(M) **

Director: Oliver Stone.

Cast: Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin, Frank Langella.

THE idea of a belated sequel is rarely appealing, but there was some promise in this timely reminder that greed still ain't necessarily good.

With the Global Financial Crisis fresh in people's minds, a follow-up to Stone's ode to '80s excess seemed perfect given that the recent excesses of US banks and financial institutions made Gordon Gekko's old paychecks look like pocket money.

But Wall Street 2 struggles under the weight of its own wealth of material, wanting to be so many different films in one that it ends up not properly being any.

Opening with Michael Douglas' iconic Gekko being release from jail for his crimes in the first movie, it quickly rolls on to 2008 where the former white-collar crim has published a tell-all book and is emerging as a doomsayer predicting dark financial days ahead.

Meanwhile, his estranged daughter Winnie (Mulligan) is dating financial whiz kid Jacob Moore (LaBeouf), who has a pet project in financing a fusion energy research facility but is about to take a serious hit when the crisis claims his company and his boss.

Stone has a lot to work with here and the script tries unsuccessfully to cram it all in together. At any given moment, the film is a family drama, a redemption story, a commentary on the GFC, a call for renewable energy, a revenge tale, a skewering of capitalism, a general social warning, and a friendly retread of the original film.

All these things could have worked together with a bit more focus, but Wall Street 2 wanders and ends up committing that most heinous of movie crimes - it feels painfully long. Some judicious editing of some of the subplots or a neater combination of its many themes would have helped.

The film also struggles to work out what it wants from Gekko. Douglas is as good as ever in a role he clearly relishes, but here he is meant to be the sympathetic underdog seeking a second chance as well as the duplicitous lizard that made him so reviled and remembered in the first film. It's an unwieldly combination that doesn't quite work and brings to mind that other fictional tycoon Mr Burns and his "trademark changes of heart" (as well as Homer Simpson's quote that "...some people never change. Or, they quickly change, then quickly change back.".

There are highlights. Charlie Sheen's cameo is a pleasant surprise, Douglas is always great to watch as Gekko, and LaBeouf and Mulligan provide good support, with the film working best when it's focusing on its core trio of Douglas, LaBeouf and Mulligan. Brolin is also a welcome addition as Gekko's old enemy, Bretton James, who represents the new breed of Gekko-like greed.

But for the most part, this return to the financial world's most famous address is a bit like talking to a bad financial adviser - mostly boring, overly complicated, and in the end you feel a little ripped off.