REVIEW: Jobs

MOVIE
Jobs

CAST
Ashton Kutcher,
Dermot Mulroney

RATING
PG-13

RELEASE
August 16, 2013

DIRECTOR
Joshua Michael Stern

STUDIO
Open Road Films

RUNNING TIME
2 hours 7 minutes






STARS
**









REVIEW:

It's probably fair to say that the best and most captivating of the new Steve Jobs biopic "Jobs" is the first five minutes of it.  In these five minutes, we see Steve Jobs, played by "That 70 Show" star Ashton Kutcher dawning old age makeup as he's introducing the iPod to the world for the first time.  There's something about the way it's edited and how Kutcher channels Jobs in this particular scene that makes you expect more greatness to come after that.  Sadly, a boring, shallow, and overall average movie comes instead, and what could have been great turned into something you could find on Lifetime.  "Jobs" might have quite possibly the best performance of Ashton Kutcher's career thus far, but as a whole, this is just an average movie.

There's only one thing to really praise about this film, and that is Ashton Kutcher's performance.  Kutcher in this film shows how much of a great dramatic actor he has the potential to be, and the way he embodies the role of Steve Jobs is pretty dead on.  In almost every scene he's in, Kutcher owns it and gives a powerful and believable enough performance.  The truth about the movie is that there aren't any bad performances present, but at the same time they aren't really worth talking about other than Kutcher's.  The main problem with the film is the screenplay, which is pretty much the Dollar Store version of "The Social Network."

Screenwriter Matt Whiteley basically takes the life story of Steve Jobs and makes it as dull and boring as a Lifetime TV special.  Not only that, but he makes Steve Jobs a really despicable person overall.  That might have been how he was in real life, but here, Jobs is portrayed as a pompous, selfish, and cruel character whom you don't want to see succeed at all.  Plus, the "comedy" thrown in the film never worked and mostly relied on making fat jokes through Josh Gad's character.  If the movie had a better script, then this might have been a better film.  Director Joshua Michael Stern does an amateur-ish job at directing this film.  I mean, it wasn't awful directing, but it could have been a lot better as well.  Not much else to say about him.

"Jobs," instead of going out and telling the story of Steve Jobs' rise to fame in style, instead gets watered down into a 2 hour soap opera that's never groundbreaking or great.  Ashton Kutcher is the only thing worth really praising about, because he gives possibly the best performance of his career thus far.  Aside from that, the script is dull and makes Steve Jobs out to be a really cruel character, the direction is amateurish, and the film overall is a Dollar Store's "The Social Network."  If you really want to see this film, then just wait for it on DVD.  "Jobs" could have been something great, but instead it's just a mediocre biopic that is nothing more than an easy way to burn two hours away.