who one day wakes up and finds himself in a paralell world, living a supposedly dreadful life in suburban New Jersey with his wife (her former girlfriend, in his previous life) and his (previously non existent) kids. The beautiful Tea Leoni, as the wife, deserved better than to be in this movie. The movie chastises the main character for not raising a family, yet the film shows family life as dreadful. The idea that Nicolas Cage had to sacrifice a family in order to get ahead in business is also phony. Most male yuppies are married; it's the women that usually have to made those sacrifices. Also, this movie is supposedly critical of heartless capitalism, yet it ends up celebrating it.

Family First - Always.......2007-03-19

"Don't screw up the best thing in your life just because you're a little unsure about who you are."

I don't know how many married guys can recall it, but I know the exact time I decided to finally take the plunge with my then-girlfriend (now my wife). It was about an hour after I watched Nicolas Cage's Family Man, a full-wonder story about a wealthy Wall Street guy, Jack, given a glimpse of the non-wealthy life he could have lived had he not gotten on a plane and be separated from his then-girlfriend almost 2 decades ago.

The transitional moments, from big-time dealer to small-time salesman, are hilarious. Used to waking up alone or with girls he just met, Jack wakes up with a wife and two kids and a dog jumping all over him. He rushes away to his sky-scraper to see his name - next to President - replaced by his junior. He tries to get into premium condo but the doorman doesn't recognize him and blocks his entrance. He struggles to change his baby son's, Josh, diapers. He has to ask his daugher, Annie, what the after-school S.O.Ps' are. He curses when his junior appears on TV shaking hands with a two corporate presidents whose merger his (ex-)company has arranged.

But then Jack learns - or discovers - the joy of loving and living in spite of financial want, in spite of the no-cushion savings, in spite of not having that suit which makes him "feel like a man" (but which requires taking out his kids' education fund). He misses his trappings of status but grows to love Kate, Annie and Josh more than anything in the world. The quote at the start, by Arnie his friend, captures Jack's seizing and holding on to a family he knows he loves without having to figure out entirely this new world he's been thrown into.

Sorrow beckons, though, when he realises he has to 'leave' this dream-like alternate reality which he started out hating but ended up cherishing. When the moment comes, it's full of dread, because he's back to his old super-wealthy but no-family life. He drives to the house belong to "him and Kate" but there's just a guy there who doesn't know any Kate. The real Kate is now a hot-shot lawyer, who's just packing up and about to transfer to Paris.

Final drama arrives when Jack rushes to the airport looking for Kate, and trying to stop her before she flies off. Remember we are already in the "real world" and Jack has stopped 'dreaming'.

He creates some commotion because Kate is already at the departure gate and about to board, and she keeps saying, "Jack, do you need closure?" which is probably what any woman would say if her boyfriend from 15 years ago, started pestering her about what "could have been". Kate then turns towards the gate and walks away. Jack is about to give up when he suddenly turns to Kate and desperately cries out to describe the alternate reality he's lived through with an alternate her:

"We have a house in Jersey. We have two kids, Annie and Josh. Annie's not much of a violin player, but she tries real hard. She's a little precocious, but that's only because she says what's on her mind. And when she smiles...

"And Josh, he has your eyes. He doesn't say much, but we know he's smart. He's always got his eyes open, he's always watching us. Sometimes you can look at him and you just know he's learning something new. It's like witnessing a miracle.

"The house is a mess but it's ours. After 122 more payments, it's going to be ours. And you, you're a non-profit lawyer. That's right, you're completely non-profit, but that doesn't seem to bother you.

"And we're in love. After 13 years of marriage we're still unbelievably in love. You won't even let me touch you until I've said it. I sing to you. Not all the time, but definitely on special occasions. We've dealt with our share of surprises and made a lot of sacrifices but we've stayed together.

"You see, you're a better person than I am. And it made me a better person to be around you. I don't know, maybe it was just all a dream. Maybe I went to bed one lonely night in December and I imagined it all. But I swear, nothing has ever felt more real.

"And if you get on that plane right now, it'll disappear forever. I know we could both go on with our lives and we'd both be fine, but I've seen what we could be like together. And I choose us."

Little did Cage & Co. know that six years later, there would be another movie with another husband, another wife and another two kids (plus another dog which looked like the dog in Family Man). This movie is also about family and getting a glimpse into a major What-If. Whilst Cage started out in a scenario he did enjoy and ended back in the same situation he later detested, the main character of this movie starts out being "tired with his life", but ends back in the same situation an entirely changed man, thoroughly grateful for the life he has (as opposed to the life he thought he had lost).

I'm talking about Adam Sandler's Click. But I won't ruin two movies at one go (smile), so I'll end with the theme which unites these two masterpieces: Family is first, the job is completely secondary. Never take for granted the ones who love you, no matter what riches beckon and no matter how attractive alternatives may appear to be.

Cute Movie.......2007-03-13

I LOVE movies and have an ever increasing, eclectic collection. This is a movie that I like to watch if I want to smile. It's a feel good movie I think, a nice family film. A man has a chance to explore one "what if" of his life, and he expereinces the ups and downs of family life. The older daughter is just the cutest and when she knows theres something different about him and assumes he's an alien and says welcome to Earth, so cute! I think the ending is a little strange but it's good that it's not a "perfect" predictable canned ending.

Swearing .......2007-03-09

With the title of family man I did not think they would put the "F" word in the movie. It would have been an excellent movie if it were swear free.

Average customer rating:

Very Realistic
Exciting Series

Wall Street Warriors: Season 1
Starring: Timothy Sykes
Manufacturer: In Demand
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Rogue Trader
Barbarians at the Gate
Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders
Glengarry Glen Ross
Boiler Room

ASIN: B000OPOCMS
Release Date: 2007-04-24

Product Description

Wall Street Warriors follows the daily lives of ten successful individuals who deal in millions in the marketplace. As the series unfolds, some lives intersect in surprising ways, as financial big shots are whisked by limo from the frenzied American Stock Exchange trading floor to exclusive dinners, to posh midtown offices, to homes and families, down to fast paced Wall Street, or off to the polo grounds of the Hamptons.

Take a step into a world rarely seen from the outside, in a heart pounding series that follows the most brilliant, driven and competitive power brokers of the financial world when millions are at stake every minute.

Greed and arrogance run rampant on Wall Street, making it home to some of the most stressful jobs on earth. There is only one bottom line on Wall Street: how much money you make.

Customer Reviews:

Very Realistic.......2007-06-01

As one of the stars of this show, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Most reality shows are pretty rigged, but I'm here to say that this was one is pretty true to real life. Sure, I come off a little too cocky sometimes, but then again, I kind of am; as bad as that sounds, you need that supreme confidence in yourself when you're trading and risking so much money. I do wish they'd focused a little more on my trading itself as some of the edits don't really make sense, but television still hasn't found a visually appealing way to show how intense trading actually is. The cool thing is that all this media exposure I've gotten actually played a large role in inspiring me to write my upcoming book, "An American Hedge Fund."

Anyway, I just bought my own copy of the DVD and the bonus features on Disc 2 with all the outtakes are hilarious. I highly recommend this product.

Exciting Series.......2007-05-24

I must say this was a pretty exciting serie to watch on MOJO this year. Wall Street Warriors let you see the insiders of Wall Street from the day trader, the startup hedge fund manager, and the people who make Wall Street work on the exchanges. No other series let you into the minds and lives of such people before. It was great to see legends like Jim Rogers of the Quantum Fund speak of his life experiences and see future legends like Tim Sykes develop into great investors.

Average customer rating:

Wall Street (20th Anniversary Edition)
Starring: Frank Adonis , Thomas Anderson , James Bulleit , John Capodice , and Jean de Baer
Director: Oliver Stone
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
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The Graduate (40th Anniversary Collector's Edition)

ASIN: B000RW3VD4
Release Date: 2007-09-18

Description

Average customer rating:

One of my favorite movies
50s Retro Of The 80s Is Cheesy
.........There Will Always Be an England.....
Hanover Street
One of my wifes faorite movies of all time.

Hanover Street
Starring: Harrison Ford , Lesley-Anne Down , Christopher Plummer , Alec McCowen , and Richard Masur
Director: Peter Hyams
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00005LB88
Release Date: 2001-07-31

Amazon.com

Harrison Ford is impossibly young and handsome as an American pilot in the World War II romance Hanover Street; Lesley-Anne Down (The Great Train Robbery) is stunningly beautiful as the British nurse who falls in love with him, despite being married to British intelligence agent Christopher Plummer. In fact, everything about Hanover Street is just a little over the top, from the insanely romantic dialogue to the absurd war-buddy banter of Ford and his bomber crew to the love-making montage in which Down seems to have at least a dozen orgasms. Down and Plummer have a daughter (played by future Lethal Weapon 2 love interest Patsy Kensit) who's so precious and precocious you just want to smack her. The whole thing is almost a camp pastiche of a war romance--but when Ford and Plummer find themselves together behind enemy lines, you'll suddenly discover that you're caught up in the story. Through sheer movie-star charisma and cunningly ridiculous plot mechanics, Hanover Street becomes not only entertaining, but even touching. Plummer is particularly good as an ordinary man who wishes to become something more, Ford is stalwart as only he can be, and Down is just too lovely to resist (it's hard to understand how her career ended up with the likes of Beastmaster 3: The Eye of Braxus and Death Wish 5: The Face of Death). All in all, a surprisingly enjoyable cinematic experience. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

One of my favorite movies.......2007-06-08

I saw this a few years ago and have been wanting to see it again--awesome plot!!

50s Retro Of The 80s Is Cheesy.......2007-04-23

In case you haven't heard `Hanover Street' 100% directed in a 50s style of Hollywood fantasy, music, acting, editing, and dialogue which by today's standards comes across as cheesy rather than nostalgic.

"Embarrassing" is a better description than horrible. Embarrassing is how to describe the way the film makers should have felt. That professional filmmakers and producers sat down and decided to direct a WWII film in 50s fashion is truly embarrassing.

The Plot: Not that bad or good, `Hanover Street' utilizes the winning WWII genre guaranteed to provide at least some entertainment. American pilot Harrison Ford falls for a married Londoner during a German air raid. (Although no exact year is given, the American involvement in the War and the occupation of France would place it between 1942 and the summer of 1944 and I'm not aware of a German bombing of London during that time.)

The love affair is meaningless. They are not in love and do not even talk enough to exchange names. All their time is spent in the bedroom, but due to the 50s retro and PG rating nothing is happing there either. The only impact it has is on Ford's skills as a B25 bomber over France, no longer the Maverick flier he is unwilling to risk his life. The only interesting thing about these bombing raids is that Ford's copilot is played by Michael Sack star of `Slaughterhouse Five' and `Sugarland Express.' One of his few films.

Danger arrives when Ford is ordered to deliver a deep cover agent, Christopher Plummer to occupied France and their B25 is shot down. Deep behind German lines Plummer must get the German illiterate Ford back to England. As the two soldiers bond Ford realizes Plummer is his lover's husband.

After 90 minutes of low production quality `Hanover Street' does provide a heart pounding well directed action packed escape from France. Unfortunately by then I was too asleep to even remember if Ford survives and I don't care. I recall that Plummer makes it back to England to reunite with his wife and rebuild their marriage.

Herald as one of Ford's few WWII films (The other being the far better `Force 10 From Navarone', `Indiana Jones' does not count since none of them took place during WWII.) `Hanover Street' has thankfully been forgotten with other 80s' 50s retro movies like `1941' and `Streets on Fire'. I don't mind retro films which focus on the time period of a recent decade but the bring back the film techniques of that decade is "embarrassing."

.........There Will Always Be an England............2007-04-09

A nostalgic look back at England [1943] during the Blitz...no one was safe...Director: Peter Hymans recreates settings like the real tenor of the times, which only adds more romance to complete romanticism in a bitter/sweet wartime affair; notwithstanding, the exciting war scenes aloft with real B-25 Mitchell bombers of the American 8th Air Force...good/bellicose acting from the Operations officer [Alec McCowan] prepping the crews before lift/off...Harrison Ford and gorgeous Lesley-Anne-Down exhibited steamy chemistry as wartime lovers and exuded, the elixir, in the art of flirtation down pat [wonderful acting]...Ms Down's face is just so exquisite/beautiful and expressive without words...good movie and it brought back 1943 like it was 1943, except for Ford's thick mane, which was not 1943....found this diamond of a DVD gem in a sale rack for $1.99...I grabbed it fast...lucky me!!....SSGT CHRIS SARNO-USMC FMF

Hanover Street.......2007-01-18

I saw the movies years ago and loved it, been looking for it in stores but could never find it. It's a real tear jerker. A real women's movies and I just love anything Harrison Ford does

One of my wifes faorite movies of all time........2007-01-18

I have not watched this movie yet,but my wife has watched time and again while I am gone, and when I get home I know she has watched it again she tells me all about the stroy and how she went thru all the emotions while watching.

The Ultimate Oliver Stone Collection (Salvador / Platoon / Wall Street / Talk Radio / Born on the Fourth of July / JFK Director's Cut / The Doors / Heaven and Earth / Natural Born Killers / Nixon / U-Turn / Any Given Sunday Director's Cut)

Average customer rating:

COLLECTION ALMOST PERFECT
1600 MINUTES OF GREAT MOVIES !!!!!!!!
Not a Good Deal!
One technical quibble
Money Saver

The Ultimate Oliver Stone Collection (Salvador / Platoon / Wall Street / Talk Radio / Born on the Fourth of July / JFK Director's Cut / The Doors / Heaven and Earth / Natural Born Killers / Nixon / U-Turn / Any Given Sunday Director's Cut)
Starring: Val Kilmer , and Woody Harrellson
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0002ZSKMS
Release Date: 2004-10-19

Amazon.com

This 14-disc set is at least the third massive DVD collection with the Oliver Stone moniker. New to this set are two documentaries that aired on HBO: Looking for Fidel (2004), Stone's second film shadowing the Cuban leader, focusing on the regime's iron-fisted defector policy. Persona Non Grata (2003) is an examination of Palestinian conflict. Both of the films have a constantly moving camera, giving us a you-are-there feel to the subjects including Stone, who is seen often. His warts and all interviews are certainly a different type than the usual newsmagazines and are especially interesting in Non Grata since we've seen too many cut-and-dried interviews with these players over the years.

The main theatrical films on single discs have been released before although several of them have been released previously with more content and bonus discs, creating a debate on how "ultimate" this collection is. Otherwise, all his films are here, from his Vietnam trilogy (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Heaven & Earth), his iconic pop culture films (The Doors, Wall Street, Any Given Sunday), experimental films (Natural Born Killers, U-Turn, Talk Radio), and political operas (JFK, Nixon, Salvador), plus the documentary Oliver Stone's America. --Doug Thomas

Description

The Ultimate Oliver Stone Collection includes twelve of this legendary filmmaker's best films. This collection contains 14 discs filled with hours of commentary and bonus features. Also included is a bonus disc made exclusively for this collection. The collection contains: Born on the 4th of July, The Doors, JFK (Director's Cut), Platoon, Salvador, Talk Radio, Wall Street, Any Given Sunday (Director's Cut), Heaven and Earth, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, Oliver Stone's America, U-Turn, AND the Ultimate Oliver Stone Bonus Disc.

Customer Reviews:

COLLECTION ALMOST PERFECT.......2006-10-26

This filmmaking collection is almost perfect, but not quite superior to, the previous Oliver Stone collection that was released. All of his directorial efforts starting with Salvador are included, and they are packaged similar to the way television series dvd sets are packaged (like Grey's Anatomy and Lost), with two overlapping discs per side of the package. Platoon is the special edition that was released by MGM/UA many years back, it is not the most recent special edition. Salvador, Wall Street, and Talk Radio are all the single disc special editions that are available separately. Born On The Fourth of July is the remastered version that was released not too long ago (picture is vastly improved with more natural hues and tones). The Doors, JFK, Nixon, and Any Given Sunday are separately available as two-disc editions and only the first discs of each (basically only the movie) are available in this set. Heaven and Earth and U-Turn are the same as what is available separately, and finally Natural Born Killers is the RATED version of the film, not the Unrated released by Trimark. The picture is much better than the Trimark Unrated release of the film but it is missing up to three minutes of footage needed to achieve an R rating. The NBK disc does include deleted scenes, commentary, and a theatrical trailer. I'm not sure why Warner Bros doesn't release the Unrated version since it does with all of its other films (except for Eyes Wide Shut, I suppose) but whatever. The extra disc on this set includes Stone's recent documentaries Persona Non Grata and Looking For Fidel. It does not included Comandante which is still not available in this country (you can get a Region 2 copy on Amazon.co.uk but you'll need a region free player to play it). There is also a little blurb about Alexander included. Oh, and the documentary Oliver Stone's America is also included including the full version of his student film Last Year In Vietnam. So, all in all this is a great buy. If you really end up wanting the two-disc editions of some of the films after you watch them, you can always buy them later. If you buy this, Alexander (either or both versions), and his upcoming World Trade Center, you will own almost all of Oliver Stone's directorial efforts for a pretty cheap price all things considered. Enjoy!

1600 MINUTES OF GREAT MOVIES !!!!!!!!.......2006-10-01

Are you kidding me ???Where can you get 13 GREAT movies and EXTRAS for this price?? I cant believe people that find fault with a set containing so much for so little!!!!Each of these movies is highly entertaining in its own way. A diversified group of films you'll never find in a single collection!!!!I cant believe this doesnt cost$150 or more!!!

Not a Good Deal!.......2005-06-14

This DVD set consists of one outer and two inner Boxes, each has 4 glassy DVD case, 3 double, 1 single. DVDs are not indipendent in this set, so if you want to buy it used, beware of the condition of the box. some movies like "THE DOORS" and "Nixon" are originnaly two discs editions but only first discs are included in this dvd set and worse is, there is a word "disc 1" printed of them which indicates that these are the first DVDs of a 2 disc set and that makes you feel there is something crude about this box set! and there is something really crude!
the quality of boxes and print is low. outer box could easily be damaged or worn and it's very loose. it's not a good deal, specially at the price of 116 dollars!

One technical quibble.......2005-04-06

All great movies, but I couldn't help but notice that every time I try to eject the JFK Director's Cut DVD, the disc pops out of the DVD player and then makes an unexpected move back and to the left.

Money Saver.......2004-12-26

$116 for 12 movies is a gift. You shouldn't complain about second discs being excluded, because the special features are just a marketing tool. They're meant to dissuade people from downloading movies, and it doesn't stop them. No one questions that Oliver Stone is more of the best directors of our time. He's right up there with Martin Scorcese, Ron Howard and Robert Zemeckis. If you're familiar at all with Oliver Stone movies, then that should be what makes your decision. His films are meant to make a message to society. Heaven and Earth is an underrated movie that is very, very hard to find. As a matter of fact, I never saw it individually sold in any store. I wanted to see it for a long time, and was glad when I did finally see it. Talk Radio was more than a little bit disturbing, but it was brilliant at the same time. Natural Born Killers has been one of my favorites for years, as has Nixon, not so much JFK or Salvador but you're paying an average of $9.67 for each DVD, and that's a bargain.

The Michael Douglas Celebrity Pack (Wall Street / The War of the Roses / Don't Say a Word)

Average customer rating:

The Michael Douglas Celebrity Pack (Wall Street / The War of the Roses / Don't Say a Word)
Starring: Michael Douglas
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Disclosure

ASIN: B000G6BLJC
Release Date: 2006-09-12

Description

Each pack has 3 Hit Titles with all-new thinpack packaging in a slipcase.

Description

Christian Slater, Selma Blair, Angie Harmon and Robert Loggia star in a gripping tale of assassination, deception and corruption set in the high-stakes world of corporate investment and international oil trading. With America at war and in the grip of a crippling fuel crisis, Wall Street analyst Tom Grover (Slater) agrees to broker a lucrative deal between a Russian oil cartel and his investment firm's biggest client, lead by cold-blooded CEO Jared Tolson (Loggia). While juggling his growing attraction to newly-hired associate, Abby (Blair), and the advances of Anna (Harmon), a seductive businesswoman, Tom learns all is not what it seems with the deal. Digging deeper, he and Abby soon find themselves trapped in a dangerous web of treachery and murder that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Customer Reviews:

Political Thriller? No, It's Just Another B-Thriller with So Many Familiar Plot Devices .......2006-09-10

`The Deal' starring Christian Slater (also co-exective producer) is at best a mediocre political thriller with no convincing views on international politics. No one interested in the news of the world would believe in the complicated plot though the script itself (by first-timer Ruth Epstein) is not without merit, especially when it deals with the ethics of corporate company and those who are working for them. But whatever good about it is buried deep in the film's preposterous story and the showy camera work.

The film's very confusing script starts with one premise - we are informed that the USA has been at war with the (fictional) "Arab Federation" for more than three years. The prices of gas and other things skyrocket because of the shortage of oil.

Now I know some people find the story intriguing. With all respect to them, I disagree. As seen in `Syriana' the Arabs have its own conflicting powers within themselves. And at war for as many as three years? The film seems to forget that for better or worse, America is the only superpower in the world now.

But let's forget that part for now. Christian Slater plays an ambitious executive who is in charge of an assessment report about the oilfield of a Russian oil company. However, there is something strange about the maps and figures, he realizes, and he and his girlfriend (Selma Blair) are pressed by the unknown forces to ignore certain things about the company in case.

Though `The Deal' deals with international politics, its story is only a standard thriller scenario. The film is apparently about the intricate foreign policies of the government or the company merger and its ethical aspect involving stockholders, but the truth is it is nothing but B-thriller with `Been-there-Done-that' situations. See the romance between Slater and Blair, for example. They kiss and hug in a hotel elevator (check), and next they make love, leaning on the wall (check). And there are also Russian mafias (check). The supports played by Robert Loggia and Colm Feore are just ciphers, but that is no surprise after these checks the filmmakers should have done.

`The Deal' should have been an intelligent thriller, considering the political issue it deals with while every character who is supposed to be working at somewhere like Wall Street keep on doing incredibly stupid decisions. It is a thriller, a so-so one, but its political aspect is needs much more polishing up.

Weak, sloppy and boring.......2005-11-29

If you read the plot synopsis of The Deal and Syriana, they sound surprisingly similar. Someone uncovers some shenanigans related to the merger of two large oil companies. The potential for both intrigue and important information revelation here is tremendous.

While I do agree that this is a area desperately in need of discussion and presentation, I think The Deal is the worst possible vehicle for Hollywood to attempt to breach the walls of secrecy surrounding peak oil. In much the same way that The Day After Tomorrow was perhaps the worst vehicle to address global warming.

What is wrong with The Deal?

1) I could glean only 4 "facts" from this film: gas is 6$ per gallon, Blackstar provided 500,000 brls, Blackstar's reserves were valued at $20 billion, and oil reserves in the ground are valued at $3 x # of barrels in the ground (estimated at 7 billion). All of these facts are made-up. How many barrels a day does the US import? How many barrels of the world's reserve are located in the middle east? What is the rate of depletion in Saudi Arabia? What is OPEC's excess capacity? Given the enormity of actual useful facts, not one of any merit was presented.

Let's take a closer look at just the absurdly simple oil reserve valuation formula, shall we?

$3 x estimated # of barrels in the ground

From Energy Bulletin:
"In late 2003, Shell Oil, one of the world's largest publicly traded oil concerns, said that it had erroneously overbooked its proven oil and natural gas reserves by the equivalent of 3.9 billion barrels of oil.

The oil portion alone, about two-thirds of the revision, represents some $67.5 billion in potential future revenue, assuming moderate oil prices of $25 a barrel.

Reserve calculations, though technical and arcane, drive an oil company's prospects, much like revenue growth drives a technology company's outlook."

The fomula should probably be closer to

3 x price per barrel in USD x # of barrels provable reserves

So if a 3.39 billion brl reserve in ground is worth $67.5 billion at $25/brl
what is a 7 billion brl reserve in ground worth if gas is $6 per gallon?

Even a conservative estimate of the value of 7 billion barrels of reserve is in the hundreds of billions of dollars range, not 20 billion. So they were off by at least an order of magnitude.

This is the kind of factual sloppiness that makes this movie such a travesty.

2) Hollywood uses the Russian Mafia the way they used to use neo-nazis, as a PC bogeyman. Given Russia's perennial involvement in the Great Game, I don't object to their involvement, but why not portray them accurately? The Russian Mafia is a perfect stand in for the current brand of klepto-capitalism. The new industrialists in Russia were oligarchs who allied with state bureaucrats to loot state-owned assets to fatten their offshore bank accounts. Here they are presented as brainless eurotrash who cant even succeed in keeping a Harvard MBA tied to a bed with nylon cord.

3) To classify the "enemy" of this war as the Confederation of Arab States, is to miss the central point of the conflict we are now in. Many of these states are our allies. There is no confederation, there are only faceless networks and splinter groups. There is no monolithic Arab State. Two minutes of stock war footage at the start of this film is the only explanation that there is a war. Later we learn that there is an embargo. Later still we learn that the "French or the Chinese" are presumably not involved in this war. Some obvious questions include, who are we bombing? Why? Where is the UN on this? There is exactly no reference to geopolitics at all.

4) Embargoes are ineffective in wartime. If the CAS embargoed the US, their revenue would drop to nothing. Let's suppose they decide to sell all of their output to China, India and Europe instead, how do they transport it? By tanker. Who has the largest navy in the world? The US. It is the US that would likely place an embargo on the CAS and sit at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and impound every tanker than tried to exit, once the shooting started.

The Pentagon,, the State Dept, the CIA, and numerous think tanks have spent years analyzing contingencies related to this hypothetical war. Richard Clarke, the counter-terrorism expert, has just finished a novel called Scorpion's Gate about a coup by radical anti-western extremists in Saudi Arabia. This would be an excellent flashpoint around which to build a film like this. Yet there is no mention of any geopolitical forces at play or the nature of the conflict. The only thing at stake is some investment banker's reputation for signing a due diligence letter for a corporation that happens to have overvalued it's oil reserves. There is no mention of depletion, the scarcity is entirely the result of the embargo.

I realized that this film could have followed pretty much the exact same formula if the commodity in question had been gold, caviar or Persian rugs. Engineer a conflict which prevents the free flow of some scarce resource, then present a possibility of profit for the Russian Mafia to act as go-between and sell the product to the US. Also, if the main stumbling block was getting this merger approved, then why merge? The Russian shell company could just as easily continued to purchase oil from the CAS and repackage it for transshipment to the US. This is called arbitrage. **SPOILER** If the Russians were trying to hoodwink Tolson and split with their $25 million (????), then why was he the one preventing Hanson from doing the due diligence?

5) Why even bring in The Ethics Taskforce at the end of the film? (As if such a thing could possibly even exist after the Bush Administrations). Is the government complicit in this "merger?" Is that why the Senator covers up the whole scandal at the end? The most important person in this whole affair was the CEO of the large US oil company, Tolson. Wouldn't it be more interesting if Tolson bought his way onto the ticket and would up as either the Secretary of Defense or the VP? That they then engineer a coup by radical extremists in Saudi Arabia which shuts down the oil supply. Also, Christian Slater should have played the bad guy, he makes a terrific villain, and a horrible good guy. Selma Blair should have been the protagonist, the bright Harvard MBA who figures the whole thing out.

6) The Alternative Energy Tax Credit - I learned more about alternative energy sources on one episode of The West Wing last year. This was a total snipe hunt that detracted from the film as a whole, as if that is even possible.

The Deal is a pretty big deal of a movie.......2005-11-01

Here's a film that doesn't seem to have gotten a fair shake. The Deal is a darn good story about corruption, greed, oil, politics, murder, and all sorts of nasty things going on behind Wall Street doors by some of those three-piece suit types. Christian Slater is a fine actor, Selma Blair proves quite charming, and no movie has ever been hurt by the casting of Robert Loggia. The fact that such a story is all too believable in today's world serves as a hook of sorts - or maybe not. All I know is that The Deal is an effective thriller featuring some nice plot twists (although I did see some of them coming - and I'm not usually that good at picking up on things) inside a juicy story.

Here's the setting for the film: America is at war with the "Confederation of Arab states," gas is over six bucks a gallon and going nowhere but up, and the economy is seriously on the skids. Condor, led by its celebrated CEO Jared Tolson (Loggia), is working on a deal to ease America's gas shortage (not to mention fatten his pockets to overflowing) - a merger with Blackstar, a Russian company with deep oil reserves in Kazakhstan (well, supposedly). All he needs is a hot-shot Wall Street wonderboy from a prestigious company to sweet talk his board into accepting the deal - and that's where Tom Grover (Slater) comes in (after candidate #1, Grover's best friend, gets iced at the start of the movie). Grover works for an ultra-prestigious firm that is also feeling the economic crunch and could certainly use the $25 million dollars Tom will bring in just by helping Tolson sell the merger. He signs on, even though he isn't exactly an expert at evaluating geological reports, etc. That's actually one of the reasons he was chosen, though - Tolson's boys aren't exactly high on Grover doing a lot of research on the fields in question.

Representing the forces of good is Abbey Gallagher (Blair), a Harvard graduate who wants to save the world and has an innovative idea for helping those seeking alternative energy sources further their research. The snake pit of Wall Street is the last place she wants to be, but Gordon convinces her that his company can make her alternative energy dream a reality (because the company can make money by doing so). The two become close (apparently, Gordon has no qualms about dating an employee), which ultimately puts Abby in danger when Gordon finds out some disturbing truths about his big deal with Tolson. That, of course, sets the stage for a suspenseful ending. With himself and Abby in danger, his company sitting on a potential time bomb that could bring it to its knees, and - lest we forget - the national security interests of the whole country at stake, what will Gordon do? What can he do?

The Deal never manages to be edge-of-your-seat thrilling, but it is certainly suspenseful. It's also quite relevant in today's world of government corruption, unethical business practices, and moral ambiguity. The deal itself is the kind of thing J.R. Ewing would probably be cooking up if Dallas were still on the air - but J.R. would have done a better job of it.

Moral Ambiguity of Wall Street.......2005-09-02

Christian Slater serves as Executive Producer & star of this drama. It's the kind of Wall Street high intrigue where ethics takes a back seat to profits. This is producer Harvey Kahn's 2nd turn as director after his straight-to-video film "Water's Edge" in 2002. Christian Slater plays Tom Hansen who comes into a deal with Condor Oil & Gas after his best friend is murdered. Slater who was first noticed in "The Name of the Rose" in 1986 with Sean Connery and then appeared in "Bed of Roses" & "Broken Arrow" in 1996 and in "Mindhunters" this year is an interesting and intense actor whose mannerisms remind me of Jack Nicholson. As Hansen, he works for a firm whose high ethical reputation Condor wants to use to put forward a shady billion dollar oil deal to import oil from an area in Russia in which there is no oil. The fact that it would be smuggled from Arab countries with which the U.S. has banned itself from doing business has resulted in the oil-laundering scheme. Robert Loggia who played with David Ducovney in "Return to Me" and was nominated for his lone Oscar nod as supporting actor in "Jagged Edge" in 1985 plays Jared Tolson, a high powered wheeler-dealer who includes assassination and kidnapping as necessary negotiating tools. Tolson passes the deal to Hansen, hoping his inexperience in oil will lead him to overlook the flaws in the deal. Slater's Hansen is having trouble finding a girl. Angie Harmon from the "Law & Order" TV series and the upcoming "Fun With Dick & Jane" with Jim Carrey & Tea Leoni plays Anna, who appears to have great interest in Tom, only to let her American accent drop and reveal she's an operative for the Russian mafia who will murder to make sure the deal goes through. After flirting with Anna, Hansen hires Abbey Gallagher, who he finally beds, only to drop her from the Condor deal when her life is threatened. Gallagher is played by Selma Blair from "Cruel Intentions," "Legally Blonde" & "The Fog." She investigates and puts her life in danger as she uncovers the truth about the deal. Gallagher's advisor is Professor Roseman played by John Heard who encourages her. Oil expert Hank at the firm is miffed that a novice like Hansen has been given the Condor deal and begins working to uncover the truth also. Played by Colm Feore from "The Highwayman" with Jim Caviezel, "Chicago," & "Paycheck" with Ben Affleck, Hank finally blows the whistle at the company meeting, only to be outmaneuvered. Francois Yip who also plays with Slater in this year's "Alone in the Dark" plays Janice who helps Hansen take his concerns to the ethics panel after Gallagher is safe. Then we get to the moral relativity of the picture as a U.S. Senator intervenes saying that the bogus deal is an act of patriotism since gas is over $6 a gallon and we need the oil, even if we have to pretend it's not coming from designated terrorist states. The film's moral ambiguity leaves us on a disquieting note. While not explaining why we simply don't press for energy sources other than fossil fuels, it does smack of real-world compromise. Slater does a good job in a film with a timely topic as we scramble for gas here in the Southeast after Hurricane Katrina disrupted the pipelines. Enjoy!

"Intrigue Deal" over $6/gallon Gas - We're Already Over Halfway There.......2005-08-23

THE DEAL was made when the idea of paying $6 per gallon of gas would spark international intrigue: now that we're well over $3.35 per gallon that price seems less than shocking! The concept of showing how big business and the government cover up the absurd under the table Deals such as the one that is the focus of this meager script is now so de rigueur that there is no melodrama or intrigue to this story. One must credit writer Ruth Epstein, director Harvey Kahn, and executive producer/star Christian Slater for caring enough about the chaos oil supplies and their impact on the world at large are causing, but the sad truth is that this tale is so ho-hum in that we all read this very story in the newspaper everyday that it hardly seems to merit a movie.

The cast is sterling - Christian Slater as a Wall Street type, Robert Loggia as the dirty hands dealer type, Selma Blair as the idealist, and Colm Feore, John Heard, Kevin Tighe, etc all try their best to make this flabby script meaningful. The star of the movie is the musical scoring by Christopher Lennertz...and that says a lot. Without an arc of plotline and without a bit of new information about the corruption at the highest levels of this country, this film just doesn't get off the ground. Grady Harp, August 05

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