A select few who were lucky enough to attend the Sundance Film Festival this year had the chance to be the first audience for JOBS, the first of two movies about the life of Steve Jobs. This first offering is somewhat more notorious, just because of its famous star, Ashton Kutcher. What did the reviewers think?
The following is an excerpt of an article examining the early reviews of JOBS that will appear in tomorrow's issue of TechLife News in the iOS Newsstand and AppleMagazine digital magazine at Zinio.
There are plenty of reasons for the film's mixed reviews. We can start with the timeframe of the movie. The film doesn't show much of the Steve Jobs we were most acquainted with, the one who appeared a couple times a year promoting new revolutionary products like the iPhone and iPad. In fact it begins with him announcing the iPod, then flashing back to where it all began in his garage with Steve “Woz” Wozniak. While that garage is legendary, maybe people were expecting to see just a bit of that, rather than it being the focus for much of the film. Boyish? Of course he's going to look boyish. Steve Jobs looked boyish at that point in his life as well.
Is Ashton Kutcher to blame? Definitely not. Anyone who has seen the stills and the preview for JOBS can tell you that the actor has poured every fiber of his being into this portrayal. He not only looks like a young Steve Jobs, he embodies everything about him. Kutcher himself tweeted a blended picture that is half Steve Jobs and half Kutcher performing him. The word “uncanny” seems trite, but true.
In fact, Kutcher even took on Jobs' odd diet while filming, and it ended up making him very ill. Kutcher tried eating the Fruitarian diet and ended up in the hospital just two days before he began filming JOBS. In an odd touch of fate, it ended up affecting his pancreas.
Read more of AppleMagazine's take on the early JOBS reviews in tomorrow's issue of AppleMagazine and TechLife News.
