BlackBerry

Between this, Air, and Tetris, I think this one takes the cake. The central performances (Jay Baruchel & Glenn Howerton) are fantastic, and both manage to captivate us with their distinct mannerisms and quirks. The story itself is very compellingly told, with details covered from multiple angles, including business, tech, marketing, employee relations, and more. There's no question that Hollywood loves discussing corporate wins and losses (well, mostly wins) and BlackBerry is certainly among the finest I've seen. Howerton (playing Jim Balsillie) is at his best when he loses his cool, throwing temper tantrums at almost everyone, including contemporaries, executives, and even private jet pilots. The rise and fall of BlackBerry was always going to be an exciting story, and director Matt Johnson does an excellent job with the material in hand.

Without knowing the history of Blackberry, outside its spectacular crash, I found this movie very entertaining and informative. It's not a documentary, so everything needs to be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. That being said, there were many parts of the Blackberry story, including Research in Motions technical innovations that predated the iPhone by almost a decade.

Jay Barucshel and Matthew Johnson were both wonderful in a corporate Ying-and-Yang relationship, though Johnson steals the show with his irreverence and comedy. Glenn Howerton was a bit disarming as corporate tough guy Jim Balsille. Together, the three drive the story from its lowest points to its dizzying heights.

Overall a fun entertaining picture, that may not be completely accurate, but for those who don't know the details, it won't detract from the story.

Aside from the constant annoying fast zoom-ins and shaky cam "The Office" style filming - which I can't stand, this was one heck of an enjoyable film. The two hour runtime flew by with the excellent pacing and the smooth cohesive and well-written screenplay. Jay Baruchel nailed his character with an all around great performance, as did Glenn Howerton. For that matter, all casting and performances were spot on, as was the cinematography and score. The story was mind-blowing, even if you never owned a BlackBerry, just to see a slice of Steve Jobs as the Canadian version of a small start-up becoming a world dominating tech empire, and that empire's fall from grace.

It's a dark comedy of sorts. Not fully dark, but well done all around. Casting was great, especially Glen Howerton as the maniac CEO. Plays the part well, couldn't help but laugh at certain scenes because he's just like angry Dennis from Always Sunny.

It's a cool story too, about the rise and epic fall of the CrackBerry. If you're a bit older you'll remember well when the iPhone came out and destroyed the entire industry. I didn't know some of the things that happen besides that, so learned something too.

Overall it's a fast paced, fun little ride. It's a little too long and there's some poor character acting from the "geek coders", that's overwrought, but doesn't really impact the overall film. I already recommended to my buddy. 6.7/10.

The phone was nicknamed "Crackberry" - due to its addictive quality ... (an omen of the future of smartphones). Here, people loved the clicking of the mini keyboard and the blinking "new messages" light. It was the rage of Wall Street, Fortune 500 companies government leaders and had dedicated fans ranging from Obama to Katy Perry to Kim Kardashian.

It was with this fascination that I watched "Blackberry". I wanted to know how did all of this get started and by whom? Well, the movie didn't disappoint - I'd have never guessed the people behind it and wild ride they had.

The story is brisk and the characters have radically different personalities. The latter made it interesting given that they all thrown together in an increasingly high-pressure environment. My favorite character was the comic-sidekick Doug Fregin (cofounder) - he reminds me of Jonah Hill. It also turns out that he's the co-writer and director of the film itself.

One thing I didn't immediately recognize was that the tech wiz / boy-wonder (Mike Lazaridis) was played by Jay Baruchel. He was the voice behind the lead character in How to Train Your Dragon. It was perfect casting.

Blackberry is definitely worth a watch if the subject matter interests you. It's yet another movie demonstrating that real-life events can be just as captivating as pure fiction itself. It joins the ranks of other great tech stories inspired by true events: The Dropout (Theranos / Elizabeth Holmes), We Crashed (WeWork), Super Pumped (Uber), and Tetris (the game).