ex-Blackberry guy reviews Blackberry movie
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- Опубліковано 24 тра 2023
- 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.
Matt Johnson is absolute genius asking you to do commentary track.
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.
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.
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 UA-cam 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! :)
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?
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 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 >_>
I love how you dug out one of your old RIM shirts! 💕😆👍 and too cool they asked you to do a commentary 🤙
AmazIng that they asked you to give commentary for the DVD.
I loved the movie but sensed there was inaccuracies, glad to have found your video. What a cool life you’ve had!
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.
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'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 UA-cam, yet he’s definitely influenced me to check out this movie
@@chrisE815 June 2nd is when it releases on digital :)
great video, I'm going to watch it now. btw small typo in your description 2013-2007.
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.
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 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.
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!
Mathias you should fix the dates in your written description (2013-2007)
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.
It was pretty cool to see your name in the credits Matthias!
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.
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
Just finished watching the movie. I really appreciate this context, thanks 👍
Great movie. Thanks for this video. I wondered about some of the things you mentioned.
This video should be added to the DVD special features
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
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.
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. ;)
I remember your Blackberry rotating device on your website back in the day.
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 UA-camrs had careers like yours before starting over in a new field.
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 contributions to a great company that made great devices. Miss my BlackBerry devices.
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.
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.
Fantastic breakdown and insights.
ProZD is in the movie apparently... never thought I'd see him on Matthias' stuff :P
i'll have to watch the commentary track when this comes out
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.
Thanks for the video, very interesting, have to see the movie now
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 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: ua-cam.com/video/okb33-IJh50/v-deo.htmlsi=K0J9WkKm9u_ZpH9S&t=886
As I recall, as a user of Mathematica in 1989 and 1990, Wolfram Software existed as the publisher of Mathematica.
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?
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'd love to hear your thoughts on the lilygo t-deck that's a modern blackberry for local use.
Thanks for sharing!
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)
Let us know if your commentary makes the cut. I would totally watch that.
I’ve got to know- do you think any of the characters were portraying you in the movie?
I’d like to know your thoughts of the Commodore Amiga, NewTek and the rest.👍
It's a very good film. It brings the tech language down a bit without pandering to the audience.
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!
Nobody does rage like Glenn Howerton. The man is a hero to me.
Ahh, funny stuff ! Enjoy you talking about stuff like this, probably have a lot of somewhat great stories :D
"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* )
Mathias, Conestoga College bought and renovated an old RIM building on Reuter Drive. Did you work there?
The guy who plays Jim will make a great Bond villain.
"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
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!
3:01 - Could I provide you correction? First Mathematica released was in 1988 (about the same time when Waterloo Maple was incorporated).
What's your favorite BlackBerry ringtone (OS 4-OS 6)?
This is super interesting!!
You should add that to the commentary track!
Hi Matthias, I'm really curious, is there a Movie Night tradition when you work on Blackberry?
no
Matthias is my fave person to see test products. Manufacturers sweat bullets when he tears them down and tests.🤣
Are you sure about the date in the description (2013 to 2007) ?
Time travel confirmed
Close enough
He says 1993 - 2007 in the video.
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.
You mention Maplesoft, and to my surprise it is still a going company. Not very common from the early 2000's to now.
Thank you mentioning how Android was also a big competitive challenge.
Without Android, Smartphones wouldn't have attained mass consumption. iEnthusiasts easily try to overlook it
@@joelo5164 You mean how Android was a BB clone before the iPhone and became an iPhone clone after 2007?
@@christschool iPhone would've been a niche product due to it's price point is what I meant!
@@joelo5164 (hence Steve Ballmers' reaction to it)
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.
I'm also rooting for the Riff-track of Matthias live-commenting on the movie
Dang ok, I may well watch it just to have a feature-length Matthias commentary. I guess Matt had the right idea 😅
Watched this on an airplane recently. It was pretty good.
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
DVD?... Oh! Yeah! Those things next to grandma's Free AOL cds.
Спасибо 😊
Ha Ha yeah, awesome movie. Hearing static on my electronic devices would be my nightmare too.
WoW Matthias you worked for BB from 2013 to 2007 lol
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!
My biggest question: was there really as little communication/coordination between Jim & Mike as the movie depicts?
description is wrong, it says 2013 to 2007 instead of 1993 to 2007.
More RIM stories!
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!
Come for the blackberry, stay for the random stuff.
This video has motivated me to finish my own review/critique on the British film ‘Kingsmen 2’, a bit like James Bond films, but a bit goofy. It has a scene depicting a cable car on the Italian side of Mont Blanc mountain range, but it’s filled with technical inaccuracies and I can’t help but voice my opinion and share my knowledge.
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 wished this movie got more attention.
I'd really like to hear the commentary
"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
never let facts get in the way of a good story
Hi Matthias, with 3g shut down do you know if there's any way to still make call on a BlackBerry Classic or Passport?
0:35 If for any reason you need to re-upload this, fyi, the pop-up text reads "eingineers"
Its definitely a good comedic take/fictionalization of it
Don't think I would even consider buying the dvd if your commentary isn't on there.
The differences between the Doug I know in person and the Doug in the movie were certainly very jarring, and the shy portrayal of Mike was also quite far from reality, but as you say the movie was quite entertaining nonetheless.
One thing I thought that was suspect was everyone at Blackberry being blindsided by Apple's Iphone. They had to have been poaching Blackberry's guys to get their knowledge to develop that phone. I'm also sure they had to have been offered the chance to develop something like the Iphone and turned it down for whatever reason. Doug was super-annoying too.
No, Jobs considered Blackberry engineers to be Bozo's. He didn't want that level of nerdom developing the iPhone.
Doug in the movie? He was a great counter to Jim and Mike
@@christschoolInteresting