Written by Matt Whiteley, the movie is bookended by scenes of the middle-aged Jobs, doing what some believed he did best: pitching new products. Fuzzed up and hunched over, Mr. Kutcher looks somewhat like the young Jobs, and there are moments — as when he gives another character a small, devious look as if sliding in a knife — that the casting seems more than a matter of bottom-line calculation. But Mr. Kutcher doesn』t have the tools that some actors use to transcend weak material and either he didn』t receive any help or didn』t allow any real direction from Mr. Stern. Mr. Kutcher』s tendency to cap so many emotional scenes with small, self-satisfied smiles is especially unfortunate because they can』t help but bring to mind his other career as a pitchman for digital cameras.
sliding in a knife，這個要是你沒有看到過類似的表達，你大概完全猜不出它到底是什麼意思，事實上sliding knife是一種刀，中文應該叫伸縮刀（滑刀？還是啥？不確定，就是可以伸縮的，可以直接pop out，刀片從刀鞘裏突出來），聯繫前面的 small, devious look，這裡說的應該是喬布斯的演員盯著別人看的時候，那透露出惡意的小眼神就像伸縮刀的刀片一樣，鋒利且危險，時不時突出來要你命的那種，你感受一下，這種類似的玩文字遊戲（還有雙關等、）的把戲在這文章裏多次出現，沒有熟悉這種寫法的讀者就不能順暢閱讀，但多讀幾篇我想問題應該不大。
transcend weak material ，辭彙三千的都知道這兩個詞（軟物質），相對應strong material，前者是如布、羊毛紗這類的東西，後者是如玻璃杯這類的東西，就是指物質的軟硬程度，但這裡肯定不是軟物質，超越軟物質？傻子都知道不是這個意思，所以這時一個讀多了的老油條就知道放飛想像力了，前面作者剛剛嘲諷過庫徹（喬布斯演員）演技不行，這裡接著便寫到，但他又沒有Tools去transcend weak material ，所以老司機可以腦補出來，就是演技不行，還沒有其它法子去戰勝這個缺點，接著作者又立刻解釋原因了，either he didn』t receive any help or didn』t allow any real direction from Mr. Stern.（要麼他不接受幫助，或者他不接受Stern給他的任何指導，:-)活該演技爛啊！）
cap sth with sth，一般讀者知道cap有帽子的意思，有些還知道有山頂的意思，比如snow-capped(頂部被雪覆蓋的),我給翻成白雪皚皚，多有情調啊:-)，但你要是想像力不夠豐富的話，cap so many emotional scenes with small, self-satisfied smiles 直譯成 用自我滿足的笑去蓋住情感的場景 ，我去，鬼知道這是什麼！你應該有想像力一點，給譯成 尤其不幸的是，庫徹碰到感情戲只會用那自鳴得意的假笑敷衍了事，讓人忍不住想起這傢伙之前就是個推銷數碼相機的。
