The new movie “Joy Ride” is another one of those productions that for reasons unknown, received very high critical opinions, and as a result, due to movie blogging, I wind up attending and wasting another 2 hours. In this case, perhaps because of the success of one of the worst movies ever made, from last year “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, starring mostly Asian women – this is another reason for the skewed critical opinions for this mostly bad and unfunny film.
The comedy within this movie is random, crazy, slapstick, and raunchy. The story is mostly uninteresting about a group of four Asian women friends who go on a series of trips and insane mishaps while traveling. This movie reminded me in some ways of “Girls Trip”, from 2017, which is a better movie than this one, with more funny scenes, especially involving Tiffany Hadish.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating for Joy Ride is way too high 91%, with my rating 65% – lower than the more reasonable rating on IMDB of 7.0 and a solid pass.
It is a good idea to know what the new depressing movie about the lowest parts of humanity “Sound of Freedom” is about before going in, just to prepare yourself. This film is about the massive worldwide problem of child sex slavery, that adds up to a 150 billion-dollar industry. None of these 2 hours are easy to watch, considering the lowlife involved who prey on children and sell them into sex slavery to the worst dregs of humanity worldwide. Way too much of this goes on in the United States. More people are now being used as sex slaves than ever existed in the world, including the time when slavery was legal.
This story is mainly about a poor family including a single father, his daughter 9, and a son 5 who live in Nicaragua. The two children are asked to do a photo shoot, with a woman, who looks like a high fashion model, who takes them to an apartment. When the father returns hours later to pick them up, his children are gone and on their way, via a cargo ship to Columbia to be used as sex slaves.
The remainder of this amazing true story is about FBI agent Tim Ballard, played very well by Jim Caviezel who makes it his mission in life to locate these two lost children from Nicaragua. Finding the 5-year-old boy, involved in a complex scam Ballard played on a pedophile, however finding the 9-year-old girl required him to risk his life in the jungles of Columbia inside of a crime gang. The most impressive part of this story was learning about the incredible dedication of this one FBI agent Tim Ballard to find and rescue this young girl.
Mira Sorvino plays Tim Ballard’s wife Katherine in this film, her appearances are mostly very short and filmed with her facing toward Ballard so we never see her face within her entire role. I thought this was highly unusual, especially for a well-known actor.
Movies like this one, make us aware of some of the worst parts of life that are so often, impossible to believe even exist. Millions of pedophiles around the world, generating 150 billion dollars in revenue, a problem that is growing so fast, it may even surpass the drug industry.
The Rotten Tomatoes reviews for Sound of Freedom are a solid 83% and I agree with this rating and recommend this film.
“What have you done for me lately?” has been the mantra that has dominated business and working for other people since the concept of making money in the world started centuries ago. It does not really matter how great or fantastic something was done previously, it’s always about being first, innovating, and being ahead of the competition – all the time, from day 1. Bed Bath and Beyond, Blockbuster Video, Quiznos, Borders Books, and Sears are a list of just a few companies that at one time were doing the best of any company of its kind in the world, but over time, due to mismanagement and competition that saw better ways of doing the same thing, all of these companies no longer exist or are about to go bankrupt.
In 2007, the company Research in Motion (RIMM) owned the majority of cell phone sales in the world, entirely cornering the market. Owning a Blackberry became more of a status symbol than just owning a cell phone that could not only make phone calls but also text and send emails. The Blackberry was so popular and addictive that it was once known as a “Crackberry”. Blackberry stock reached an all-time high in June 2008 at 147 and its current price under its new stock symbol BB is 5 dollars. At its peak, Blackberry owned 45% of the cell phone market, now it’s 0%.
In June of 2007, Steve Jobs released the iPhone in a famous speech that revolutionized the entire handheld device industry – effectively putting all other similar hardware out of business. This was one of the “why didn’t we think of that idea” moments of all time. Of course, having a screen that does everything and not so much of the device dedicated to a keyboard is a far better idea.
The problem with Research in Motion who invented the entire idea of using a cell phone as its own server and changing the programming of cell phone towers is that all of their capital was dedicated to the one direction they had established originally. RIM did not have the ability to pivot into an entirely new technology direction. Apple Computer invented a far better idea, called the iPhone, and revolutionized the entire handheld device industry, making the iPhone the most popular electronic device ever created. As of a few days ago, Apple Computer is worth 3 trillion dollars, the largest market cap in history.
The new Amazon Prime movie “Blackberry” is an amazing business story about the rise and fall of Research in Motion. The meager beginnings of Research in Motion starting in a strip mall, to being ripped off by another company who would not honor their 16 million dollar deal to buy their modems. The rival company said that their modems were defective when they were not.
The co-owners of Research in Motion Mike Lazaridis and Doug, played by Jay Baruchel and Matt Johnson, tried desperately to find investors in their new cell phone idea and wound up talking to an angry, rude, egomaniac, Vice President named Jim Balsillie, played by Glenn Howerton who dismissed Mike and Doug, telling them to go to a Venture Capitalist. Then a miracle happened when Jim changed his mind because he was fired, and then became co-CEO of Research in Motion for 125 thousand dollars. Jim even mortgaged his own house to save the company, and it seemed he did not realize that RIM was already 1 million dollars in the red when he became CEO. Despite his angry and rude personality, it was Jim Balsillie who saved Research in Motion along with his marketing ability to eventually sell this new cell phone.
One of the highlights of this story was when Jim was failing to convince the boardroom at Verizon that their cell phone would ever work, and at the last minute, Mike walked in and saved the day, pointing out that their cell phone could be used as a server, bypassing all of the server overload problems Verizon had with their own cell phone inventions.
The acting in this movie is outstanding throughout, with Jay Baruchel and Cary Elwes as the only well-known actors in this production.
The Rotten Tomatoes for Blackberry is at 98% with my rating 100% and a strong recommendation.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 