back to article Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak disses Ashton Kutcher's Steve Jobs

Steve Wozniak isn't too impressed with the Steve Jobs biopic film Jobs - and said a lot of its problems came from Ashton Kutcher's portrayal of the Apple founder. The Woz jumped on the comments section of a Gizmodo review of the movie for his own impromptu critique, which wasn't all that complimentary. "I saw Jobs tonight. I …

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  1. Mr C
    Joke

    trade you a google for a apple

    First we had the Facebook movie, now the Apple movie.

    Trade me a Microsoft and a Google movie for a full set :P

    1. wowfood
      Headmaster

      Re: trade you a google for a apple

      It's "an^ apple"

      And nah, before we have the microsoft and google movies, I want a linux movie. It'd have to be rated 18 to get past all of the swearing Linus gets through with his rants.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: trade you a google for a apple

        >a linux movie. It'd have to be rated 18 to get past all of the swearing

        To say nothing of the swearing that accompanies any necessary installation of linux during the film. And, of course, the movie would never actually end...

      2. Redsyrup
        Coat

        Re: trade you a google for a apple

        How about an Amazon/Torvalds/HP/Netscape/Mozilla/EFF Movie?

      3. FrankAlphaXII

        Re: trade you a google for a apple

        >>I want a linux movie. It'd have to be rated 18 to get past all of the swearing Linus gets through with his rants

        Does "Revolution OS" not count? Or would you consider that the GNU movie?

    2. Jedihomer Townend

      Re: trade you a google for a apple

      Wasn't Antitrust based on Microsoft (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218817/) and I believe The Internship is Google's one (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2234155/) ...

      1. Daniel B.
        Happy

        Re: trade you a google for a apple

        Yup, the Antitrust movie is basically the MS inspired one, they just added murder to the mix to make it more of a thriller. Ironically, it is Linux what we see throughout the movie!

  2. hplasm
    WTF?

    "...another upcoming Steve Jobs movie"

    O gods, why?

    1. ElReg!comments!Pierre

      Re: "...another upcoming Steve Jobs movie"

      Because it will sell.

      1. Flywheel

        Re: "...another upcoming Steve Jobs movie"

        Nah .. I'll wait for version 2.

        1. Mark Broadhurst
          Coat

          Re: "...another upcoming Steve Jobs movie"

          Well its not version 2 but it does end with an "S".

      2. ThomH

        Re: "...another upcoming Steve Jobs movie"

        This movie hasn't sold. Deadline's summary of the weekend US box office results was: "Oprah’s PR Blitz Helps ‘The Butler’ Open #1 With $25M: Soft Box Office As ‘Kick Ass 2′ Falls, ‘Jobs’ Biopic Dies, ‘Paranoia’ Bombs"

        See the original — http://www.deadline.com/2013/08/did-oprah-affect-box-office-the-butler-tops-box-office-friday/ — for the full text, but highlights are:

        Flopping in wide release (2,381 theaters) was ... Jobs [which] came in only #7 with a meager $6.7M despite a plethora of TV ad buys. ... Rotten Tomatoes critics only gave it 24% positive reviews because of its superficial made-for-TV depiction of a complex creative and business icon. Still it’s surprising how many Apple devotees stayed away despite the marketing’s psychographic targeting to them.

        1. zanto
          Coat

          Re: "...another upcoming Steve Jobs movie"

          during the intermission there should be "iAds" telling you how to hold the popcorn tub right.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "...another upcoming Steve Jobs movie"

      I will wait for number ten.

  3. knarf

    Who cares.....really!!!!

    Movie about a bloke who made computers and behaved not like a perfect human, really who cares.

    1. Shades

      Re: Who cares.....really!!!!

      "really who cares."

      Americans*, just like the Americans that made the movie. Its aspirational. Its the American dream. Behave like an arse, develop an ego the size of a planet, make money at others expense.

      *Some, not all.

      1. channel extended
        Holmes

        Re: Who cares.....really!!!!

        As an American I can only wish the better movie had been made,

        "The Wizard of WOZ" That is who really made Apple a success. Jobs mouth always overran his ability, Woz always found a way.

        BTW I lived the era.

        1. Getriebe

          Re: Who cares.....really!!!!

          ""The Wizard of WOZ" That is who really made Apple a success. Jobs mouth always overran his ability, Woz always found a way."

          Woz's story I would pay to go and see. How he pretty well single handedly designed Apple 1, starting from a blank sheet and not a lot of precedence.

          And his take on how Jobs dumped him.

          I too lived through the Apple Ii era.

          1. Tom 13

            Re: And his take on how Jobs dumped him.

            That's one story I don't think any of us will ever read. We might read his wife's take on it. Or his kids's take. But on this side of The Great Divide I don't think we'll ever know what Woz thinks on this issue.

            I don't know if it's class, loyalty or some combination thereof, but whatever Woz thinks about it, he's keeping it to himself. And I respect that decision, much as I'd like to know the juicy details. Sometimes other people being better does pull someone else up to a higher standard.

        2. wayward4now
          Linux

          Re: Who cares.....really!!!!

          AMEN! I bought one of the original garage built Apple ]['s. What a DREAM MACHINE! It came with the original Red and Blue manuals that spelled out the inner workings and logic diagrams, plus all the source code. Woz invented Open Source long before the "movement" started. Then it took off. I seriously doubt the hand of Steve Wozniak in the closing down of the Apple][+ and the rest. They weren't open and quieted the whines of the software industry after users figured out how easily software written for one could be copied (pirated) on the original machines with the reset to mini-assembler. I know. I also doubt Wozniak favored the dropping of support for machines without some form of upgrade. I love The Woz, I just wish he had some "assertiveness training".

  4. Nate Amsden

    I just ordered

    Pirates of Sillicon valley.. I remember I pirated it (ha ha, get it?) when it first came out and watched it once on poor quality VCD (which I think I still have). I think it was the first introduction I got to how much of an asshole Jobs was. I don't remember much from the movie other than Gates "stealing" DOS and Jobs being an asshole, so am semi looking forward to seeing it again.

    I watched an interview with someone who was apparently on the first Mac team from '80-87 last week and he commented on how he loved working for Jobs even though he knew at any minute he could be ripped apart by him in front of 100 other people. He said Jobs was always right and that made it OK he said he did the best work of his life there and would love to do it again if he had the chance. Myself I feel like I would be the exact polar opposite of that. With the caveat of never having worked with/for or even known someone who is "always right".

    In checking up on the movie(Pirates) over the weekend I noticed(and vaguely remember now) that one of the Apple events had the actor that played jobs in the movie give some of the keynote, and joked around with the real Jobs on stage. I don't know how real the movie was vs the overall dislike of the Jobs movie, but it sounds like it was much better overall.

    So, go see it if that sort of thing interests you.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I just ordered

      Indeed Pirates of Silicon Valley was a great movie, I ordered a US Region 1 DVD a few years ago, the Apple keynote where it's star Noah Wyle, played Steve Jobs is on YouTube :

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIClAanU7Os

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I just ordered

      Well, in matters of IT and such, I am always right!

      Therefore people hate working for me because it always turns out bad for them when they choose to disagree with me and are later shown yet again to have made egregious errors and demonstrated their lack of skill, critical thinking, logic or whatever.

      However, people love working with me, because, well, I am always right, so that always leads to bigger and better things for everyone.

      YMMV and anon for obvious reasons.

  5. Flawless101

    Ashton Kutcher?

    No thanks.

    Why was he chosen? Simply because he looks like Jobs at a young age, I cannot fathom any other reason.

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Ashton Kutcher?

      Why was he chosen? Because he's a complete Ku'tcher. Frankly who on earth expects to go to a movie these days and see anything remotely connected with "accuracy" or "truth"?

      "Jobs" has truthiness and these days that's enough.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ashton Kutcher?

      If I see his name in the credits, I avoid the movie.

      There is another so called comedy actor that I avoid as well.

      They play their characters just like John Wayne. He always played himself but in a different class than Mr Kutcher.

      1. Tom 13

        Re: Ashton Kutcher?

        The only thing of interest I've seen from him was "Beauty and the Geek," first season.

        I think it speaks volumes that he was unable to make an even marginally successful sequel to it.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    He's not alone

    Virtually every movie reviewer has panned Kutcher and the movie as being trash. I never thought Kutcher was a particularly good actor nor person.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Anpther Steve Jobs Movie?

    Why?

    The majority just don't give a shit!

    He was just an angry little man made big by the folly of others, and the genius of Apple marketers to (easily) manipulate their customer base! (Make it "cool" and all the plebs want one)

    1. Khaptain Silver badge

      Re: Anpther Steve Jobs Movie?

      Then why can't they do the same thing with Tim Cook ?

      PS : I have never owned an Apple product so no Fanboism coming from my part. I recognize Steve Jobs as an excellent engineer the marketing genius though.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Anpther Steve Jobs Movie?

      You don't really get it do you?

      Microsoft was lucky, they bluffed IBM by saying they had an OS for their new machine (they didn't).

      Apple on the other hand had to earn their keep, they didn't have a monopoly to support them.

      Jobs left Apple, Apple started to falter. NeXT was created by Jobs after being ousted from Apple. WWW was written on a NeXT machine.

      Jobs rejoined Apple and the company's fortunes were lifted.

      I'd say Jobs is more worthy of a film than Microsoft is. Both Jobs and his products have been a lot more influential and risky compared to Microsoft who just generally carried on making stuffy office software.

      1. Stevie

        Re: Anpther Steve Jobs Movie?

        " Both Jobs and his products have been a lot more influential and risky compared to Microsoft who just generally carried on making stuffy office software."

        Apart from the bit where Microsoft put out WIndows 95 and managed to get everyone + dog to buy a PC of course, something Apple had singularly failed to do with years and years head start.

        1. Magnus_Pym

          Re: Anpther Steve Jobs Movie?

          "Apart from the bit where Microsoft put out WIndows 95 and managed to get everyone + dog to buy a PC of course, something Apple had singularly failed to do with years and years head start."

          Gary Arlen Kildall (May 19, 1942 – July 11, 1994)

          Note the significance of the year that Microsoft's biggest competitor, critic and threat died. That's Luck, That is.

      2. Lars Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Anpther Steve Jobs Movie?

        There was a link to Youtube among posts here earlier but that lead to another link:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nMD6sjAe8I

        Even if I would not, by any means, consider my self an Apple ifan, probably much due to the ilitigation and the iexplanation they went into. But somehow that interview warms my heart. Apple II was my first personal computer, not my first computer professionally, but the first to take home. Visicalc was the first software that really impressed me. "Bread and butter" -software is just that. Warms my heart to hear him speak about it.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Anpther Steve Jobs Movie?

      " the genius of Apple marketers to (easily) manipulate their customer base! (Make it "cool" and all the plebs want one)"

      What influence did Apple marketing department have on the billions he made from his mega success called Pixar? Inquiring minds want to know

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Not That Andrew

        Re: Another Steve Jobs Movie?

        From what I understand, Pixar was successful because he knew he knew nothing about the movie industry and was generally willing to listen to advice and usually take a back seat.

        1. Goat Jam

          If they do

          "From what I understand, Pixar was successful because he knew he knew nothing about the movie industry and was generally willing to listen to advice and usually take a back seat."

          That in itself is a useful skill, especially in a man who was generally accepted as being a giant egomaniac.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "I'm grateful to Steve for his excellence in the i-era, and his contribution to my own life of enjoying great products, but this movie portrays him having had those skills in earlier times,"

    Maybe that statement says more about why the movie wasn't liked by Woz?

  9. theloon

    Even if Job's had written and appeared in it himself, it would still be full of much fiction. Anything some one point of view, or even a few points of view is still far from the actual.

    It's a documovie, nothing more.

    1. TheOtherHobbes

      If Jobs had written it and appeared in it it would be like... whoa, dead guy.

  10. Alan Denman

    From out of that room came the future.

    "Nobody really knows what happened in the rooms."

    Throughout APple history, small snippets from that room have been used to shape the fanboy herd.

    And boy, does it work.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: From out of that room came the future.

      "Nobody really knows what happened in the rooms."

      Apple Reservoir Dogs?

      1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Happy

        Re: From out of that room came the future.

        "Apple Reservoir Dogs?"

        Nice.

        Sadly, I think I know which one is Mr Blonde.

        1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

          Re: From out of that room came the future.

          Nice Guy Wozzie sure should fit in.

  11. Sandpit

    I prefer "Micro Men" to all this twoddle

  12. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Joke

    Spoiler Alert!

    He dies in the end.

  13. Dropper

    New Version

    "I'm grateful to Steve for his excellence in the i-era, and his contribution to my own life of enjoying great products, but this movie portrays him having had those skills in earlier times,"

    I believe this is the result of some perfectly understandable confusion, Kutcher was clearly portraying this year's JobS.

    1. BinkyTheHorse
      Flame

      Re: New Version

      There's only one proper response for this:

      http://img.pandawhale.com/43589-BURN-kelso-ohSg.jpeg

  14. VinceH

    Optional

    Quoting Kutcher:

    "He was also extremely unavailable to us when producing this film"

    Not just unavailable, but extremely unavailable.

    So instead of being in a meeting and unable to talk to you today, he was in a meeting in a hut somewhere in Antarctica, with no means of communicating with anyone who wasn't present.

  15. Arthur 1

    What a shock...

    A film deification of a human being, made by people who worship him, is both inaccurate and pisses off those who lived the events. No surprises here, I - and probably everyone else reasonably in touch with the industry - knew it would end this way from the first interview with Kutcher.

    I know Jobs believed his own hype later in life, but I can't help but think even he'd be utterly peeved at this.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: What a shock...

      "I know Jobs believed his own hype later in life"

      Incorrect. He knew damn well that it was pure marketing. In RealLife[tm], he wasn't like that at all. How do I know? He was a neighbor of mine in Palo Alto's Johnson Park neighborhood. No, I do not intend to see the movie, it'd probably drive me crazy.

      (If you're reading this, hi Woz! Yes, I'm that jake ;-) Look me up next time you're in Sonoma.)

  16. Stevie

    Bah!

    Everyone does understand this is a movie and not a biography, right?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Jobs 2

    Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Coat

      Re: Jobs 2

      : The Floater

      Sorry, the better angel of my nature failed.

  18. zb

    Who cares?

    Hollywood has never told an accurate real life story of anyone, anywhere or any event.

  19. Magnus_Pym

    "These are examples of Ashton still being in character"

    Best line in the article. It says so much in so few words.

  20. The Alpha Klutz

    steve jobs is gunna haunt the kids

    now that he's dead he won't have any ethical problems with coming alive in ghost form to scar children psychologically.

  21. zimblade
    Unhappy

    corporate slaver.

    Yes, Steve took his cash to the grave with him, can anyone remember him giving to any charaties. His was the largest slaver orginization in the western hemisphere. Why his employees only had to work 12 hours a day and he robbed the corporate America blind and was given a pat on the back for it. I bet the devil is enjoying steve,s company, maybe the devil and steve are looking on from Taiwan to see how many new slaves they can employ today..

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