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Where's Gordon Gekko gone? Best Wall Street movies

All the drama on Wall Street these days -- from the credit crunch to the housing slump, everything from runs on the bank to rogue traders -- had the Hollywood Reporter wondering recently why Hollywood isn't cashing in on the fun. Given how well most of the serious Iraq War/War on Terror movies have done lately, perhaps moviemakers will be searching for greener pastures. Heck, Gordon Gekko is scheduled to make a reappearance next year in a Wall Street sequel tentatively called Money Never Sleeps.

Until then, with a little help from the Internet Movie Database, here is a list of some of Hollywood's best takes on Wall Street so far.

  • American Psycho (2000). Christian Bale stars as a soulless investment banker with a taste for violence and kinky sex. Based on the bestselling book by Bret Easton Ellis.
  • The Bank (2001). This award-winning Australian film is set in a corrupt corporate bank, and like Pi features a maverick mathematician who may have found a way to accurately predict stock market fluctuations. Stars Anthony LaPaglia.
  • Barbarians at the Gate (1993). This Emmy-winning made-for-television movie is based on the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco in the 1980s. James Garner won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of the company's CEO.
  • Boiler Room (2000). A college dropout joins a small brokerage house and discovers that his new career isn't all it's cracked up to be. This film has been compared to both Wall Street and Glengarry Glen Ross. Stars Giovanni Ribisi and Ben Affleck.

Continue reading Where's Gordon Gekko gone? Best Wall Street movies

Book Review: Jordan Belfort's The Wolf of Wall Street

Jordan Belfort was the king of pump-and-dumps during the 1990's, presiding over Stratton Oakmont, a real life version of Boiler Room's J.T. Marlin. He was earning millions of dollars each month, doing enormous quantities of cocaine and a drug called Quaaludes, and sleeping with dozens of prostitutes, in spite of his marriage to a beautiful and wonderful lady he calls the Duchess of Bay Ridge.

Eventually the Feds caught up with him, and Belfort was indicted on charges including securities fraud and money laundering. He managed to serve just 22 months in a federal prison camp after serving as a government witness. Now out of jail, Belfort has written a book about his reign at the top: The Wolf of Wall Street: Stock Market Multimillionaire at 26, Federal Convict at 36, I Partied Like a Rock Star, Lived like a King, and Barely Survived My Rise and Fall as an American Entrepreneurial Icon.

And what a reign it was. Belfort's 519-page memoir contains a seemingly infinite series of tales about drug abuse, trips to Switzerland to launder money, lurid scenes with prostitutes, and other narcotics-fueled debauchery. We get all the vivid details, including Belfort's references to his large penis -- The value The Wolf of Wall Street does have may actually be more pornographic than anything.

But students of white collar crime will be sorely disappointed by what Belfort doesn't provide: after a very brief prologue, the book begins at the top of his career, so we miss out on the story of how he built Stratton Oakmont into such a powerhouse. We don't really get the details of the stock manipulation schemes, with the exception of the interesting sub-plot involving Steve Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ: SHOO), whose founder ended up serving some time in prison for his dealings with Stratton Oakmont. But there just isn't that much detail about the crimes here: too much of the book is devoted to Belfort's decadent lifestyle, and it gets repetitive and boring.

But wait! Belfort, who owes $110.4 million in restitution, is currently at work on a sequel which, hopefully, will provide more detail. There's also a move in the works, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

AOL hopes 'Saved' will be a 'Closer'

TNT's is about to drop yet another original drama series on us. It's called Saved, and AOL products will be integrated into the actual show.

Saved will air Mondays at 10 p.m. starting June 12. The series launches with a commercial-free premiere episode, sponsored by Quizno's and Dodge.

"Our integration with both Saved and [the TNT series] The Closer -- an established hit -- allows us to tap into new audiences and broaden our reach in a unique way," says Richard Taylor, senior vice president of brand marketing for AOL. "We can showcase the value of AOL within the actual storyline, making it relevant to the characters' lives."

According to the press release, Saved focuses on a young, hip, directionless slacker named Wyatt Cole. Cole -- played by Tom Everett Scott (Boiler Room, That Thing You Do) -- kicks around Portland, Oregon, trying to figure out what to do with his life and struggling to live in the shadow of his high-achieving parents.

The hook? He's a paramedic.

The catchphrase? "By saving other people's lives, he will be able to save his own."

I can only imagine how this one is going to work...

SCENE: Burnside Bridge, Downtown Portland. Single-car auto accident. Cole is applying a tourniquet.

Cole: "I can't deal with all these pressures. They've been with me ever since childhood. I mean if only they'd placed PARENTAL CONTROLS on their expectations of me --"

Auto accident victim [suddenly coming back to consciousness]: "You mean like the PARENTAL CONTROLS on AOL?!"

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DJIA-93.7910,197.47
NASDAQ-17.882,149.02
S&P 500-11.271,087.24

Last updated: November 12, 2009: 10:43 PM

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