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Created Aug 17, 2013 03:29PM PST • Edited Aug 17, 2013 03:29PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   In the era of Oliver Stone and among us who prefer non-fiction, a movie like this will never be great. if the goal was to capture the essence of our era of the requirements success, then the movie reached the pedestal of excellence. We have lived in the era of Jimmy Johnson, Martha Stewart and Steve Jobs where their singular and admittedly selfish focus on one aspect of a human life can lead to success and their fifteen minutes of fame. In that case, this movie does a great job showing that about Mr Jobs. He is no more cruel than any other megalomaniac. The choice to view Mr Jobs from Reed College to his return to Apple was an interesting choice, albeit limiting since it failed to document any change in the Mr Jobs as he grew older. Shortcomings in the film were perhaps intentional as an instrument to amplify the central point of his obsession. Maybe his life was a book of unrelated chapters, the assemblage of experiential learning, or maybe it was just a shoddy job of telling a rich, complicated life. Maybe Hulme, Whiteley and Stern gave up due to weariness just like Jobs’ peers and competitors did. Tough to say.

4. Acting

   OK 2.5

   The 1970’s were just a weird time and now that we are all connected and cool, there are moments when this era is just as unfamiliar to us as any Revolutionary War movie would be. But you do get the sense that Ashton Kutcher has finally stopped wanting to marry his mother and put down silly things to test his talents as an actor. And the efforts of the cast from the garage was memorable, and Lenny Jacobson as Burrell Smith was a great choice. Otherwise, the cast mailed it in.

5. Male Stars Good 3.0

   Ashton Kutcher is the poster boy in Hollywood for prosperity for being tall and straight. It is nice to see him pop up from time to time on the big screen. Its obvious that that he tries hard and certainly he committed to this role for whatever reason Generation X gets motivated. Kutcher surprises in his ability to portray three aspects of Jobs personality; to sell in the moment, to ruthlessly seek revenge and vanquish the perpetrator of past sins, and to obsessively focus on one’s vision. Further, the resemblance to Jobs was close, and he mastered the loping walk of Jobs well, but did his performance rise to that of Hoffman’s Truman Capote or Day-Lewis’ Abe Lincoln? No, but it will keep him from making TV commercials.

6. Female Stars Barely OK 2.0

   There were none in a leading role in this movie.

7. Female Costars Barely OK 2.0

   Most of us militant heterosexuals have a soft spot for the wronged woman. It should be the easiest role to play for guys like us. And of course, we have all heard of the intensely hateful and selfish decision Stevie Boy made early in his adult life to blow poor old Julie (Amanda Crew) off with news of her pregnancy. But her scene with Jobs and the subsequent scene with his pal was as poor as I have seen. Let’s hope Amanda regroups and wails in the future, because Jennifer Lawrence can not star in all the movies Hollywood has to offer.

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

   Here the movie sprinkles enough color to the Jobs’ character to make for interesting conversation. Josh Gad does well as Steve Wozniak, the naive inventor of the keyboard connected to a TV. The scene in the car when Jobs and Woz named the company was portrayed well enough that we all hope to be riding around with a friend and have a moment like that. Dermot Mulroney accomplished two things in his role as Mike Markkula. One he was able to portray a forgotten fact that success is not necessarily a zero-sum game. It can be accomplished with some degree of moral behavior, as he displayed in the dining room when he financed Apple II. He also might be the last documented case of recognizing innovation over the hill so to speak; i.e., the Tomorrow Story that has made America great. These little things make movies great even when the movie itself if nothing more than a glorified school project.

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    So I am thinking the troubles I have with the movie itself is more about how incomplete my memories of the 1970’s are and how I disdain how stale the cliches of that era feel now. The early scene of the Jobs and cohorts laying around in a field on an acid trip was as cliche as staring at a lava lamp. The trip to India was a filler. Yet conversely, the scene when Jobs and Woz make their pitch at Stanford was exactly what Washington and Reagan had in mind, front to back the best scene in the movie if you really want to see the first sounds of a successful tomorrow story. Double Bonus Brownie Points for the road scenes in California. Ya know, someday somebody smart is going to write about kids jumping in a car and driving around, going mobile, as a major feature in American culture.

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play Good 3.0

13. Music Good 3.0

    It was nice to see what amounts to an old MTV video to Channel 7 on Sirius radio.

14. Visuals Good 3.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.3

    We could have had more tirades from Jobs. I was expecting more tirades. Don’t forget the tirades.

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Salty 2.0

    Could have used more tirades.

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0