Blackberry

[wesfau2]

Been waiting for this one to his the streaming services and Hulu finally has it.  The story of the origin of the greatest smart phone ever created (ymmv), starring Glenn Howerton and Jay Baruchel.

Howerton is great as the uber-asshole Jim Balsillie who pushes Jay Baruchel's Mike Lazaridis and his gang of jolly nerds to new heights.  You can feel some of Dennis Reynolds's anger bubbling just under the surface, but Jim never has a moment of levity.  He rarely smiles and doesn't seem to enjoy much of anything...except hockey (oh...the whole thing takes place in Canada, dontchaknow?).

Ultimately, the myopia and hubris of Lazaridis, coupled with Jim's bailing on anything resembling salvaging his company while he pursues...other interests...plays out the way we all watched it in real time: getting their heads beat in by Apple's fancy new iPhone.

Really well done, even if you know how it's all going to end.

[Kaos]

Weird.  I watched this last night too.

It was ok.  Reminded me of an episode of Silicon Valley without the debate over how long it would take Erlich to jerk off 800 executives. 

It was a little jerky (not the Erlich kind) but that was a creative choice I didn’t mind.  I wasn’t too excited over Baruchel’s performance.  It was kind of limp. 


Ballsticky I got.  He aroused memories of my first business partner.  After we closed our first million dollar deal, his work ethic dribbled off to nothing.  He thought he was cock of the walk and he just couldn’t get up for the work that had to be done.  Always dicking around with stuff.  Bought a boat. New cars. “Investing” in efforts where he got the shaft financially. Just one boner after another.  I ended up having to neuter him.  All he left with was a new washing machine and no ball and chain of debt.


My first real cell phone was a palm pilot. I liked it.  Still have it in a drawer upstairs. I did, at the time, expect them to merge with Blackberry. I felt the same as Jay’s character when the iPhone came out. Gimmicky. Market already closed.  No room for it.

 I underestimated two things.  1. Jobs’ ability in making it look like the future compared blackberry’s horse and wagon, and 2. The difference in concept. Blackberry put a computer in a phone.  Apple put a phone in a computer.  That’s a pretty significant philosophical difference, and one I didn’t understand.  I made fun of iPhone buyers. Until I held one.  Then I bought one. 


The movie?  It’s pretty okay.  It doesn’t have the panache of say, Wolf of Wall Street or Social Network and the lower budget shows.  Still it’s an interesting look at greed and the myopia that can come with success. 

It wasn’t a hard watch.