Who could have guessed that a movie about the creation and promoting of a smart phone would be so compelling?

The film tells the story of the rise and eventual fall of the first smartphone, the BlackBerry, and the men behind the product. Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel), his best friend Doug (Matt Johnson) tried to pitch their new phone idea to Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), whose ambition has gotten him into trouble with his company. Seeing the possibilities in the phone, Jim goes back to Mike and Doug and offers to help them if they make him CEO.

Mike eventually makes the deal with Jim and they begin to work on building the first major smartphone, the BlackBerry. However, things turn on BlackBerry quickly as well.

This is a very engaging and entertaining movie, even though you wouldn’t think that it would be. The subject matter did not sound like a winner, much like the Apple TV+ film Tetris from earlier this year. Like Tetris, BlackBerry far exceeded the pleasing potential and provided a story that grabbed the audience’s favor.

Jay Baruchel does a phenomenal job as Mike. He started out as a shy, timid technician trying to create a company to become a power leader of a company that caused him to drop some of his personal morals.

It was fascinating to watch this movie, knowing that BlackBerry the phone would be eaten up by Apple’s iPhone. Every moment that you wanted to root for Mike, you would realize that this company was doomed. Meanwhile, Jim was consistently shown as a jerk who knew how he could work around problems, even if he had to bend the law to do it.

I rented BlackBerry on Vudu and I found it to be engaging and thrilling. It does not sound like a captivating story, but it absolutely is.

4.5 stars