BlackBerry

Director: Matt Johnson
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson, Rich Sommer, Michael Ironside, Martin Donovan, SungWon Cho, Mark Critch, Saul Rubinek, Cary Elwes
Running Time: 121 min.
Rating: R

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

The best thing about Matt Johnson's biopic depicting the creation of the BlackBerry mobile phone is how for extended periods you completely forget what it's supposed to be about. When the groundbreaking device makes its first appearance it actually feels like a shock, as if we haven't been building to that moment since its retro cool opening credit sequence. A mismatched pairing of two wildly different personalities, what transpires is far bigger than either envisioned, until eventually swallowing them both whole. But the best stuff comes before that when we see how this nerdy, inefficient entrepreneur reluctantly joins forces with a quick-tempered, cutthroat executive. And what should be a partnership from hell ends up working out better than expected, at least for a while.  

A character study to its core, this differs from other features about popular consumer products by deeply investing in the people involved, showing exactly how they were positively and negatively impacted by their venture. Unlike the recent Tetris, it doesn't try to be something it's not, instead examining the nuts and bolts of BlackBerry's rise to cultural prominence by getting inside the heads of those who made the magic happen. It explores their motivations and mistakes, while also charting the change they undergo when success arrives. It's not so much that they're flawed than unprepared for what awaits, suddenly forced to adapt or fall behind.

It's 1996 in Waterloo, Canada when Research in Motion (RIM) CEO Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and best friend and co-founder Douglas Fregin (Johnson) present their new "PocketLink" cellular device to an unimpressed, distracted executive named Jim Balsille (Glenn Howerton). After their pitch bombs and Jim's hubris gets him fired from his firm, he reaches out to Mike and Doug again, offering to work with them if he's named CEO of RIM and gets half the company. Jim instead settles for a third of the pie and a Co-CEO title alongside Mike, quickly realizing they need more help than he thought. 

Upon discovering RIM is a ragtag, money losing operation with engineers spending their days playing video games and watching movies, an intimidating Jim makes swift changes, landing him and Mike a meeting at Bell Atlantic to demonstrate an early "PocketLink" prototype that will soon be rebranded the "BlackBerry." It's a breakthrough, but the device's astonishing popularity soon makes the company a target, as they're fighting off hostile takeovers, the SEC, and the sudden emergence of Apple's revolutionary iPhone. A thrilling run while it lasts, what they built is about to come crashing down. 

Loosely adapted from the 2015 book, "Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry," the whole setup is hilarious, with these men from two vastly different worlds somehow co-existing under one banner. Johnson's script really plays up just how awkwardly bumbling Mike and Doug are, making you wonder how they were let into Jim's office to begin with, much less founded a tech company of their own. The most creative liberties are probably taken here, but it helps make the story, as exceptional writing and performances breathe vibrant life into what could have easily been the driest of topics.

Mike and Jim need each other more than they know, since this brilliant but underachieving slacker  lacks the business savvy the latter brings to the table. Conversely, Mike possesses the technical expertise Jim can only fake. While they mix like oil and water, it's clear Jim sees potential in his impressionable co-chair that can be exploited so long as he handles the financial end. The film's pivot point is a Bell Atlantic meeting where Mike comes to the rescue, saving the pitch and setting them on a path where the company soars, growing at an uncontrollable rate neither can fully comprehend.

When BlackBerry takes over the cell phone market in the mid 00's, there's no turning back, which is bad news for bandana-wearing, movie obsessed co-founder Doug, who soon becomes the odd man out. Discovering an autonomy he never knew he had, Mike realizes his best friend's laid-back approach no longer fits into this new corporate structure and the days of needing Doug's input fall by the wayside. One of the funniest details come when RIM offices move, and despite the upgrade, 80's movie posters still hang, the goofing around persists and nothing changes beyond their location. But it needs to, and despite his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wallet and video game tees, even Doug sees the writing on the wall that he's become the Woz to Mike's Steve Jobs. 

Having mortgaged his home to finance a project that's now made him richer than he ever thought possible, Jim's on top of the world. But he also has an enormous ego that's about to fly off the rails as he fends off scheming Palm CEO Carl Yankowski (Cary Elwes), installs a new no-nonsense COO in Charles Purdy (Michael Ironside) and attempts to purchase a hockey franchise. Mike and Jim's abilities to cover the other's flaws are undone by mounting legal woes that pale in comparison to their inability to counter the iPhone. The film's final scene isn't just an ingenious callback to Mike's obsession with problem solving, but how he's forced to do something he swore he wouldn't in order to keep going.

Best known for his supporting comedy roles Jay Baruchel gets a long deserved showcase, as he credibly conveys the inexperienced Mike's transformative ascent and eventual decline. Subtly indicating a constant sense of insecurity and guilt, he plays the character as if he fears everything is a fluke that could disappear at any moment. There's no such trepidation in Jim, with Glenn Howerton imbuing this greedy piranha with a slick, bombastic bluster that enables him to steamroll over everyone in his way. Knowing the clock's quickly running out, he's determined to milk every last bit of leverage, with self-sabotaging results. 

Matt Johnson provides the largest dose of comedic relief, further highlighting just how seismic a shift his friend undergoes. Doug's left in the dust, even if you can't help but think he comes out the least damaged of the three. Comfortably feeling every bit like a Canadian production in both its setting and casting, Johnson's most important contribution comes as co-writer and director, with the filmmaker showing the potential downsides of having an idea years ahead of its time. The public has to be ready for it, the technology flawless, and the capital available. If just one is missing, it's wise to brace for eventual failure.  

These guys knew exactly where the future was headed, but the obstacles proved too much, turning this into a cautionary tale that isn't entirely dissimilar to The Social Network or the great AMC series Halt and Catch Fire. It's nice to get there first, but a greater feat to actually be the last left standing at the end. BlackBerry rarely needs to remind us we're looking at the individuals who invented the smartphone, as they appear equally in awe themselves, struggling to figure it all out as they go along.

This is the End

Directors: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
Starring: Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, David Krumholtz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Aziz Ansari, Kevin Hart, Martin Starr
Running Time: 106 min.

★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

Sometimes it can be freeing for viewers to be given a break from the rigid constraints of what we've come to expect from comedies. To be filled with the feeling that literally anything can happen at anytime and what we're watching isn't dependent on a specific formula that's been tried before. This is the End provides that tantalizing proposition, as a group of talented, likable actors are given the opportunity to just cut loose and poke fun at their own celebrity by playing versions of "themselves." It's a golden idea from the minds of Superbad co-writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, even if it looked more enticing on the page than it ends up being on screen. I kept wondering if maybe these guys setting just a few ground rules would have done the film some good, as it starts out promising until devolving into kind of a mess about midway through.

The admittedly inspired central conceit starts running on fumes after a while, with all the actors in on a joke that wears out it's welcome. And it's a shame because what starts so promisingly eventually amounts to a bunch of actors hanging out on set smoking weed and cursing at each other for almost two hours. What nearly rescues this are all these performers since it can't be overstated how big a fan of theirs I am, only making this disappointment sting just a bit more.

When actor Jay Baruchel arrives in L.A. to meet up with his old friend Seth Rogen, he sees it as an opportunity to get high, eat junk food and play video games. But Rogen has other plans, dragging his unwilling and visibly uncomfortable pal to James Franco's debaucherous housewarming party, which includes celebrity attendees such as Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Rihanna, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Emma Watson, Mindy Kaling, Jason Segel, Aziz Ansari, Kevin Hart, David Krumholtz and Martin Starr. But when Baruchel goes out for cigarettes with Rogen, the two discover mass chaos on the streets, with explosions, fire, and a strange blue light shooting pedestrians up into the sky. It isn't long after they return that a massive crack opens in the earth, swallowing most of Franco's famous partygoers while leaving Baruchel, Rogen, Franco, Hill and Robinson hauled up in his house hoarding supplies and waiting for help. Franco also has an uninvited houseguest in Danny McBride, whose belligerent behavior and glutenous consumption of food and drink is making survival extremely difficult. As tempers flare and tensions escalate at the Franco compound, Jay's bold prediction that the biblical Apocalypse is upon them is looking more more believable by the second.

To call a movie like this "self-indulgent" is not only beside the point, but possibly a high compliment. We wouldn't expect anything else from these guys and would worry if they didn't take every opportunity to lampoon their own images with tongues planted firmly in cheek. That's by far the film's strongest aspect and it's made very clear within the opening minutes with Michael Cera's extended cameo a self-absorbed, drug-addicted celebrity man whore who heinous acts include blinding Christopher Mintz-Plasse with cocaine and sexually harassing Rihanna, The movie never quite repeats it's magic once he departs (in the most spectacularly hilarious way possible). All the dirty, filthy comedy with Cera works because it's truly shocking to see him specifically act like a spoiled Hollywood brat and he just throws himself into it with reckless abandon. And of course there's his unbelievably colorful windbreaker, which should really have its own movie.

When they try to repeat much of Cera's over-the-top hijinx with everyone else it doesn't work as well. We completely expect Rogen, Franco, Hill, McBride, and Robinson to do the craziest things possible, but what's most surprising is just how much of a slog the middle portion of the picture is, with the six of men under lockdown in Franco's house hurling insults at each other and doing drugs for almost an hour straight.  While an "end of the world" scenario with these actors should be exciting, the premise actually turns out to be creatively limiting, almost as if Rogen and Goldberg didn't know what to do once the party stopped and they had to switch gears into Apocalyptic action-comedy. There's this nagging feeling that a real-time movie that revolved entirely around this party would probably be superior to much of what follows. 

That's not say this still doesn't have its moments, most of them coming in smaller doses when the actors spoof their own reputations. Franco is the pretentious "artiste," with his living room doubling as a gallery adorned with Freaks and Geeks paintings and a basement containing a Spider-Man 3 cardboard standee and an Harvey Milk sign. And that's not even mentioning what happens with his prized pistol from Flyboys. Really clever. Jonah Hill is re-imagined as disinengenous and strangely effeminate, competing with Baruchel for Rogen's attention. Craig Robinson's "Mr. Robinson" hand towel never leaves his shoulder while Danny McBride is, well, Danny McBride. Or more accurately, he's Kenny Powers. He also appears in an epic breakfast montage sure to make Walt Jr. and Ron Swanson jealous, as well as a homemade Pineapple Express sequel trailer with Rogen and Franco you almost wish were real. While it's hard to categorize these as "performances," they really are in every sense. Even that's a joke in itself when in one of the film's first scenes Rogen is harassed at the airport by a papparazzo asking why he always plays the same role over and over. That these guys all definitely seem in on it and clearly don't take themselves seriously in the slightest is at the crux of all the best scenes.

They have the right lead in Baruchel, who's great as a socially awkward hipster struggling to hang on to his friendship with Rogen despite his disdain for L.A. and everyone in it. It was smart making him the only semi-normal character in the movie, giving the audience an eyes and ears, not to mention someone really likable to root for. That everyone now gets to see just how good the former Undeclared star is may end up being this movie's biggest contribution. There's definitely a lack of female presence, with the exception of Emma Watson's extended cameo that puts her at the center of a joke that really isn't funny. While I can't say it directly contradicts with the rest of the film's tone, something about it does seem especially mean and tone-deaf. While it's arguable this joke could have even worked under any circumstances, they're undeniably way off with the execution, revolving the film's cruelest joke around an actress that whose presence instantly makes the situation seem horrifyingly uncomfortable rather than comical.

Very little needs to be said about the apocalyptic aspect of the story because if it were excised entirely I'm not sure you'd be left with something that's all that different. The special effects strike the right balance in that they're cheap enough looking to be funny, yet impressive enough looking to pass off as disaster movie worthy. But the actual apocalypse is the weak link in this, taking a backseat to all the meta references and existing primarily as the creative catalyst to strengthen Rogen and Baruchel's bromance. So by those standards it does undeniably succeed, especially at the finish line.

If I could pick a project from these actors that this most reminds me of in terms of tone it would probably be the Franco-McBride starring lowbrow comedy Your Highness, only with the Apocalypse standing in for a medievel adventure. It's ironic they justifiably trash that during this, and while actually comparing the two may be stretching it, there are definite similarities in terms of the style of humor. This is the End is much smarter and funnier, but gets most of its leverage from extremely likable actors just having a blast together, even as the audience is sometimes left out in the cold.                   

Fanboys

Director: Kyle Newman
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington, Christopher Marquette, Kristen Bell
Running Time: 90 min.
Rating: PG-13

★★★ (out of ★★★★)

I had my doubts the day would ever come where I'd get to watch and review Fanboys. Within the past couple of years there have been maybe only two or three films I felt I just had to see based on their premise and trailers alone . This was one them. The idea of four Star Wars fanatics traveling cross country to Skywalker Ranch to steal a print of Episode I bursts with unlimited creative potential. But I must confess to some bias on that point. A while back I came up with an idea pretty similar to this and, like all my ideas, never did anything with it. That's of no consequence since I've built up quite a collection of 3 x 5 index cards filled with unused, half-developed brainstorms but this was the first I recognized onscreen in some form or another. So understandably my curiosity was piqued as to how writer/director Kyle Newman would handle the material.

I approached Fanboys in a mindset similar to how I did Southland Tales in that it was a film I had looked forward to for years, but when stories spread about behind-the-scenes creative clashes and a troubled post-production, I was forced into approaching it with what could best be called "cautious optimism." I wondered if this film could also overcome the odds, despite sitting on the shelf for three years during an ugly public feud between the studio and director. Unfortunately, the real losers in that feud turned out to be the fans.

After missing about 4 release dates due to re-shoots and re-edits the film was finally released with a whimper in February but it was too late for anyone to care and was subsequently met with a smattering of negative reviews (including an unusually mean spirited attack on Star Wars fans from Roger Ebert) It's impossible to know for sure how much of Newman's original vision is present in the final cut but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that it's not nearly enough because the end result is kind of a truncated mess.

The bitter battle over whether to include the now infamous cancer sub-plot has clearly caused the movie to slip away from Newman. This element has since been re-inserted, but sloppily, and other aspects of the film suffer slightly because of it. This should have been better. Much, much better. Those looking to blame Harvey "Darth" Weinstein have a strong case because it looks like he really did do some serious damage here and came very close to ruining the film. The good news though, is that enough survived to earn it a solid, if somewhat tentative, recommendation.

While I smiled and chuckled during many portions of Fanboys there were also times where I didn't and wondered what this movie would have played in its original, un-tampered with form. The true irony is that while it does harness the excitement we all felt awaiting the opening of Episode I, it also permeates with that feeling of disappointment when it finally did. I also underestimated how little I wanted to be reminded of the prequels and the letdown accompanying them.

If you think about it, it's tough to look back on what George Lucas did in the summer of 1999 and laugh. At least I find it tough, and I'm not even what you'd consider a "die-hard" fan. But it is fun to go back to that special moment in time BEFORE it opened when we were about to see "the greatest movie ever made." As much as Fanboys takes unnecessary detours and makes some wrong steps, it at least captures that moment effectively.

It's October, 1998. The release of The Phantom Menace is six months away and counting. Far from just being a movie, for Eric (Sam Huntington), Linus (Chris Marquette), Hutch (Dan Fogler) and Windows (Jay Baruchel), four friends and proud Star Wars fanatics from Ohio, it represents the defining event of their lifetime. But Eric has since moved on, or at least has done a good enough job convincing himself he's grown out of his obsession, miserably working at his sleazy, flamboyant father Big Chuck's (Christopher McDonald) used car dealership.

Things change when Eric learns that Linus is dying of terminal cancer and has only months to live. With his urging the foursome decide to make good on their crazy childhood dream of breaking into George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch and stealing the unreleased film....so they can destroy it. Sorry. Just some wishful thinking. It's actually so Linus can see it before he dies. They're eventually joined by every geek's dream fangirl Zoe (Kristen Bell), who not only loves Star Wars, but hangs out at the local comic book store, which is apparently where I should be frequenting more often.

A road trip commences and it's a little disappointing that it does feel derivative of every other road trip movie, with the added Star Wars element, but luckily that element is a very welcome one. Their misadventures along the way are littered with a lot of cameos. I mean A LOT. Maybe the most I've ever seen in a comedy. Some are funnier than others and at times it feels like the characters are just being dropped from one excursion to the next just so all these names can appear, but they do add to the overall viewing experience in mostly positive ways.

We have Danny Trejo as a pot smoking Indian chief who's the catalyst for a hallucinatory dream sequence that's probably best appreciated under the influence. Seth Rogen in dual roles, one of which is absolutely hilarious. And we're treated to an appearance from film critic Harry Knowles, who I thought must have lost a ton of weight until I realized he was being played by Ethan Suplee. It's shocking that the real Knowles didn't cameo since you'd figure the shameless self-promoter and ultimate fanboy would jump at the chance to appear as himself in something like this.

Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith pop up playing variations (I think) on their Jay & Silent Bob characters while Danny McBride has a very memorable and funny role as a Skywalker Ranch security head. The Star Wars vets prove to be good sports as Carrie Fisher shows up as a physician, Ray "Darth Maul" Park as a security guard and Billy Dee Williams as..."JUDGE REINHOLD." Yes, I know the joke seems like something a fifth grader would come up with and it was much funnier on Arrested Development when the role was ACTUALLY PLAYED by Judge Reinhold, but I'm embarrassed to admit that I still laughed.

The best cameo belongs to William Shatner who for some reason isn't given so much as a walk-on in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot but can land a bit part in a movie celebrating Star Wars. The fanboys vs. "Trekkies" sub-plot works best and produces the most consistent hilarity in a film where consistency is frequently absent. It almost pains me to report the sub-plot that's handled poorest is the cancer storyline, which seems to appear and disappear at the plot's convenience. It's in the movie just the exact wrong amount, showing up as almost an afterthought until the final scenes when it does register. By then it seems almost too late.

As haphazardly as it was re-incorporated though, all the angry fans had a point that it does belong in there. Without it the story doesn't have much of point. Then again, if they were just going to forget about it anyway, why put it back in? The issue has less to do with whether it should be there than HOW because it doesn't always mix well with the gross-out, slapstick humor. Of course that can happen when you re-edit your movie 75,000 times and spend three years in post-production hell.

Sam Huntington (best known for playing Jimmy Olsen in Superman Returns) acclimates nicely as the leading man, even when it's not entirely clear he's the leading man amidst the film's constantly shifting focus. Marquette and Baruchel's characters seem to get more attention and screen time and both deliver solid performances. This is also a victory of sorts for the seemingly talentless, but Tony Award winning (no joke) actor Dan "Balls of Fury" Fogler, who turns in what just might be his least grating work to date. Don't get me wrong he's still annoying as hell but at least he's found a part where he's supposed to be stuck in a permanent state of adolescence.

My future wife Kristen Bell has a role that's miles away from her recent co-starring turn in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, even though shooting on this probably wrapped years before casting on that film began. I complained about Bell's role in that but one thing I couldn't say was that it was underdeveloped or underwritten. This feels like it could have been or that scenes of hers were left on the cutting room floor, but it's a trade-off I'll take because this comes closer to the types of roles I'd like to see her in. I wish more was done with her but when she does appear (primarily in the third act) there were glimpses of her Veronica Mars character in there. That made it especially frustrating for me that she wasn't given more. It's enough I guess, but I'm greedy.

An attempted romance with one of the main characters seemed forced and manufactured, not to mention that it's with the wrong character. The whole thing just rings false. Had this sub-plot been executed well it would have really showcased her skills and added an extra layer of poignancy to the story, if that's even what they were going for. That's part of the problem. I had no idea what they were going for. But yes it's true that Bell does wear the Slave Girl Leia costume. Patience you must have. It's worth the wait. And so sue me I think I might even like her better as a brunette.

With all the behind the scenes drama in making the film it's at least nice to discover the studio didn't cut any corners in procuring music for the soundtrack. You can't dislike any movie that features Rush and forgotten late '90's alt-rock classics. When an all-time favorite of mine blasted at just the right moment in the film's final scene I was grinning from ear to ear. The last line of dialogue perfectly encapsulates in one question what we were all feeling right before the curtain went up on Episode I.

For the record, I don't think The Phantom Menace "sucks." Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull... now that sucked. But if we were to weigh expectations against actual execution I do think The Phantom Menace should rank among the most disappointing films ever made. There's just no reason that or any of the prequels should have existed and if I could somehow stop the release of just one movie it would probably be Episode I. That's the primary appeal of this movie: Cleansing us of that feeling.

Wherever the blame lies, it's terrible to be letdown by something you just know will be spectacular. There's an undercurrent of that running throughout Fanboys. Lucas doesn't appear in the film and strangely that seems right. I, like many, have little desire to see him involved with any Star Wars project anymore. It somehow seems cooler without his presence, but to his credit he not only gave Newman his blessing, but the rights to use Star Wars trademarks in a feature film. You could argue its the only intelligent decision Lucas has made with the brand in the past two decades.

I also understand why no mention of the film's tumultuous journey to the screen was made on the DVD because if I were Newman I wouldn't want to talk bout it either. A fun commentary track, some deleted scenes and a couple of featurettes are fine and that's exactly what we get. The guy's been through a war and came out on the losing end, despite the outpouring of fan support. While they meant well, I wonder if their attempts to "save the film" did more harm than good, resulting in excessive tinkering that distorted the final product. It's awful that what obviously started as a filmmaker's labor of love turned into such a messy public disaster. If nothing else, Newman deserves some really stiff drinks and a long, well-deserved break.

It's funny how I was mostly either unsure or disappointed while watching the picture but when it ended I had mostly fond memories of the experience. I'll probably even see it again hoping against hope that maybe its problems will be ironed out and the pieces will fit together a little better. I'm convinced I wouldn't have been able to bash this if I tried. I can't think of a recent movie I wanted to love more. There must be an original theatrical cut of Fanboys locked away in Harvey Weinstein's office that didn't make it to theaters or DVD. That's the one I want to see. If anyone ever decides to steal it, they can count me in.