Written by James M. Tate / 8/21/2013 / 1 Comment / 2013 , anthony michael hall , ashton kutcher , biopic , dermot mulroney , john getz , matthew modine
JOBS VS PIRATES OF SILICON VALLEY
year: 2013 cast: Ashton Kutcher, Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, John Getz rating: ** |
From this meeting we travel back to 1974, where Kutcher’s Jobs is a bearded loafer who doesn’t fit into college life, or anywhere for that matter. After taking LSD he realizes something unclear to the audience and his slacker buddies... But in the blink of an eye he’s working at Atari, screaming like a jerk boss even before becoming one.
His sidekick is Steve Wozniak, the pioneering engineer who built the first Apple computer. Nicknamed Woz and played by short and tubby Josh Gad, he's the intentional audience favorite using witty sarcasm to alleviate the tension of his climbing, and often cutthroat, entrepreneurial partner.
The real life and at that time not-so-fat Steve Wozniak with Steve Jobs |
And just as we jumped from college to Atari, there's an awkward cut from the initial team working out of Steve’s father's garage to the immense Apple building, where several characters are forgotten and Jobs doesn’t gel with the "stiff suits" including Dermot Mulroney’s backer Mike Markkula, his one time confidant and good friend.
Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs and Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak |
Kutcher’s piercing eyes are narrowed intensely, and he's surprisingly effective but otherwise burdened by a contrived imitation of quirky physical mannerisms… Walking with a bent-forward T-Rex posture is distracting and downright unnecessary (the audience was giggling throughout).
Ashton Kutcher's narrowed eyes do the best acting in JOBS |
When the bigwigs aren’t around, and Jobs passionately lectures his minions on how to create usable products for the future, the film plays out like a melodramatic commercial for Apple products, which might have been intentional: If Steve Jobs wasn't so uncaring and temperamental, they'd probably have him walking on water... or creating the shoes to make it happen.
year: 1999 cast: Noah Wyle, Anthony Michael Hall, John DiMaggio rating: ***1/2 |
So why isn’t Wozniak more praised than Jobs in the home computer legacy? For one, the naive Wozniak aka Woz would have sold his idea to someone else if it weren’t for Job’s determination to develop it on their own, under Apple, a name inspired from an LSD trip.
Following Jobs and Wozniak from college into big business is a terrific odyssey – but once the proverbial stone stops rolling, moss gathers with a gossipy subplot involving Job’s bad relationship and a child caught in-between.
The original real life Microsoft team Bill Gates and Paul Allen |
But it’s the energetic performance of John DiMaggio as Steve Ballmer, Gate’s intense right-hand man whose devotion trumps even the soft spoken Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, that really makes the B-story shine: While Ballmer narrates, he’s standing within his own past and providing the audience with a virtual reality pie chart.
Still, the best moments involve our main characters… As Jobs and Woz struggle to get their home computer on the market, Wyle proves he’s far more than a handsome TV actor, intensely portraying Jobs as a driven entrepreneur with severe mood swings – eventually becoming a tyrannical boss pitting Apple workers against Macintosh like Roman galley slaves.
Orwell-inpsired 1984 Apple Commercial directed by Ridley Scott |
So as the Ashton Kutcher film JOBS begins with the underwhelming introduction to the iPod, this more creative and colorful story starts with the screening of a 1984 Orwellian-inspired Apple commercial and ends with the megalomaniac loggerheads finally working together… sort of...
And the rest is history: being typed on this home computer and read on your own.
Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates |
Fred Flintstone's computer was an Apple |
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
All Time Popular
-
Robyn Hilton enters into an eclectic exploitation comedy career in Wonder Women circa 1973 As mentioned a few posts ago, ROBYN HILTON, b...
-
year: 1978 cast: Allen Garfield, Leif Garrett, Kathleen Lloyd, Tony Alva, Pam Kenneally rating: ***1/2 Although promoted as a Leif Garr...
-
Kari Michaelsen in Saturday the 14th year: 1982 In LOVE AT FIRST BITE, a popular comedy that took the vampire genre by satire, Richard ...
-
Cornelia Sharpe in BUSTING Year: 1974 Rating: **** Starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as determined vice cops BUSTING hookers, makin...
-
Mary-Louise Weller in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE ANIMAL HOUSE, directed by John Landis and produced by Ivan Reitman, stars John Be...
-
Kerri Green and John Candy in SUMMER RENTAL Year: 1985 John Candy, in his first leading role, plays a burnt-out air traffic controller ...
-
Robyn Hilton on STARSKY AND HUTCH Model/Actress ROBYN HILTON played Mel Brook's secretary in BLAZING SADDLES and turns up in an epis...
-
Robyn Hilton in Video Vixens the same year as Blazing Saddles: 1974 The Anthology of Comedic Parodies, already done in several Woody All...
-
CADDDYSHACK is best known for the iconic leading actors: Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray, but originally the ...
-
Elizabeth James and Tom Laughlin on equal ground YEAR: 1967 THE BORN LOSERS wasn't supposed to happen but thank God it did since BIL...
Featured Post
NAKEDLY INGITING THE ANIMATED CULT CLASSIC 'HEAVY METAL'
Title: HEAVY METAL Year: 1981 Rating: **** The best two stories from HEAVY METAL... producer Ivan Reitman's animated/cartoon anthology w...
I have no intention of seeing/watching JOBS. PIRATES OF SILICON VALLEY was pretty darn entertaining (am I wrong to say it was a made for HBO movie? I'm too lazy to look it up - ah a TNT movie - I knew it was some sort of cable tv thing).
ReplyDeleteMy first computer was the brand new Apple II Plus, the good ole 48K version with the two floppies. The picture you use brings back great memories, what an awesome fun machine.
Very cool VS. I've always been a big fan of Anthony Michael Hall and Noah Wyle. Good stuff.