Live Watch: Blackberry vs Air (2023)
13 minutes into BLACKBERRY and can already tell it's going to be better than that Nike Air Jordan movie. Which was... fine. But padded with a bunch of speeches that only make sense because you know what happens in the future. But in context sound idiotic. Versus in BLACKBERRY just three scenes I feel like I already have a sense of the main characters personalities.
Also it starts out and I already have a sense of the thrust of the movie. Like the character development is revealed in scenes moving the plot along. It’s still early. But in contrast to AIR I felt like it established the characters early. But they were pretty two dimensional. And in lieu of character it was filled with the aforementioned speeches. Which were just telling the audience how important these shoes were going to be.
Not the most original. But they have a more annoying nerd to make the main nerd more likable. But no need to reinvent the wheel. It doesn’t have to be Shakespeare to be a good afternoon movie.
One of the background guys is playing Civ 2. Bonus points.
Dennis Reynolds is more interesting and dynamic than the entire cast of AIR. Yes, I realize I’m talking about AIR a lot. But as many people have said they’re part of this class of nostalgia movies about businesses making stuff. So I feel like they are both most interesting in contrast to each other.
Annoying nerd is breaking out of the mold a little. Yes, he’s making Mike (I only know his name because Dennis screams it at the top of his lungs every 5 minutes) more likable. But he’s also serving as the spokesman for Mike’s repressed id.
Pitch meeting scene. I’m so uncomfortable it’s palpable… It’s well acted that the thing that had to happen happened. But it still could maintain tension.
Interesting seeing the anti-Chinese manufacturing angle. Much more relevant today than it was even a couple of years ago. Makes me wonder when the script was written.
Glenn Howerton is really killing it playing the least Canadian Canadian.
Another advantage of BLACKBERRY over AIR is that we don’t know if Howerton is going to screw Mike. There have been hints. Like Mike saying “Let’s agree never to lie to each other” just screams Chekov’s gun. But the Palm Pilot people could be the bad guys. AIR had no real suspense. It was too much of a commercial for Nike to create any real stakes by making a Nike member unlikeable. And you know Nike becomes the king of shoes. In BLACKBERRY the only character you can fully trust is Mike… or can we?
Little annoying the loss of innocence sad music? Is it just conveying the emotion? Or a signal that Mike is taking a wrong direction. When clearly the company is in a fight for its life. It’s a problem with movies today. In the past there was more of a sense that movies were written by adults. Like comedies would turn things topsy turvy and make it so the knuckleheads were actually right all along (woo hoo, party time). But dramas had a sense of realism. But now you never know if a drama is going to write its rules of poetic justice that really not letting everyone become self actualized or whatever is a bad thing. And you can be successful and be as quirky as you like.
Also in comparison to the China politics in the how stuff aged from a year ago the mass layoffs in tech and the retiring of the “bring your whole self to work” ethos that changed just a few months ago.
So, I was proven wrong. But I’m not loving petulant Mike (“I invented this!”). Like I think it would be more emotional to watch him not take the issue seriously than undercut the mistake by making him spoiled and bratty.
These schedules are kinda silly. Everything is happening in the course of a day. Jim (Howerton) can’t be reached and has just checked out. Now they have to build a phone in a week or lose Verizon. All very dumb.
Oh, gotta say been thinking this all movie. They really could have spent more on the wig budget.
They don’t have lawyers there who would stop their client from talking to the Feds?
Little sloppy for the ending. But overall good movie for what it is.