BlackBerry, the silly, scrappy Canadian tale of corporate hubris and hilarity

Blackberry - Matt Johnson - 2023

★★★★-BlackBerry is quite the smart, scrappy flick that oscillates between silly and deadpan in the best possible way. Canadian indie flick. I loved it. One of the best films I've seen this year. Story, pacing, dialogue, acting, and characters are all fantastically executed. Film grabbed me from the very beginning. 

Gist of the film is a fictionalized account of the creation of the BlackBerry line of mobile phones by co-founders Douglas Fregin and Mike Lazaridis, along with investor Jim Balsillie. With all these corporate movies of late, the film shows a Canadian company that changed the world, but it's not Air. This isn't a positive portrayal. It's a company that got too big for its britches and caused its own destruction through hubris, skirting the law, and self-sabotage. 

Stars Jay Baruchel (This is the End, She's Out of Your League) as Mike Lazaridis and Glenn Howerton (Dennis Reynolds from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) as psychopathic co-CEO Jim Balsillie. Others include director Matt Johnson, Michael Ironside (Scanners, RoboCop), Saul Rubinek (Unforgiven, True Romance), and Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride)in supporting roles.

Directed by Matt Johnson and co-written by Johnson and producer Matthew Miller. Loosely based on the book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff. 

Howerton elevates what would have been a solid flick into a great one. He plays his usual sociopath, only with more rage. Like a dead-eyed predator. Yet, there is still a lot of humor in that misguided rage. He comes off as a guy that might physically attack the people that work for him he is so quick to hilariously fly off the handle, asking them to do the impossible. He's worth the watch alone. 

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre - Guy Ritchie - 2023

★★★★-Went in expecting a fun, humorous action movie featuring beautiful people in beautiful clothes having a great time. That was exactly what I got. Loved it.

Gist is Jason Statham plays a mercenary named Orson Fortune who is hired to stop the sale of a deadly new weapons technology. The broker of the deal is billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmonds played by Hugh Grant. To help, Fortune assembles a reluctant team of the world’s greatest and most beautiful operatives including Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride), Bugzy Malone (the rapper), and Aubrey Plaza. They end up recruiting Hollywood's biggest movie star, one Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) to go undercover and save the world.

Gets a little convoluted, but I honestly didn't really care. All of Guy Ritchie garbage crime movies are fun as fuck and this is no exception. Also, love how he plugs the wood-burning grill/table he invented in all of his movies now. 

Grant and Hartnett are so fun. Both of them yuck it up and steal every scene they are in. Plaza was a little much at first with her weak sarcasm, but comes around and is pretty great. 

Overall, nothing new and isn't going to win any awards. One review said “It’s like someone doing Guy Ritchie doing Guy Ritchie.” Fair, but still loved it. Sort of reminds me of a movie like Beat the Devil when John Huston made a movie starring Humphrey Bogart that gently spoofed the other movies they made together just so they could go and do cool shit in cool places and get paid for it. Having a great time shows on camera in projects like this. 

So, yeah, humor, action, movie stars being movie stars, Guy Ritchie, Aubrey Plaza looking fine. I'm buying.