ex-Blackberry guy reviews Blackberry movie
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- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2024
- I worked at Blackberry from 1993 to 2007, which spans much of the time of the Blackberry movie. This gives me a different perspective on the movie.
It's a good movie in its own way, but a documentary it isn't.
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I saw Blackberry listed on Hulu tonight and decided to watch it for the first time on a whim. For a movie about a cellphone company, it was a pretty wild ride, but I came away from it wondering how factual it was, because we all know how much liberty Hollywood takes with "based on a true story" movies. A few reddit posts in, someone says that there's a good RUclips review from a guy that worked at RIM named Mattias Wandel. Name looked familiar, but couldn't place it. I didn't know of any movie reviewers on YT by that name. Not one that worked at RIM. Plug the name into the search bar and wouldn't you know, it's the woodworking guy! Holy moly! What a pleasant surprise. This certainly explains your ingenuity and ability to make complex jigs. Glad to get the inside scoop on some of the main figures of RIM and how much of the story was fictionalized. I guess I'll see you back on the main channel! Cheers! :)
how cool that you were one of the original RIM guys! I watched about half of the movie on an airplane, and though it was entertaining, had a huge suspicion that it was highly embellished for the screen. it's too bad that they ignored the material that you provided them. it's so cool that you did the commentary track. that alone is enough reason for me to get the DVD when it comes out.
Matt is an absolute genuis. So cool that you're doing the commentary!!!
Love hearing about your time at RIM. I stuck with BlackBerry as long as I could, but started needing some actual apps. But as an operating system, it was superb. Even little details like how it handled the sort of combo backspace/delete, good God that was a glorious feature.
It was a phenomenal operating system, bb10 was absolutely tremendous.
What was the combo backspace/delete feature you're talking about?
Matt Johnson is absolute genius asking you to do commentary track.
I am a huge Always Sunny fan so I am a huge Glenn Howerton fan. And of course I have been watching your stuff for years! So cool to see this connection between seemingly un-connectable people I appreciate. I am glad you didn't spoil any of the movie I was a bit weary going into the video but am always excited for your stuff!
I kept looking at the character thinking, "I know who that is, but I can't think of where I know him from." I can't believe I didn't realize it is the golden god himself.
Great to hear a follow up. Was a big fan of the film but very much enjoyed hearing your perspective as to the historical (in)accuracies. If by some chance your commentary isn't included on a physical release, would you consider releasing the audio online?
I wish BlackBerry played to their strengths and ensured there was a permanent spot in the market for phones with keyboards.
I miss the typing, i miss the shortcuts and i miss the good old days when developers treated screen real estate like a precious commodity.
I see these kinds of comments about keyboards and I get it. But the truth is that having a physical keyboard never mattered as much as people say because it's now hard to find phones with hardware keyboards new the demand is just not there just like people saying they want smaller phones.Apple made smaller phones and they were largely a failure.
@@jackkraken3888 just because the devices don’t exist does not mean the demand isn’t there; there’s a reason they took over in the 90s-2000s… they ignited interest in consumers like never before. While that may not be a trait of a “new” blackberry, or keyboard phone, it certainly will still find buyers interested in the design language. Niches ARE good and SHOULD be catered to.
I'll be getting a copy of the movie primarily to hear your commentary track and I imagine plenty of other people will too. So probably a good idea on their part
Any luck finding it without going to a theater?
Same here
Matthias is the least influencer-like personality on RUclips, yet he’s definitely influenced me to check out this movie
@@chrisE815 June 2nd is when it releases on digital :)
i really loved this movie, though im not surprised to hear about the inaccuracies of the story. Thank you so much for adding your own commentary about this movie as an ex-blackberry employee its honestly really cool to hear the real story from an insider >_>
AmazIng that they asked you to give commentary for the DVD.
It sounds like they took the extreme traits of the characters and formed their personalities around that. Like someone got upset or was awkward here and there, then that becomes their entire character for the movie. That's filmmaking, people want the drama. Was the same with The Social Network.
I absolutely loved this movie. I thought Glenn Howerton was amazing. It is nice to hear your take on it. Like all movies it's mostly fiction. Look forward to the commentary.
I was about to ask if you have read Losing the Signal and then you mentioned how you read it and It’s an actual realistic look into the rise and fall of Research in Motion unlike the movie. Also I find it interesting you said that in your experience Jim didn’t swear as much as he does in the movie. I know someone that worked at RIM during the time Jim was there and he said that his character was by far the most accurate depiction of any of the other characters in the movie and that he could swear up a storm when he wanted to. He 100% agrees that Mike was portrayed unfairly and was not the socially awkward engineer that the movie makes him out to be. He also got a good chuckle on how divorced from reality the character Doug was to his real life counterpart.
I've also heard this, Jim speaks too softly to be a guy who doesn't drop F-bombs when speaking to his team!
Love the shirt Matthias!
Also, with genuine feeling and respect, I REALLY want to watch the movie but only with a commentary which is pretty much you saying 'that didn't happen' every 11 seconds.
Nobody does rage like Glenn Howerton. The man is a hero to me.
Mathias you should fix the dates in your written description (2013-2007)
You've packed that RIM shirt into a box to move from house to house at least twice, did you wonder at the time why you were keeping it?😆
I've kept a work shirt from all of my jobs 😂
It's a piece of history, even if I didn't work there I would love to have a R.I.M shirt lmao
interesting to hear, i've always wondered what you did, just wanted to point out that you put the wrong date in the description, you put "2013 to 2007" and I heard you say "1993 to 2007" any way, thanks for sharing a small piece of your history.
My favourite movie of all time is The Social Network. Saw it around 100+ times and even that has a host of inaccuracies but still adore it
I love how you dug out one of your old RIM shirts! 💕😆👍 and too cool they asked you to do a commentary 🤙
I loved the movie but sensed there was inaccuracies, glad to have found your video. What a cool life you’ve had!
4:13 this is so true. If you're in that spot, stand your ground
6:39 honestly, i genuinely thought he's trying to parody Andy Samberg in the movie Hot Rod.
Jobs' reality distortion field - a reference I haven't heard in a very long time...
Lol, although the Theranos lady tried to bring it back.
@@requited2568 Yeah, she tried very hard to be perceived as the reincarnation of Jobs.
This video should be added to the DVD special features
I read Loosing The Signal on your recommendation when you posted that other video. It was a good book, thanks!
Reading it now also. Very good so far.
ProZD is in the movie apparently... never thought I'd see him on Matthias' stuff :P
if they don't include the commentary track with matthias on the DVD, hopefully the director release it (has audio only track) on youtube
Thank you for your perspective of the movie and far as a company I remember how Blackberry was this really cool product and it was sad to see the passing of 3g services causing people not being able use their old phone.
"I worked at Blackberry from 2013 to 2007" think you havea typo there in the description!
Matthias is leaking RIM's secret timemachine tech!!
depends if it is BC or AD
Before the iPhone I was a huge Blackberry fan. Functionally it was perfect in my opinion. I think our lives were more in control at that time. I felt it was a secure device and technology was not as corrupt like it is today. User privacy was important. Not anymore!
It sure felt that way, but in retrospect it’s less clear to me. One thing that sticks out like a sore thumb to me is how there were controls that let GPS be locked out by *carriers* so that only *their* navigation app could use it. (My experience was with a Curve 83xx on Verizon.)
@@caffeinepuppy At that time I was using a Garman for any navigation that I needed, so I don’t have any experience using it in that capacity.
The earlier models were terrible on the internet browsing but if that were sorted out. . .
I really miss the keyboard on my BB. Me and the iPhone constantly fight over he said/she said.
I always thought the Blackberry was terrible. They were actually only surpassed by the creepy BES. "Change basic permissions on your system, install an opaque lump of software on your Exchange server, and then somehow the thing works." Those days were really bad. After all, Blackberry was only successful because all the other phone manufacturers were too tone deaf during that time. Then came the iPhone and suddenly you could use your Exchange on the go like you always wanted to. When RIM finally said goodbye, we toasted to that. That's how different personal experiences can be. ;)
Is it crazy that I'm still using a Blackberry Curve? I absolutely love it. It's bulletproof. And it'll be a while until I can't call with it anymore, because the local ambulance services need the 1 and 2 g network to stay operational.
What is this 1G networking? Your Blackberry supports NMT or APRS? 😂
@@rkan2 1G would be the basic GSM network. 2G is the edge network. Probably similar to gprs.
@@devjock Where I am from (land of first commercial digital mobile network, e.g. GSM, e.g. 2G) 1G was analog or NMT..
@@rkan2 I'm not sure what abbreviation goes with what network technology. ALl I know is my Curve was definitely not 3G equipped (what everyone thinks of as the bottom of the barrel in terms of speed)
You mention Maplesoft, and to my surprise it is still a going company. Not very common from the early 2000's to now.
Just finished watching the movie. I really appreciate this context, thanks 👍
I remember your Blackberry rotating device on your website back in the day.
The director mentioned that because there wasn't much material of his character Doug Fregin, he instead based it off of Matthias! Shines a new light on his comments on the portrayal of Doug and how he ended up liking him. 🤣
Link: ruclips.net/video/okb33-IJh50/видео.htmlsi=K0J9WkKm9u_ZpH9S&t=886
The director did a video where he reacted to reviews for the movie. He went out of his way to find the bad reviews and said they are the most important ones to learn the most from
Thank you mentioning how Android was also a big competitive challenge.
@joelo5164 You mean how Android was a BB clone before the iPhone and became an iPhone clone after 2007?
@joelo5164 (hence Steve Ballmers' reaction to it)
I had a Blackberry Bold 9900 Touch before I got the iPhone 4, great device had a real premium feel to it as well from what I can remember. Maybe they were trying to replicate some of the iPhones success at the time, I do miss BB
BB should die a terrible death. It's still used in corporate, but as an app on the iPhone. It's garbage.
only vaguely semi related we bought a bunch of pick and place machines with RIM asset tags on them, so I hot aired them off (metal tags with super sticky glue) just to put in my nerd scrap book. They are on the same page as my Boeing and IBM asset tags... I don't actively seek stuff out but when I see it I try to snag it, and its only a 3 ring binder with random trade show stickers and whatnot.
I liked the movie. It was entertaining. I never count on movies to be accurate portrayals when they are "based on a true story". They have to make the movie entertaining.
I have a friend who also worked at RIM until 2007. Met in San Diego where eventually got on with Qualcomm. I had waited for the iPhone to get on the smartphone bandwagon so I didn’t know much about all the tech behind RIM and other iPhone predecessors. I find it funny that all my favorite RUclipsrs had careers like yours before starting over in a new field.
Are you sure about the date in the description (2013 to 2007) ?
Time travel confirmed
Close enough
He says 1993 - 2007 in the video.
great video, I'm going to watch it now. btw small typo in your description 2013-2007.
I’ve got to know- do you think any of the characters were portraying you in the movie?
Matthias- is your family out of harm's way? Crazy hearing about the fires in NS and getting the smoke in NY. I thought these fires only happened out west!
i'll have to watch the commentary track when this comes out
I enjoyed the movie. Matthias, do you recall The Tragically Hip performing a concert for RIM staff? I watched the movie AIR about Nike signing Michael Jordan. I liked it also. I suspect AIR is a lot like BlackBerry movie.
The movie portrays RIM being completely surprised by the industry shift from charging minutes vs. Charging by data with the introduction of the iPhone and the Cingular deal. Was this accurate? Or was RIM aware of the coming industry shift and just didn't pivot quick enough or feel it as game changing?
Rim just got outcompeted by products that had better features. I don't knwo of the carriers caring so much about minutes vs data, but data certainly became more important. Blackberry was very good at not using very much data though!
Hi Matthias, I'm really curious, is there a Movie Night tradition when you work on Blackberry?
no
Haha ha thanks for sharing your thoughts. Okay I gotta ask that scene where Mike presents the BlackBerry bold and says "screen keyboard phone... screen keyboard phone... are you getting it?" Okay let's have a moment of honesty. That never happened?
It's a very good film. It brings the tech language down a bit without pandering to the audience.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the lilygo t-deck that's a modern blackberry for local use.
As I recall, as a user of Mathematica in 1989 and 1990, Wolfram Software existed as the publisher of Mathematica.
I worked at subsidary of Blackberry (Dash Navigation - We were responsible for the app "Blackberry Traffic") from 2011 -2012. I got to see the beginning of the sinking of the Titanic. Not only were the iPhone and Android were the biggest threats to Blackberry ecosystem at the time, but the enterprise software that was being developed by the engineers at MobileIron, Good Technology and Airwatch. Blackberry enterprise manager was a cash cow for them at the time, and that market share got taken right from under them. Not sure if it was carelessness or an unwillingness to open the Blackberry software to managing other devices. No
Great movie. Thanks for this video. I wondered about some of the things you mentioned.
The third act just didn't cut it to me. Jay Baruchel didn't have the chops to play the nerd turned asshole corrupt CEO, and the switch, while believable, was very sudden (he also definitely didn't look the part). The climax felt undeserving, even though it could be seen as karma for Jim's asshole behavior. At the same time, I think there needed to be tension between Jim and Mike up until this point to make the scene believable. I also dilsike the way the movie was shot. It was kind of ugly to look at with its murky color scheme, and I don't really understand why they went for the shaky-mocumentary camera style.The first two acts of the movie were very interesting and entertaining.
can you give us all insight after the Iphone reveal - yours and every Engineer co-worker felt over the iphone. How did you think BB will compete with iphone? I also felt (from the movie point of view) the limited # of RIM that can be activated held back how RIM could have dominated sooner
I think it was Tom Clancy who said he had 2 rules when dealing with the movie people: 1) get your money up front; and 2) they're gonna [bleep] it up. As annoying as it is to see the movie not follow the script of a book, it must have been even more annoying to see them distort actual history.
This is not say they don't have their reasons. Like you say, the movie would be way too long to add everything and not oversimplify. Same with a book. The audiobook with a reader just reading the text might be 20 hours, and you have to cram all of that information into a 2 hour movie. Then comes the artistic license when it comes to adapting actual history into a movie where the producers feel they need to make things more interesting, some drama here, some stress there, that kind of thing.
Having someone who was there and who is quite articulate at expressing himself to do a commentary track is brilliant.
It was pretty cool to see your name in the credits Matthias!
"Loosely based" should tell people how far off it is from the truth. It's just a fun comedy, not a documentary. People hopefully aren't uninformed enough these days to actually think movies such as these, especially comedies, are the real stories of what happened. Even when they don't use the word "loosely," movies based on life are rarely very much like the truth of what really happened.
Well, now I feel like an idiot. Every time I hear "Based on a true story," I just roll my eyes - every SINGLE time. But for THIS, there was an exception in my mind - it's like I was so hooked on how great the storytelling was that I believed 85% of it, and now I read this and the fun of watching it feels illegitimate, lol
( Yes yes, I know you can enjoy a piece of fiction for what it is - I'm just saying how I *feel* )
Thank you for your contributions to a great company that made great devices. Miss my BlackBerry devices.
Hey Matthias, is there any way to get a working BlackBerry in 2023?
no
@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 can you build one? 👀
I'm really concerned about these movie-fied historical movies. They will be the versions of history that survive.
wait until netflix does a version.....
@@thomasechols8834 😂 I hope Netflix includes the Mattias character in their version.
I wonder about the new Michael Jordan one "Air".
Sure felt like a HUGE puff piece the whole time. Crazy to have Matt Damon and Ben Affleck do a historical portrayal of Nike/ Jordan.
I doubt it. If you want a casual summary of history you don't watch a 2 hour movie, or read a 300 page book, you look it up online. Wikipedia will be the version of history that survives.
@@MrAwawe wikipedia is biased.
Thanks for the video, very interesting, have to see the movie now
3:01 - Could I provide you correction? First Mathematica released was in 1988 (about the same time when Waterloo Maple was incorporated).
Let us know if your commentary makes the cut. I would totally watch that.
My biggest question: was there really as little communication/coordination between Jim & Mike as the movie depicts?
DVD?... Oh! Yeah! Those things next to grandma's Free AOL cds.
I saw your video about the trailer. I did not consider it a trashing at all. Interesting.
Maybe a little bit trashing, but not really bad and not mean spirited in any way.
Matthias is my fave person to see test products. Manufacturers sweat bullets when he tears them down and tests.🤣
Mathias, Conestoga College bought and renovated an old RIM building on Reuter Drive. Did you work there?
0:35 If for any reason you need to re-upload this, fyi, the pop-up text reads "eingineers"
Watched this on an airplane recently. It was pretty good.
I’d like to know your thoughts of the Commodore Amiga, NewTek and the rest.👍
As an insider, I'm hoping you can clarify. It's my understanding that BlackBerry refused to embrace browser functions (such as flash player) because they could not be made to maintain data security, not because they simply used too much data / bandwidth as is portrayed in the movie. Am I wrong?
2013-2007 TIME TRAVELER
why DVD? is BlackBerry still living at 2010s?
Iphone wasn’t big deal to RIM cause RIM hold 45% of stock 2 gear after iPhone lunched . The biggest problem to RIM they didn’t recognize importance of app store and android platform. If they just invest in switching to android everything will be fine eventually they will look like todays Samsung but for me Blackberry product was very high end products. Missing my passport just like newton people their product . I wish blackberries release passport 2 one day
I don't think you 'trashed' the trailer. I think that as a film you gave it it's due but were respectfully clarifying facts.
Fantastic breakdown and insights.
Movie on the plane landing on the Hudson was also mostly nonsense - the pilot was in no way vilified by the NTSB nor the FAA. But hey, made the movie "more interesting". Even though it's not a documentary, going so far outside the facts like that is insulting to the subject and the audience. "Here's what COULD have happened". If you're gonna do that, remove all references to real names. Make up the whole story.
True as far as the aftermath. But the movie was worth watching just to see the realistic re-treatment in the cockpit and all that. If I am ever on a plane and the flight attendants start chanting "heads down, stay down, brace, brace, brace" I will be pretty scared. But it was interesting to watch it in a film.
@@mckenziekeith7434 Agreed, A+ on the cockpit and the landing, etc. F- on the investigation afterwards.
Once you know about something or have experience on one you can't stand it in movies at all. The only exception for me was Suits series (which is about a law firm). The work relations presented there was so accurate.
What's your favorite BlackBerry ringtone (OS 4-OS 6)?
I really liked the movie, it may not be accurate 100%, but sometimes reality itself isn't compelling enough to tell a story. It needs characters, drama, humor, pacing... And reality is well, reality. It is what it is and that's it!
Don't think I would even consider buying the dvd if your commentary isn't on there.
Did the real Doug Fregin like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
I don't think he would have payed any attention to that whatsoever
"I worked at Blackberry from 2013 to 2007" seems to have a typo in it as you've said you stopped working there in 2007 and we usually start with the oldest date when giving a range of years. Did you start there in 1993? 2003?
oops yes 1993
Ahh, funny stuff ! Enjoy you talking about stuff like this, probably have a lot of somewhat great stories :D
You should add that to the commentary track!
I'm also rooting for the Riff-track of Matthias live-commenting on the movie
Hollywood films for 100 years have never been very accurate with stories based on real-life incidents or biographies. One recent film, Hidden Figures, had so much fiction in it that when the director appeared at a Q&A screening, he prefaced the session by saying that they took a lot of "dramatic license". Hollywood films also tend to have shallow portrayals of characters. It's black and white. This is the guy with the black hat and this is the good guy with the white hat. The bad guy is one note bad, the good guy is one note good....no gray areas. So, enjoy the movie for what it is, a good but often fictional story. As for swearing, Hollywood can't produce anything that streams without tons of swearing. It sells. Look at Maisel which contains so much cursing as well as a lot of fiction of the late 50s and early 60s era that you have to look at it as a stylized view of NYC 60 years ago with a lot of dramatic license. It is sort of 2020s people doing dress-up and playing with old cars. I lived the era and I am quite familiar with the locale and its people of that time.
What I though was interesting about the film is that Hollywood doesn't have it's finger prints on it. It's a Canadian-made film with a Canadian distributor which gives it it's own unique touch that wouldn't pass for a Hollywood movie. Including the complicated reality with all the grey areas likely would have made the film a little too mundane for a feature-length film, though a documentary format would be fantastic for that.
@@llamasarus1 that is an excellent point.
This entire genre of movies that depict a potentially noteworthy series of events- but then don't.. is completely lost on me. Just make it a documentary or a fun fictional story.
I’m with you there. but lots of folks watch crap like superhero movie, and if some of those can be reached with something 80% entertainment and 20% facts, that’s a win.
It’s always a bummer when a really great biopic turns out to be embellished or outright fabricated, but in my view it depends on what the film’s purpose is.
If a biopic is about a person and the course of their life, it’s sometimes more egregious. But I don’t mind BlackBerry’s “fabrications”, because the movie’s not about the people or the company. It’s about the phone. The context of its creation, the challenges and triumphs leading to its success, the blow of Apple’s iPhone, and the BlackBerry’s eventual downfall.
The circumstances of the Blackberry’s birth, life, and death are complicated, and all of this context has to be squeezed into a feature length film. To do this effectively, events need to be simplified and compressed. Meanwhile, for the sake of brevity and clarity, the personalities actions and motivations of the people involved need to be amplified. Decisions and actions that are “made up” are sometimes symbolic, to represent aspects of the people involved in a way that carries the momentum of the plot as well as being “faithful” to the real, literal timeline of events.
That’s how I can accept and enjoy many biopics even after learning about divergences from real life events. But it depends on whether they’re done for storytelling purposes but accurately representing real events and people involved, or if things are made up for the sake of sensationalizing or exploiting a legacy.
Will Blackberry ever make a comeback?
I wished this movie got more attention.
Ha Ha yeah, awesome movie. Hearing static on my electronic devices would be my nightmare too.
I had to use maple in my analytical chemistry degree at Plymouth University, U.K. we were using it to plot quantum chemistry calculations. Very boring. But that was in 2008! I think there are much better suites of software these days!
No shit. Been following you for maybe a decade and had no idea you were a blackberry guy
How did they solve the network thing?
That was something completely made up in the movie.