{"id":7562,"date":"2014-02-04T14:22:14","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T19:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7562"},"modified":"2014-02-04T14:22:14","modified_gmt":"2014-02-04T19:22:14","slug":"br-jobs-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7562","title":{"rendered":"BR: jOBS (2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>J to L<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Good\/ BR Transfer: Excellent \/ BR Extras: Standard<\/p>\n

Label: Universal \/ Region: 1 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: November 23, 2013<\/p>\n

Genre: Biograpy \/ Drama<\/p>\n

Synopsis: Slick but rudimentary biopic about Apple’s enigmatic co-founder Steve Jobs.<\/p>\n

Special Features: Disc 1: Making-of featurete \/ Disc 2: \u00a0DVD<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Often in the wake of a major figure\u2019s passing comes a biopic. Sometimes it\u2019s reverent, marginally critical of the iconoclast, or maybe it\u2019s just a slap-dash cash-in TV movie designed to make a little money before audiences no longer feel bereft.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no denying Steve Jobs was a remarkable, influential figure, driven by a passion to bring complex technology in a simple, sleek package for personal and professional use. He worked for several key companies like IBM, left to pursue his own dreams, assembled a team of brilliant oddballs, saw Apple grow and then tumble into crisis, then lose hold of his position as its CEO, be given the diminutive Mac project which became the company\u2019s first great success story, and ultimately re-assumed control of Apple, steering projects such as the iPhone and the iPod to fruition, and making the Apple brand the most valuable on Earth.<\/p>\n

Behind the company\u2019s ups & downs was a complex individual, and one would think there exists enough material to mine and craft a compelling bio of Job\u2019s rise from university eccentric to Apple\u2019s CEO \u2013 especially in the wake of Job\u2019s own autobiography – but the screenplay by newcomer Matt Whiteley never rises past a rudimentary cable TV movie. The script is a linear, bullet point chronicle of Jobs\u2019 life from a bare-footed, odiferous college programmer to the launch of the iPod (a moment that actually starts the film before a fast flash-back to college), but there isn\u2019t anything new or remarkable that couldn\u2019t be gleaned from a handful of Wikipedia profiles.<\/p>\n

Most of Ashton Kutcher\u2019s dialogue sounds like selected extrapolations from published interviews, anecdotes, and recorded speeches, leaving Kutcher \u2013 terribly out of league in any<\/em> dramatic role \u2013 a caricature to portray. Jobs is presented as a driven, bellicose, highly focused man, and we know this because Kutcher maintains two facial expressions: calm, and fixated. His dialogue delivery is clipped when Jobs is apparently irate, but rather than have the iconoclast yell, Kutcher tenses his lips and modulates his retorts to dismissive, unimaginative colleagues and directors like a disappointed parent. Kutcher also seems to have adopted a strange posture and a walk that\u2019s almost simian, making wide shots of Jobs hunching and swaying across the frame look rather ridiculous.<\/p>\n

The casting of Kutcher, who does at times bear a striking resemblance to the more wiry Jobs, is partly to blame for the film\u2019s blandness, as is a script that offers no insight into the man; he\u2019s just hyper-focused because, you know, he\u2019s Steve Jobs. Director Joshua Michael Stern neither challenges nor transcends the material, and some peripheral characters either disappear \u2013 Jobs\u2019 pregnant wife, whom he ousts from his home, is suddenly replaced by a woman lacking any name or intro in a major time-jump \u2013 and Daniel Kottke (Lukas Haas) his reduced to a moping sidelined character whom we assume was gradually ditched from Jobs\u2019 inner circle because he was no more than a skilled repair technician.<\/p>\n

Stern\u2019s film is generally well cast \u2013Josh Gad, Dermot Mulroney and Matthew Modine all stand out and resemble their counterparts \u2013 whereas J.K. Simmons, Lesley Anne Warren, and James Woods are pretty much gone after their singular moments, and while Jobs<\/strong> is nothing more than an easy-to-digest primer on Jobs and the birth and gradual prominence of Apple, it is really<\/em> rich in period detail. Jobs<\/strong> may have been planed as TV movie prior to getting lucky and enjoying a theatrical release, but whoever was in charge of art direction and props did a superb job in filling scenes with period gizmos, furniture, cars, and clothes. Seeing early Apple computers is also a treat \u2013 largely because the early designs \u2013 chunkier, with the very first Apples encased in wood – were eventually replaced by the sleek metal and white lacquered plastic computers and entertainment products we know and admire as superb achievements in industrial design.<\/p>\n

The cinematography by Russell Carpenter (Titanic<\/strong>, Charlie\u2019s Angels<\/strong>) is equally slick, offering nice compositions with a slightly soft focus look, matched by a colour palette evocative of the mid- to late seventies. Universal\u2019s Blu-ray features an excellent transfer and 5.1 mix, but perhaps being a cash-in film, the disc includes not a making-of featurette but what runs like a teaser trailer cut from a proper featurette, so there\u2019s no real behind-the-scenes meat or reflection from the cast & filmmakers.<\/p>\n

Those wanting more detailed info on the company\u2019s early years and minutia of its products should seek out Robert Baca and Josh Rizzo\u2019s 2008 documentary Welcome to Macintosh<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2014 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Vendor Search Links:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" \"\"—New movie releases on iTunes<\/a>\"\"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0J to L<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ J to L . Film: Good\/ BR Transfer: Excellent \/ BR Extras: Standard Label: Universal \/ Region: 1 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: November 23, 2013 Genre: Biograpy \/ Drama Synopsis: Slick but rudimentary biopic about Apple’s enigmatic co-founder Steve Jobs. Special Features: Disc 1: Making-of featurete \/ Disc 2: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[2498,2497,2496,325],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1XY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7562"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7575,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions\/7575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}