zif ofoz the detractors of this movie kept looking for a beginning - middle - and end to this story (in my opinion). that's not what it's about! the story continues today.after watching this story i was most taken by the mystery of it all. it starts then ends and the in-between comes across as vacuous and self indulgent - and isn't that what the dot com bubble was all about? no where in the entire film is "Landshark" actually explained as to what it does. the developers do not really explain it and above all the employees seem lost as to exactly what their duties are!! and in that is the clue to this movie.it's about the grasp for fortune & fame built on a foundation that no one really understood - the internet! a quick road to cash as long as you presented yourself as if you knew what you are talking about easy cash came your way. even the elderly David bowie character fell for it but didn't care for the hartnett characters lifestyle. appearance is everything substance doesn't count.i liked this flick and will watch it again! beautifully photographed and acted - it's a thinking persons movie so don't expect the story to be handed to you.

cannonclubonline Many find life like a boat with a sail billowing in the wind. Sometimes, the wind is not there, but for a few, those that can will sail away into fortune. Josh Hartnett's character epitomizes those optimists. We catch up to this wheeler dealer just a few months before the actual huge part of the bubble finally burst starting in March 2001. There was no indication from watching this film that it had anything to do with the times other than the film was supposedly taking place and ended soon before the fateful day of 9/11. This apparently was not mentioned in the film, however, some reviewers tend to connect this film to a procession of unraveling events that seem to showcase the end of our way of thinking (the dawn of a new era).There are many wonderful things that I could say about this film. Some would argue that it's just a meandering waste of time. After watching other films such as Purpose (2003), Boiler-room, and Wall-Street, this film seemed to fit a different kind of niche in my memory. More or less that niche centered around the extreme confidence and undying drive that Hartnett portrayed playing Tom.Whereas the message pretty much comes off the same in the end; a person or company hitting a so-called brick wall or the end of the track right before the train falls off into the ravine. In Promise, the main theme seemed to be centered around John, a software developer who becomes a billionaire overnight when he takes his company public. John unfortunately gets caught up in the fame, greed and power and all the vein distractions that go along with living the new high life. Inevitably, our Dot-com guy must learn what's really important in order to save his invention and company from a hostile takeover. Fundamentally, John learns that love and a sense of purpose are more powerful and more valuable than money.With Tom in "August", you already know that this guy has a sense of purpose but can't really believe that failure is in the picture. Thus, for all intents and purposes, we are taken on a journey into the daily life of Tom to see how he really ticks and what he really thinks. We finally see who Tom really is and how he blames the other leeches for his unforeseen failure. Some animosity comes out when Rip Torn, who plays his father, pushes Tom to the limit of his own inner ego bubble, when he insinuates that LandSharks (the company) is a company of Oreo eating lazy teenagers who do absolutely nothing. Tom views his brother's and his father's ideology foreign and corrupt from his own. That's when the partying pansy pretty passively provokes pity pugnaciously putting punches on his own face by pissing someone he knows off just for the fun of it. This behavior soon carries him to the final seen where David Bowie tells him how the cow is getting ready to eat the cabbage. Bravo performance goes to everyone including Ron Insana who plays himself, Robin Tunney who plays Melanie Hanson, Naomie Harris who plays the on again failed relationship Sarrah, and Adam Scott who plays the brilliant, yet not so business-minded brother Joshua who delivers his down to earth perspective on what's really going on. In conclusion, John Hartnett makes this film totally believable and, hands down, should have put him in the running for an Oscar for his role except that somehow his pervasively pensive prose put people off. Too bad he could never do this again with his own brother was the last thought felt by him but that was alright!

paululrich I do understand the markets, I'm studying IT in business right now, and I happened to see this movie. Most of it was like watching paint dry. How the casting director scored Rip Torn and David Bowie is beyond me. The movie is much like a .com company - all hype and no substance. I can just see the guy pitching his scrip right now to the VC's - he probably used that same material when doing the same scene in the movie. This movie rely's heavily on the F-bomb to make its point about businesses - or the lack of sense in business. It could have used witty dialog instead... There are some diamonds in this rough though - when David Bowie tell's you he doesn't like the way you've been handling your personal life, you know you've hit rock bottom!

Lea Simpson OK, I have to agree with many people and say that this film was boring and waste of time. I obviously did not see a plot and the story line made no sense. The entire movie was about saving a company... who wants to watch a movie on that? Come on now.. Josh Harnett acted the part real good but the plot goes over my head. The best part and most interesting to me was his relations with Sarrah and when they just vanished her out of the movie there was really nothing else.. That was the only story line that this movie had not some stupid company going down in August a month before 9/11!! Who cares??? People watch movies to be entertained.. not lectured and that is what this movie gave me.. nothing made any sense besides his relationship with Sarrah..