Today’s Sunday – the start of the work week here in the Middle East. The weekend’s just gone by. But that does not mean it has to be all work and no play! If you are an entrepreneur, a businessman / businesswoman, or a drama/thriller/espionage movie buff, you probably love Wall Street-themed movies.
Here are some of our favourites. Feel free to add in your recommendations through the comments section, if we have missed something.
Wall Street (1987)
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Gordon Gekko (portrayed by Michael Douglas) famously said “greed, for lack of a better word, is good” and that won him the Oscar for Best Actor. Wall Street is a 1987 American drama film released by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Oliver Stone, written by Stone and Stanley Weiser, and starred Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, and Daryl Hannah. Martin Sheen, Terence Stamp, John C. McGinley, and Hal Holbrook appeared in supporting roles. The film tells the story of Bud Fox (Sheen), a young stockbroker desperate to succeed who becomes involved with his hero, Gordon Gekko (Douglas), a wealthy, unscrupulous corporate raider.
Boiler Room (2000)
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Boiler Room is a 2000 American drama film written and directed by Ben Younger, and starring Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Ben Affleck, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan, Tom Everett Scott, Ron Rifkin and Jamie Kennedy. The film is based on interviews the writer conducted with numerous brokers over a two-year period.
Arbitrage (2012)
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Richard Gere plays a troubled hedge fund manager, Robert Miller, who is trying to sell his trading empire before anyone finds out that he’s cooked the books. One night he accidentally falls asleep whole driving with hsi mistress and she dies. To cover it up, he has to get help from an unlikely source.
Cosmopolis (2012)
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Cosmopolis is a 2012 drama science fiction film written, produced and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Robert Pattinson. It is based on the novel of the same name by Don DeLillo. On May 25, 2012, the film premiered in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, drawing mixed early critical reactions.
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (2010)
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Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (also known as Wall Street 2 or Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps) is a 2010 American drama film directed by Oliver Stone, a sequel to Wall Street (1987). It stars Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, and Frank Langella. The film takes place, in New York, 23 years after the original and revolves around the 2008 financial crisis. Its plot centers on a reformed Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, acting as an antihero rather than a villain, and follows his attempts to repair his relationship with his daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan), with the help of her fiancé, Jacob (Shia LaBeouf). In return, Gekko helps Jacob get revenge on the man he blames for his mentor’s death.
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
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Times are tough in a New York real-estate office; the salesmen (Shelley Levene, Ricky Roma, Dave Moss, and George Aaronow) are given a strong incentive by Blake to succeed in a sales contest. The prizes? First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado, second prize is a set of steak knives, third prize is the sack! There is no room for losers in this dramatically masculine world; only “closers” will get the good sales leads. There is a lot of pressure to succeed, so a robbery is committed which has unforeseen consequences for all the characters.
Rogue Trader (1999)
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Based on the real-life story of Barings Bank trader Nick Leeson, Ewan McGregor does a surprisingly awesome job of emulating the British wunderkind down to his addiction to fruit candies. While a relatively unsuccessful movie at the box office, Rogue Trader is entertaining.
Margin Call (2011)
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Director and writer JC Chandor said he “came up with this concept of locking these investment bankers in on the night when one of them thinks that he has found out that the world is coming to an end.” One banker creates a model that shows that his firm is completely under water, but before he can show anyone, he gets fired. He hands his model off to junior banker and the firm goes into emergency mode trying to save everything.
Nova – Trillion Dollar Bet
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In 1973, three brilliant economists, Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton, discovered a mathematical Holy Grail that revolutionized modern finance. The elegant formula they unleashed upon the world was sparse and deceptively simple, yet it led to the creation of a multi-trillion dollar industry. Their bold ideas earned Scholes and Merton a Nobel Prize (Black died before the prize was awarded) and attracted the elite of Wall Street.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
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Enron dives from the seventh largest US company to bankruptcy in less than a year in this tale told chronologically. The emphasis is on human drama, from suicide to 20,000 people sacked: the personalities of Ken Lay (with Falwellesque rectitude), Jeff Skilling (he of big ideas), Lou Pai (gone with $250 M), and Andy Fastow (the dark prince) dominate.
Quants: The Alchemists Of Wall Street (2010)
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A rare look inside the minds of mathematical geniuses who have invented financial models that have both destroyed and made Wall Street. Quants is 45-minute documentary on the inner-workings of quantitative analysts on Wall Street.
