Fatal Attraction, 1987

Fatal Attraction, 1987
Director: Adrian Lyne
Cast: Glenn Close, Michael Douglas, Anne Archer


Stage: Home theatre, late Saturday screening


Fatal Attraction in short:Happily married New York lawyer Dan Callagher has an affair with his colleague Alex, and the two enjoy a love weekend while Dan's wife and kid are away. But Alex will not let go of him, and she will stop at nothing to have him for herself. Just how far will she go to get what she wants?.


Preps: None in perticular. Seen this piece. Love its horror and energy.


Reality: Now what animal drives us to make something out of our ordinary and in some cases, jeopardise everything we have, own, want to own or have developed in ages before this perticular action?

The plot is simple; a guy takes a weekend vacation from his marriage and gets involved with a woman that seems to have everything under control. Here comes the true meaning of the title of the piece. Truly it is a fatal attraction, but not fatal in thins these two lovers develop, but in the relationship fall this guy is facing. Douglas plays a similar role to the one in the movie Disclosure. So a guy that was taken advantage of. The cards were on the table. He wanted to fuck so he did, and she wanted to fuck and they did. How about these two getting their armours equipped and turning into two most fatal enemies because of a weekend they spent together as if they were teenagers?

The tables turn as she confesses pregnancy, tries to stalk him on every step and makes him really miserable only by claiming she cannot live without him. It is the deed of desperation she is doing on every day, with the stalking, and calling to his home, to the office. She claims she needs him, his love, she wants to have his child. And all he wanted was a weekend fun.

Now how to confess to the wife (do you confess at all?).. well, the road is steep and long. He doesn't want his life to change at all but he no longer has the control. His weekend affair turns into a raging bull with the angry woman that claims she adores him.

The piece will make you think about the virtues you have and the sacrifices you are willing to make. Also to think about one deed in one night, if it's worth the effort. Would you really want to take everything to the edge and take the risk of losing it all for one day of fun? Highly doubtful for most of the population. And this is the tagline this movie is aiming towards.
Splendid cast by Glenn Close, a good one by Douglas. It is the 80 movie and as such works in this environment. To nowaday spectator it will look out of date. But the topic is as vivid as ever.


My personal rate: 7,5 (a good classic to see, live in any given moment).



Fatal Attraction on IMDB

Disclosure, 1994

Disclosure, 1994
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Donald Sutherland



Stage: Home theatre



Disclosure in short: With his company about to merge, a happily married and successful computer expert is expecting a promotion. Instead the job goes to a woman from another plant with whom he had an affair in his bachelor days. His new boss, not only dangerously sexy but equally dangerously ambitious, has climbed the corporate ladder by exerting undue influence on the CEO. She apparently tries to pick up where they left off but he just about manages to resist. This liaison is soon revealed to be part of her master plan to consolidate power and use Tom as a scapegoat to cover her technical misdeeds. As his position at work comes under increasing pressure he decides to file charges of sexual harassment. This is the last thing the company needs.


Preps: I can watch this on an very awqward evening, as I am thinking about someone getting on your ass over something you weren't a part of. So it seems a nice suggestion someone from TV has made on my behalf.



Reality: This is an excellent piece on getting hit by your own management and your own boss. It is amazing, how (for a change) a guy gets swollen by system and his own weaknesses. A fine learning point for anyone that gets involved with this kind of deal and needs to know what is he/she fighting against. Douglas here is the swollen man by a woman as a superior. To get weak is one thing, to abuse power, something completely else. Defined by a brilliant Crichton script, the movie has its flow, its protagonists and main message - screw or get screwed. Or put it another way - if get screwed, fight back. Don't be a small ant, be the ant with the attitude. Even though Douglas fights, he simultanously loses the game by losing things he feels dear about. Regardless of the outcome of the dispute he's having with the company, he's unemployable, man with a mark, man that will always wear a shadow, and most important, this despute importantly reflects in his personal life.

How far can the company go to cover up for something and find a guilty person among those that don't know they represent collateral damage? And how many people really have time, energy and money to back it up? Put it on the other side of coin - what is worth more, honor or normal life? And, is the life really normal, if you swallow something like that? A very old and still fresh question, fits perfectly into nowaday environment in business.

My personal rate: 8,0 (solid, straight piece. Will keep you to your knees and with mouth open until its end).


Disclosure on IMDB

Wall Street 2 - Money never sleeps, 2010

Wall Street 2 - Money never sleeps, 2010
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin


Stage: Home theatre, HD version


Wall Street in short: As the global economy teeters on the brink of disaster, a young Wall Street trader partners with disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko on a two-tiered mission: To alert the financial community to the coming doom, and to find out who was responsible for the death of the young trader's mentor.
Preps: I wanted to see the sequel badly ever since the first part. It inspired me into economy and I wanted to feel the broker's thoughts while bidding, selling, buying, and feel the taste of that much money. So, in my case, pretty expected piece that I hardly waited to get my hands upon. Let's see some Wall Street action..



Reality: What is to follow after the brainwash the first part of this movie offered? Absolutely brilliantly set (with many economical mistakes - as my professors claimed at the university and afterwards tried to explain to us, eager students), gave me the inspiration to study economy. It is rare that a movie gives inspiration to a certain profession. It definitely happened for instance in Top Gun, this is another good example of having a movie inspiring people to go to be brokers or at least, economists.

Therefore, the sequel draw my attention for several reasons. And one of the most important ones - to see Douglas in action again. This piece only proves that the man is made of steal. His energy will drive you like on a rollercoaster from the beginning to the steep ending. Broker world is closed for emotions and the people getting on its bus with feelings, tend to get broken along the way. The plot is quite easy to follow, again you are faced with numerous expressions, that are only used in this broker language world and that I am sure most people cannot follow. But you get the main idea how to create a distortion and scam someone.

The cast creates a good synergy - I would put someone else in the role of his daughter. The girl seems to be crying all the time and makes me wonder whether this was made on purpose. There aren't always scenes where she would be crying, although she seems as if on drugs each time she appears.
I absolutely adore the idea to connect the protagonists from the first part (Brolin - Douglas) and I cannot switch the movie off because it progresses all along the way. No time for picnic there, I cannot just go and fetch something from the fridge, I am curious about the next part all the time. Therefore, I strongly encourage future economists or the ones that wanted to be ones, to see this piece, as it will provoke inner spirit again and make you believe in this green entity that all of us are shutting our eyes from - money, but all of us need. But as said at the beginning, broker world, a.k.a. Wall Street, is no place for mushy feelings, mushy people. No place for emotions either. Roll down your sleeves and get into the game :)





My personal rating: 8,0 (made me nostalgic about the first movie and I absolutely love this economical đibrish - talking in words noone seems to understand).

Wall Street on IMDB

Don't say a word, 2001

Don't say a word, 2001
Director:Gary Fleder
Cast: Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Brittany Murphy, Famke Janssen


Don't say a word in short: When the daughter of a psychiatrist is kidnapped, he's horrified to discover that the abductors' demand is that he break through to a post traumatic stress disorder suffering young woman who knows a secret...


Stage: Home TV selection
Preps: None in perticular. The movie catches my eye while lying down after a hard day. It seems familiar, although I cannot verify seeing it yet.


Reality: I am a deep fan of the genre, in its best it fits the needs of my curious soul. The kidnapping of a child and combining it with a psychologist as a father and Douglas's energy seems like a good recipe for victory, from the director's perspective. It doesn't go too deep into revealing the secrets that the kidnapper have, however it maintains a thin red line between the beginning and the end - the precious jewel that the kidnapper wants to take his hands on.

The story inbetween (Douglas chasing his daughter) is just some sort of filling. The real thing lies in the revealing of a secret of a psychotic young woman (brilliantly played by Brittany Murphy) and finally the turnover at the end, when you think that everything is won by the dark side.

The kidnapping part seems much more harder to believe (and the means to getting to the young woman with a secret by Douglas)than the mere idea of getting the stone and not thinking of the means used on the path to get it. The movie is a decent replica of many of the kind (or more accurately, one decent in a line of many decent movies in this topic, like Taken, for instance).

A lot of action, changes of scenery. Some dialogues put very poorly together, the monitoring of the wife of the shrink put to perfection (in this sense, not very believable). A good Saturday evening choice, to my opinion. It will set your feelings on tension until its very end.




My personal rating: 6,5 (a pretty decent psychological drama, just adequate to fit the needs of a good evening. Douglas in his best age and act)



Don't say a word on IMDB

Wall Street, 1987

Wall Street, 1987
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Tamara Tunie


Wall Street in short: A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider whom takes the youth under his wing.

Stage: home cinema, TV production of the day

Preps (I have seen this many times): None in perticular. I know this piece, I have seen it first as a child and was impressed about the way economy should work in USA. Or on any other part of the world.


Reality: Still, the piece amazes me. Douglas is brilliant in this act of crucial part of a company, a greedy individual that exploits rival aspect of another, young broker, willing to take any path possible (even immoral or illegal) to come to the top of the food chain in the industry. Several economical basic rules are broken here, nevertheless, the movie remains a true reminder of that decade of movie creating. USA government is upraised, US Economy forced to feel like the only one working in the world, and increasing fear of others coming in and taking the game out of brave US people.

Charlie Sheen is brilliant in his new yuppy image, fighting his way to be the best of the best (an ideal, shown in many movies of that period - one of them for instance Top Gun, or some war movies). After the movie, the broker position was many times seeked as a top job position worldwide, needless to say, especially in USA. Also in Europe. After that, going to the university of Economics, seemed like a walk in the park. Sadly enough, the faculty teaches you that some rules, obeyed in this movie to make forgeries work or to gain money, are really false and can mislead individuals to think it really works.

The perspective of having that much money to spend on women, life itself and getting into a high class society, seemed unreal at that point and something most people only dream of.


My personal rating: 7,0 (it was the first time that broker world amazed me, when I saw this. A classic, every future economist should see in my opinion, although the theory cracks in practical (unreal) scenes).

Wall Street on IMDB

Falling Down, 1993

Falling Down, 1993
Director: Joel Schumacher
Cast: Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall


Stage: Home theatre. Selection every now and then. I just adore this movie

Falling Down in short: William (D-FENS) just wants to get home to see his daughter on her birthday. Unfortunately, nothing seems to be going right for him. First there's the traffic jam, then the unhelpful Korean shopkeeper who "doesn't give change". D-FENS begins to crack and starts to fight back against the every day "injustices" he encounters on his journey home.

Preps: This is absolutely a masterpiece of Joel Schumacher, seeing the perspective of a native american, giving all around him a lesson. I want to see this in the same way I need to see Kill Bill every now or then, or Pulp Fiction, or the Matrix. So no preps whatsoever, I am more than ready every time!


Reality: As said, from the start to finish, a masterpiece. The walking sculpture of black humour, sarcasm and things that don't make sense to most humans but don't have the guts to say it in front. Michael Douglas has one of his best casts here and I cannot stop laughing or admiring the point he's making. Let it be by the Korean guy at his store, or in the Whammy Burger, let it be on the hill with the latino guys or later on at the phone booth. The scenes that are shown, while this guy is trying to come home to his kid's birthday (at some point you realize he is a fanatic and got divorced a while ago, having a kid and a restriction order), however, the facts you realize about this man get you tho think about how calm he really is :) and how slow he's taking his anger out of his pockets.

The side story about a retiring cop / Duvall, here just seems something inbetween to calm your laughing centres and get ready for the next scene. Each time Douglas appears on the screen, you get a fresh dose of clean, ironic humour and it is just pouring in my veins more and more. I am sure you will love this movie and the true irony it posesses.

By the way, D-Fence is the licence number on Douglas's car! And for this reason from the middle of the movie he gets this nick by all the people chasing him.


One of my favourites is definitely at the Whammy Burger. It's one of the most hilarious scenes I have ever seen. However, the first one before that is when he hits the pine with a korean guy, not giving him the change he wanted:

Mr. Lee: Take the money.
Bill Foster: You think I'm a thief? Oh, you see, I'm not the thief. I'm not the one charging 85 cents for a *stinking* soda! You're the thief. I'm just standing up for my rights as a consumer.



My personal rate: 9,5 (absolutely brilliant in terms of black humour and sarcasm. Everyone that's into it like me will surely adopt and adore this piece. One of my favourites - I see it from time to time - the Whammy burger scene with "the customer is always right" attitude)

Falling Down on IMDB