This adaptation of Tom Wolfe's scathing novel about the yuppie lifestyles of the Wall Street rich and Park Avenue famous is, admittedly, a flawed satire (the casting of Tom Hanks and Melanie Griffith didn't help), but it's hardly the irredeemably awful disaster most critics led you to believe. And, anyway, even a lesser Brian De Palma picture is a whole lot more interesting than most A-list directors' good ones. Purely from a technical standpoint, it's brilliant - particularly the opening four-minute continuous shot - and now that the glaring media spotlight has been turned off, its subtle entertainment values can gloriously shine through.

After his mistress runs over a black teen, a Wall Street hotshot sees his life unravel in the spotlight; A down-and-out reporter breaks the story and opportunists clamber to use it to their advantage.