Jobs, the biopic of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs starring Ashton Kutcher, premiered at Sundance earlier this year to mixed reviews. Kutcher’s performance was surprisingly good, but the script was lacking. “Jobs is so hell-bent on cramming all these seminal moments into one film, it never builds much context around them. We never feel like they mean anything,” I wrote. “The film loves to tell us things, but never quite explains any in a satisfactory way.” Looking down the barrel of a quickly approaching Spring release with no real buzz, the distributor decided to delay the film.
Well Jobs, directed by Joshua Michael Stern, is back. Co-starring Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons and Matthew Modine, it’ll now open on August 16. Read the press release below. Read More »
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Briefly: Ashton Kutcher made his big bow as Steve Jobs at Sundance, in the film once called jOBS and now wisely re-formatted as Jobs. The film was picked up by Open Road and quickly set for an April 19 limited opening. But audiences are going to have to wait longer to see Kutcher do his best take on the Apple co-founder.
That April date was chosen, presumably, because it is the anniversary of the founding of Apple, though not a particularly sexy one. (The 37th.) The distributor has decided that taking more time to market the film is a good idea. Whether any cuts or other changes will be made remains to be seen. A new date hasn’t been set at this point for the film directed by Joshua Michael Stern and written by Matthew Whitely.
Jobs also stars Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons and Matthew Modine. Germain reviewed the film at Sundance, saying it “feels slight because it tries to do too much.” [THR]
While Steve Jobs changed the world with his innovations and forward thinking, the first biopic about him, Jobs, does not. It is a competent retelling of Jobs’ life, beginning with his college years, and running through the period when he regained control of Apple in the 1990s.
Ashton Kutcher plays the title role and does a good job at making you forget there’s a big star under the beard and glasses. It’s the script by Matt Whiteley, however, where the cracks begin to show. Jobs [the new official spelling of the title] is so hell-bent on cramming all these seminal moments into one film, it never builds much context around them. We never feel like they mean anything or understand the “why” about the big moments. The film loves to tell us things, but never quite explains any in a satisfactory way.
The resulting product is an entertaining but flawed take on the man who co-created Apple. Directed by Joshua Michael Stern, Jobs had its world premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival Friday night. Read more after the jump Read More »
Posted on Friday, January 25th, 2013 by Angie Han
Finding the right balance between fact and fiction is a tough trick for any “based on a true story” movie to pull off, but at least the subjects of, say, Lincoln (or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, if you prefer) aren’t actually around to comment on their portrayal. For movies about public figures who are still alive and well, criticism from their real-life subjects often comes with the territory.
Two upcoming biopics about controversial figures have recently come into view, and it appears that the people depicted in them aren’t so thrilled with Hollywood’s versions of events. In a series of emails, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak called Joshua Michael Stern‘s jOBS “totally wrong,” though he expressed his hopes that the film would at least be “fun and entertaining.” Meanwhile, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had much harsher words for Bill Condon‘s The Fifth Estate, which he blasted as a “massive propaganda attack.” Read their comments after the jump.
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The last curiosity of this year’s Sundance Film Festival is jOBS, the biopic of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, featuring Ashton Kutcher in the lead role. The film premieres tomorrow night, but in the meantime we’ve got the first clip from the film. It features a conversation between jobs and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, played by Josh Gad. Their conversation here will give you a pretty good sense of what Kutcher’s performance is like. It also suggests that the film’s script may be pretty on the nose, which is always a handicap for a biopic. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2013 by Angie Han
Once the initial disbelief at Ashton Kutcher‘s casting in Joshua Michael Stern‘s jOBS wore off, it became apparent that the Two and a Half Men star looked the part of late tech guru Steve Jobs, if nothing else. But there’s a wide gap between mimicking Jobs’ hairstyle and outfits and actually embodying his persona.
Sundance Film Festival attendees will get to see how Kutcher really fares when jOBS makes its world premiere as the Sundance Film Festival’s closing night film later this month, but the rest of us won’t have too much longer to wait either. Open Road Films has just picked up the biopic with plans to release it theatrically this spring. More details after the jump.
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When Ashton Kutcher was cast as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in the biopic jOBS, there was much talk about the degree of resemblance between the actor and the young engineer.
Now that we’ve got the first official photo of Kutcher in the role, however, the most impressive thing about it might be the degree to which he looks like no one but Ashton Kutcher. Not that we expected much different, but this appears designed to court the people who might watch Two and a Half Men, rather than those more specifically interested in tech or business. (Nothing wrong with that per se.) Check out the shot below. Read More »
While the competition and spotlight films at Sundance are usually where the best of the fest reside, the big names are in the premiere categories. 2013 is no exception. Among the highly anticipated films that will premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival are the Ashton Kutcher Steve Jobs biopic jOBS; Richard Linklater‘s trilogy-closing love story Before Midnight; Joseph Gordon-Levitt‘s directorial debut Don Jon’s Addiction; the latest film from the team behind Sound of My Voice, The East; Park Chan-Wook‘s thriller Stoker; and the star studded film from the writers of The Descendants, called The Way, Way Back.
And that’s just a few of the features. The documentaries include subjects like Jeremy Lin, WikiLeaks, Mariel Hemingway, The Eagles and more.
After the jump, read the full list of premieres at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Read More »
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