The acting is bad
Haven’t seen this in awhile but half the cast, including Charlie Sheen, sound like they are reading off cue cards. Douglas, Martin Sheen and few others hold up but the rest are worse than infomercial spokesmen.
shareI don't think you mean reading off cue cards, but rather that their dialogue was written with too much exposition. It reminds me of Broadway and Shakespeare plays where the characters delve out the details instead of us seeing them with visual representation.
It's a common practice with Hollywood movies though, so it's not because the actors are bad but it's the only way you can translate a complicated plotline involving high finance and intrigue without flying over the audiences' heads.
From a production standpoint, I was annoyed with the casting of Darryl Hannah. For some reason she was the IT Girl in the early/mid 80s but she did nothing for me sexually or even on a platonic level. I therefore couldn't buy into Bud being enthralled by her supposed allure.