The next day Tom and his assistants meet with potential buyer Mr. Ogilvie. David Bowie shows up in the role and I can only guess he wishes to contrast his flamboyant rock reputation by showing up in a dreadful bore of a film. Tom lays on another shovel of nonsense as he resists an outright buyout of LandShark. Ogilvie puts him in his place, speaking for the audience when he tells Tom he doesn't like his style or the way he conducts himself. He also points out that LandShark is quite worthless and gets Tom to agree to get moved out of the picture, not that he has a choice.
Tom attempts to show some heart, asking if at least Joshua will stay on with the company. Ogilvie assures him that he will. Tom agrees to the buyout and offers his hand, which is not shaken by Ogilvie; how do you like that, douche boy? I'm not giving Tom credit for acting concerned about his brother, as Joshua's job was already safe, as he actually does something productive and doesn't spout amateur teenage diatribes.
Our epilogue is thankfully short, consisting of Tom moping (yes, AGAIN) in his bed while watching kung fu then wandering back to the strip club, where he plays pinball with Joshua. In the background we are reminded that its August 2001 as we watch a TV news show reporting the death of singer Aaliyah. Isn't that terrific, before ending this dud let's name drop a well-praised singer's plane crash as an unnecessary reminder of the film's time frame. Fade out as I continue to wonder why its so important that this film took place in August 2001, as the dot-com bubble had burst well before that time. I'm hoping the writer isn't pointing out this is some ominous sign of bad things to come in September 2001, so I won't get into how ridiculously offensive that would be.
Tom Cruise used to star in films like this, playing obnoxious, immature punks in stuff like Days of Thunder, Rain Man, and Top Gun, but at least his character would redeem himself to some extent by the end of the story. The character of Tom in this film, however, acts like a dick from beginning to end; he wants to get rich by taking investors money that he knows won't get paid back, he doesn't give a very genuine-sounding apology to his parents, and he gets back together with his girlfriend but goes back to disappointing her, to name just a few of his actions. He semi-frets about his brother's future, but Joshua's future was secured not by Tom, but by 'mean' Mr. Ogilvie, who at least attempts to build real businesses. Is it tragic that LandShark failed? I'd think that a bigger tragedy would've been a sham like LandShark succeeding. So what was the point of this film? Conning people out of money is a bad thing, I guess, but it doesn't take a film to convince people of that.
