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7.1/10 • 626

2023-02-132h 0m

ComedyDrama

Work hard. Fail hard.

Two mismatched entrepreneurs – egghead innovator Mike Lazaridis and cut-throat businessman Jim Balsillie – joined forces in an endeavour that was to become a worldwide hit in little more than a decade. The story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world's first smartphone.

Directors
Matt Johnson
Writters
Matt Johnson, Matthew Miller
Editors
Matt Johnson, Curt Lobb

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Jay Baruchel

    Jay Baruchel

    Mike Lazaridis

  2. Glenn Howerton

    Glenn Howerton

    Jim Balsillie

  3. Matt Johnson

    Matt Johnson

    Doug Fregin

  4. Rich Sommer

    Rich Sommer

    Paul Stanos

  5. Michael Ironside

    Michael Ironside

    Charles Purdy

  6. Cary Elwes

    Cary Elwes

    Carl Yankowski

  7. Martin Donovan

    Martin Donovan

    Rick Brock

  8. Michelle Giroux

    Michelle Giroux

    Dara Frankel

  9. Saul Rubinek

    Saul Rubinek

    John Woodman

Reviews8

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CinemaSerf Avatar

CinemaSerf

Oct 19, 2023

7/10

Matt Johnson's rather John McEnroe-esque "Doug" rather stole this tale of what was literally a tech-tonic shift in how we used our mobile phones. He, together with his boss Mike (Jay Baruchel), has been working with a small team of geeks to develop a mobile word processor that can send messages by text and email. It's funding they lack and it's during a fairly flawed presentation that they encounter "Jim" (Glenn Howerton), a savvy operator who knows just enough about the business to get them that elusive big deal. Thing is, they don't think they have the processing capacity to service this ever increasing share of the market even if their new pal is generating eye-watering business opportunities. A 46% market share of what became the exponentially burgeoning smartphone market offered them real potential to dominate for years - but history tells us just what did happen. This film benefits from not really having a big star at the helm. The three men juggle the pressures, successes and failures delivering a solid and at times quite funny story of the rise and falls of a company that, when faced with difficulties, resorted to an emergency movie night! It doesn't shy away from depicting some of the sharper practices at play in this supremely competitive business, but it delivers in a far less aggressive fashion. Maybe it's a Canadian thing, but I found myself actually wanting them to succeed (even if I actually ended up loathing my own "Crackberry"). So many of these true stories are based on characters seeking easy money - this is based on a pair of guys who actually made something; and something that set a benchmark for kit we all use across the world without a second thought nowadays. Enjoyable to watch and worth two hours of your time.

Media

  • BlackBerry poster
  • BlackBerry poster
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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
$5,000,000.00
Revenue
$2,600,000.00
Keywords
based on novel or booktechnologyit-expertsilicon valleysatirebiographyrise and fallcell phonephoneinformation technologysocial historycommunicating via phone1990sscience and technologyit professionalnew technologyhistory and legacyphone messagesmartphonedigital technologysatellite technologyadvanced technologymake it happen