Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Ashton Kutcher | ... | Steve Jobs | |
Dermot Mulroney | ... | Mike Markkula | |
Josh Gad | ... | Steve Wozniak | |
Lukas Haas | ... | Daniel Kottke | |
Matthew Modine | ... | John Sculley | |
J.K. Simmons | ... | Arthur Rock | |
Lesley Ann Warren | ... | Clara Jobs | |
Ron Eldard | ... | Rod Holt | |
Ahna O'Reilly | ... | Chris-Ann Brennan | |
Victor Rasuk | ... | Bill Fernandez | |
John Getz | ... | Paul Jobs | |
Kevin Dunn | ... | Gil Amelio | |
James Woods | ... | Jack Dudman | |
Nelson Franklin | ... | Bill Atkinson | |
Eddie Hassell | ... | Chris Espinosa |
The film opens in 2001 with a middle-aged Steve Jobs (Ashton Kutcher) introducing the iPod at an Apple Town Hall meeting.[6] It then flashes back to Reed College in 1974. Jobs had already dropped out due to the high expense of tuition, but was still attending classes with the approval of Dean Jack Dudman (James Woods) who took him under his wing. Jobs is particularly interested in a course on calligraphy. He meets up with his friend Daniel Kottke (Lukas Haas) who is excited to see that Jobs is holding a copy of Be Here Now by Baba Ram Dass. Influenced by this book and his experiences with LSD, Jobs and Kottke spend time in India. Two years later, Jobs is back in Los Altos, California living at home with his adoptive parents Paul (John Getz) and Clara (Lesley Ann Warren). He is working for Atari and develops a partnership with his friend Steve Wozniak (Josh Gad) after he sees that Wozniak has built a personal computer (the Apple I). They name their new company Apple Computer, though ...
I keep seeing reviews tearing this film apart, saying it's poorly acted, poorly paced, and poorly made, etc., and while I do agree to a certain extent, I can't lie and say that I didn't at least like the movie. I thought it was thoroughly entertaining and very informative on the life of the legendary tech giant we all knew and loved. The cinematography in this film is very well done, the music score is great, in my opinion, the performances were pretty good, the casting was phenomenal, as everyone looks almost exactly like their title role, ESPECIALLY Ashton Kutcher, who looks close to the exact same as Steve Jobs in the 80s, and the overall amount of fan service to Apple fans is off the hook, here. This film has a lot to keep Apple fans, like myself, happy. Unfortunately, a few questionable things are in this film that sort of ruin it in terms of it being close to greatness. The writing, overall, is pretty by the numbers for a biopic and does everything in a somewhat cliched manner. The structure of this film is a bit cheesy, to put it lightly. As much as I'd like to think otherwise, the sequences do seem like something straight out of a TV film. Nothing drastic, but enough to have made me think "Wait, why was that done the way it was?" The editing can sometimes be a bit sloppy, as some scenes either drag on a bit too long or they are a bit shorter than they should be. There were also times where a few of the performances can get campy. Not necessarily bad, but enough to where I sort of questioned the direction, somewhat. Overall, this film has some pretty big problems that makes it hard to recommend to anyone who's not an Apple fan. I don't think it's as bad as some people make it out to be, but I don't think it's anything special, and while I do like this movie much more than I don't, I'm not blind to how sloppy this film can be. If you're an Apple fan, like myself, then you most likely will enjoy yourself, here, as not only does every actor look almost exactly like their title roles (especially Ashton Kutcher, again), but it also, as I've said, has Apple fan service, aplenty. But, if you're not an Apple fan, it's probably best to just watch the 2015 one with Michael Fassbender instead, as, technically, that's a much more well made film than this. As much as I want to love this film, especially for nostalgic reasons, since I saw this when I was still in high school, there's no doubt that it simply isn't anything great, even if I really want it to be. At its best, it's great, tech-filled fun. At its worst, it's poorly put together cheesy campiness. Mix those 2, and you got a perfectly alright film, and nothing more.