iSteve

This article is about the Steve Jobs parody film. For the journalist who uses "iSteve" as his online brand, see Steve Sailer.
iSteve
Directed by Ryan Perez
Written by Ryan Perez
Starring Justin Long
Jorge Garcia
James Urbaniak
Michaela Watkins
Distributed by Funny or Die
Release dates
April 17, 2013
Running time
79 minutes
Country United States
Language English

iSteve is a 2013 parody film released on April 17, 2013 (delayed from April 15)[1] by producer Funny or Die,[2] marking their first full-length movie.[3] It claims to be the first biopic on the life of Steve Jobs after his death. The film stars Justin Long as Jobs and Jorge Garcia as Steve Wozniak.[4] The movie was written in three days and shot in five by Ryan Perez, a former Saturday Night Live writer.[3][5]

Cast

In order of appearance

  • Justin Long as Steve Jobs
  • Art Evans as Ol' Mose
  • Juzo Yoshida as Otogawa
  • Brian Huskey as Professor Palladino
  • Jorge Garcia as Steve Wozniak
  • Allan McLeod as Allan
  • Avin Das as Homebrew Member
  • Ben Parks as Homebrew Member
  • Madeline Wager as Homebrew Member
  • Paul Walter Hauser as Pastey Jones
  • Kevin Pedersen as Twitchy Kyle
  • Jason Sheridan as No-Eye-Contact Eric
  • Michael R. Carlson as Skip Palewater
  • James Urbaniak as Bill Gates
  • Michaela Watkins as Melinda Gates
  • Jake Regal as Bill
  • Mike Leffingwell as Randy
  • Ben Rodgers as Chris
  • Jesse Klein as Mike
  • Andy Maxwell as Andrew
  • Anne Rieman as Joanna
  • Jennie Pierson as Susan
  • Barak Hardley as Dan
  • Danny Jelinek as Don
  • Darcy Carden as News Anchor
  • Bryan Safi as Bill Lagattuta
  • Matt Mazany as Apple II Consumer
  • Ian Pfaff as Apple II Consumer
  • Antonio Scarlata as Apple II Consumer
  • Jill Donnelly as Annie Leibovitz
  • Steve Tom as Don Commodore
  • John Ross Bowie as John Sculley
  • Josh Fadem as Rod
  • Joe Hartzler as Robert Palmer
  • Carly Layne as Garage Sale Customer
  • Brad Schultz as Garage Sale Customer
  • Darnell Layne as Garage Sale Customer
  • Charles Ingram as George Lucas
  • Won Lee as Technician
  • Andree Vermeulen as D'arcy Wretzky
  • Paul Rust as Billy Corgan
  • Dashiell Driscoll as Woodstocker
  • Darryl Gudmundson as Woodstocker
  • Juliet Seniff as Woodstocker
  • Ben Sheehan as Woodstocker
  • Anthony Gioe as Justin Long
  • Chris Poole as Apple Engineer
  • Doug Anthony Jones as Apple Engineer
  • Caleb Swyers as Apple Engineer
  • Erin Gibson as Box Office Reporter
  • Alex Richanback as Antz Fan
  • Sean Boyle as Delgo Fan
  • Chris Mills as Woz's Boss
  • Joe Ferrell as John Hodgman
  • Nick Corirossi as Dell Dude
  • Kyle Mooney as Father
  • Gavin Pierce as Young Steve Jobs
  • Andrew Grissom as Stanford Grad

Crew

Critical review

As a free release on the Internet, the movie went unseen by film critics, with most public reactions coming from tech and business bloggers.[6][7] According to Forbes, early reviews are mixed.[5] Wired reviewer Mat Honan stated that the movie was "profoundly unfunny" and that "If 'Funny or Die' is a promise, the crew should probably start coffin shopping."[8] Honan claims that the film has several inaccuracies but also notes that the film is a parody, which somewhat offsets that.[8] CNET reviewer Amanda Kooser also notes that the movie "cut a few corners as far as accuracy goes".[9] Kooser notes that the film succeeded, in a sense, in beating Ashton Kutcher's Jobs to market as the first Steve Jobs biopic after his death (Pirates of Silicon Valley had been produced and released in 1999, 3 years after Jobs returned to Apple).[9] Kooser also notes that the movie had rampant anachronistic technology term usage.[9] Variety reviewer AJ Marechal notes that the movie, which was written in three days and shot in five,[3][5] "has funny its moments", but that it may be "too long", especially for the Funny or Die viewership.[3] The New York Times critic Brooks Barnes described the movie as a "biopic poking fun at biopics" and said that writer Ryan Perez said "In true Internet fashion, it’s not based on very thorough research — essentially a cursory look at the Steve Jobs Wikipedia page".[10] Barnes also noted that the movie also bested a third Jobs movie in the works by Aaron Sorkin adapted from Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson with input from Wozniak to the market.[10] Fortune reviewer Philip Elmer-DeWitt describes the movie as " an over-long Saturday Night Live skit that never quite gets rolling", but noted it had a few things going for it.[2]

Macworld reviewers Dan Moren and Lex Friedman provided one of the few positive reviews describing the movie as a humorous Jobs biography that "...is surprisingly amusing, provided you are both a fan of Apple and of stupid comedy, and presuming you also don’t mind a little profanity sprinkled in for good measure."[11] Forbes reviewer noted that the scheduled April 15 release was delayed 2 days due to the Boston Marathon bombings.[5]

Notes

  1. Erickson, Christine (2013-04-02). "Funny or Die's Steve Jobs Biopic Releases April 15". Funny or Die. Retrieved 2013-04-17.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Elmer-DeWitt, Philip (2013-04-17). "Review: Funny or Die's 'iSteve'". Fortune. Retrieved 2013-04-17.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Marechal, AJ (2013-04-17). "‘iSteve,’ Funny or Die’s First Long Form…Too Long?". Variety. Retrieved 2013-04-18.
  4. Li, Anita (2013-04-17). "Funny or Die's Steve Jobs Biopic 'iSteve' Debuts Online". Funny or Die. Retrieved 2013-04-17.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Guglielmo, Connie (2013-03-17). "Funny Or Die Releases Steve Jobs' Mockumentary Called 'iSteve'". Forbes. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  6. "Sorry, no results found for "isteve"". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2013-05-03.
  7. "No search results found. Did you mean Steve?". Metacritic. Retrieved 2013-05-03.
  8. 8.0 8.1 Honan, Mat (2013-04-17). "A Review of iSteve. Spoiler Alert: This Movie Sucks". Wired. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Kooser, Amanda (2013-04-17). "Accuracy, schmaccuracy: 'iSteve' props go hilariously wrong: The makers of satirical Steve Jobs film "iSteve" take a liberal approach to computing and Apple history.". CNET. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  10. 10.0 10.1 Barnes, Brooks (2013-03-17). "Funny or Die Makes a Steve Jobs Movie". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  11. Moren, Dan and Lex Friedman (2013-04-17). "Review: Funny or Die's iSteve will tickle Apple fans". Macworld. Retrieved 2013-04-19.

External links