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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: FIRST LOOK PICTURES
Salesrank: 35181
Released: August 4, 2009 |
| Our Price: $5.67 |
| Used Price: $5.98 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
AUGUST follows Tom Sterling (Josh Hartnett) as an aggressive, young dot-com entrepreneur who fights to keep his start-up company afloat. Tom finds himself on a personal and professional downward spiral as he struggles to reunite with girlfriend, Sarrah (Naomie Harris), regain control of his company from his apathetic investor Ogilvie (David Bowie), and deal with age-old family wounds with his father, David (Rip Torn) and his brother Joshua (Adam Scott). The film also stars Emmanuelle Chriqui as Morela and Andre Royo as Dylan.
Description of August:
The specter of September 11th looms over August--there are numerous indications that it’s set in 2001, and the title alone is an ominous indication of the imminence of that awful day--but watching this 2008 offering, one gets the feeling that even if Tom Sterling knew 9/11 was coming, he wouldn’t change a thing. As written by Howard A. Rodman, directed by Austin Chick, and portrayed by John Hartnett, Tom is almost completely unlikable. A dot-com entrepreneur in those heady days before the techno bubble burst and internet companies like his Land Shark went directly south, Tom’s hipper than his neck tattoo, disdainful of his competition, borderline abusive to his younger, meeker brother (the technical brains behind the company they founded together), hostile to his parents, and a jerk to his former girlfriend, the one person he actually seems to care about. He’s also a master at talking loud and saying absolutely nothing. One of the filmmakers’ conceits is that we’re never told exactly what it is that Land Shark does; Tom mouths some nonsense about providing "bleeding-edge, mission-critical, cross-platform, robust, scale-able architectures," but the company’s principal function, as his dad (Rip Torn) puts it, seems to be to provide office space for his young employees to eat Oreos and play computer solitaire, and when Land Shark meets the fate of others of its ilk, it’s mighty hard to care. No flies on Hartnett--the guy is a star, and rarely less than watchable. But August is a cold film, in both look and feel, and even a brief but memorable scene near the end with David Bowie as the one character who seems able to talk straight won’t keep you from wanting to take a shower when it’s all over. --Sam Graham
August Reviews:
Distinctly underappreciated 
2009-11-10 - The Bottom Line:
Weaving an unmistakable atmosphere of gloom over the story of an arrogant dot-commer attempting to keep his dying company afloat several months after most other such companies have collapsed, director Austin Chick elevates August into quite a little modern tragedy; it was panned by critics but between the electric performance by David Bowie in the film's final act, a wonderfully sour Rip Torn, and the aforementioned direction by Chick there is a great deal to like in this already-forgotten picture
3/4
video 
2009-09-09 - great it has bowie and was at excellent price but the movie was boring-the product and deliver were excelent
A drama without drama 
2009-03-02 - Josh Hartnett doesn't do too many bad movies. While they aren't exactly blockbusters, they're usually conciderably entertaining. I don't know what went wrong with this film though. This was one of the dullest movies I've ever seen. The film follows a cocky young buisnessman around watching his company go from being the #1 new start up to dropping to nearly nothing until he has to sell it to David Bowie. It's a drama without drama I guess. There was just no point to it. A big disapointment.
August by Brandon M. Moskos
2009-01-28 - I waited a long time for this movie to come to dvd, and I wasn't disappointed. Josh Hartnett deserved a best actor nomination and I am not exaggerating. This movie is about the problems a small business sees during the post 9/11 era. Josh Hartnett is outstanding as a business owner facing the facts that his business is failing. He's partners with his brother, and the brother tries to get Josh to face the reality that they need to sell the company and get out. Josh is reluctant at first, but he soon starts to realize that his brother has a family to support, and the business was failing. Great acting and story, you will not be disappointed.
Josh Hartnett is a brilliant actor!!! 
2008-10-31 - Its really amazing when you see an actor as big as Josh Hartnett working on a serious film. I think this is one of the first films to really show his diversity. The man can act! I think that down the road we're gonna look back on this film as the turning point in his career - the point at which he starts working on more than just big/predictable Hollywood films. I heard he's now acting on the London on the live-stage version of Rain Man. The film has a really good story about the dot com crash back in 2001 - which is really appropriate with what's going on with the stock market right now. It will be a very cool addition to your DVD collection.
