George Clooney is Lee Gates a TV financial expert who’s show full of gimmicks, energy and glamour advises on potential money makers in the Wall Street market however when we join the movie it’s the day following a rather poor piece of advice from Lee has lost a lot of people money. He is all about himself and doesn’t blink for a moment as he rolls on despite his error seemingly uncaringly. Trying her best to keep the ego in check is Julia Roberts as Patty Fenn who keeps the wheels in motion behind the scenes and feeds Clooney information as required, all the while trying to ensure that the show must go on. One person who lost a lot of money because of Clooney is Kyle Budwell (jack O’Connell) who invested an inheritance on the supposed sure thing that backfired so he decides that he needs to take action to highlight what he sees an injustice, he manages to get into the studio with a gun and a bomb and holds Clooney hostage live on air.

It’s a decent script full of tension rather than action but it’s made much better by its two leads who work well together to keep things moving as they help O’Connell get to the bottom of an issue which grows from a simple system error to something a lot more high level as the film progresses. However the film also suffers from the fact that while it tries to humanise O’Connells character his gullibility in investing the money expecting to make a profit but then believing that the fact that he lost his money is down to a TV pundit only alienates us and I was more interested in seeing how Clooney dealt with the situation rather than worrying if O’Connell got his supposed justice.

The final third also takes a turn for the worse and eliminates a lot of the tension which keeps the movie interesting as it moves from the claustrophobic confines of the studio where the closed quarters adds to the peril of the situation into the areas around Wall Street which, while highlighting just what a circus the today’s social and mainstream media streams can be, shifts the movie away from the edginess that the first two halves gave us.

It’s very good concept for a film which just doesn’t quite hit the mark it’s still a good movie although really only because of the impact and interaction of its two main starts and unfortunately the plot falls a little short towards the end.

DJ Speaks Rating:5.5 Out Of 10