Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps really lacked the charm of the first one. The film failed in that it really didn't make me care about the female protagonist's relationship with her father, Gordon Gekko.

As I described afterward, anytime a film makes me roll my eyes or shift around wondering when it's going to end, well, that's a bad film. This was not good. I left without remembering the protagonist's first name.

References to the original movie were fun, and included a cameo by Charlie Sheen as Buddy Fox (the first film's hero) as womanizing early retiree, and - for those really paying attention - a reappearance of the real estate agent who sold Buddy Fox his penthouse in the first film.

A new original track by David Byrne and Brian Eno upped the cool factor of this movie for me.

In other good news, after a few minutes of sleep, I was refreshed enough to go out for a beer with my friends and discuss what's on next week. I think we may try the brand-new Bell Lightbox, although if tickets are as pricey as during the festival, I'll have to think twice.

 Or so I learned last night when I streamed it from Netflix last night.

In preparation for tonight's Meetup screening of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, I watched 1987's Wall Street, starring Michael Douglas as fiercely cutthroat businessman Gordon Gekko and Charlie Sheen as hot-shot broker Buddy Something (cast alongside his real-life Dad, Martin Sheen).

I was seven years old when the first movie came out, so I never saw the movie when the tiny little green-on-black computer screens and hugely chunky cell phones were cutting edge technology.

i enjoyed the movie. I thought Buddy was a little naive in operating so carelessly around the line between inadvisable and outright illegal. His descent from decent to despicable was pretty rapid, fueled by money and sexy, money-hungry Daryl Hannah.

The best part had to be the amazing eyeglass styles back then (my favourites were worn by the lady on the private jet, and by Carl, Buddy's brokerage firm buddy, played by John C. McGinley, who I only ever knew as the mean doctor on "Scrubs".

We didn't really learn what happened to Gordon Gekko. So I guess that's what I'll find out tonight.