My Review: All About Steve (3/10)

¨You missed the bus probably because you're not meant to take it.¨

(3/10) If you haven`t seen this movie yet then I would take that quote from All About Steve and change the word bus for movie, and the word take for watch and it would say the following: You missed the movie probably because you`re not meant to watch it. I should have listened to this piece of advice and skipped All About Steve. I didn`t go see this movie at the theater because it looked dumb, so I watched it on DVD later. It was a bad idea. My recommendation for those who haven’t seen the movie yet is to stay away from it because it is one of the worst movies of the year. Sandra Bullock`s character is so annoying that it gives you a headache just to watch her. She will not stop talking for a second and after a few minutes you feel like turning off the TV or pushing the mute button on your control. Bullock did such a good job at creating this annoying character that you feel like running away from her along with Steve- the co protagonist of this story. Phil Traill directs this movie which was written by Kim Barker, the same person who wrote License to Wed, and yes All About Steve is just as bad as that movie. I don`t understand how she is still given opportunities to keep on writing these bad scripts, and the worst part is that she didn`t even improve after the terrible License to Wed. The dialogue is just terrible. The truth of the matter is that this movie only sold because of Sandra Bullock and the only way to pitch it to the audience was saying that it was produced by the people who brought you Miss Congeniality, because there wasn`t anything else positive to say about it. They should have warned us that it was written by the same person who brought us License to Wed, at least a heads up would have been good.

This is Sandra Bullock`s third feature film this year and this is by far her worst movie. As a matter of fact both The Proposal and The Blind Side which also were released this year were good movies (she got acting nominations for her role in both of them). Bullock isn`t to blame however, she was successful in delivering the character that she was asked to play, but it was just way too obnoxious for the audience to handle. In All About Steve she plays Mary Horowitz, a single adult in her late 30`s who still lives at home with her parents. She works for a local newspaper writing crossword puzzles and because of this she seems to be a human dictionary, she knows the meaning of every word and she won`t stop talking about it when given a chance. Her parents have arranged a blind date for her with their neighbor`s son, Steve (with a v, not ph) played by Bradley Cooper (who has also released several movies this year such as The Hangover and He`s Just Not That Into You). He meets her and discovers that she is somewhat of a nut case and makes up a story that he has to go to Boston to cover a news story in order to get rid of her because he works as a cameraman for CCN. While trying to be polite Steve says that it would be nice to meet up with her again some other time and Mary takes those words literally and decides to travel the country following him and the news team. His partners at work make fun of the situation at first, but later Hartman Hughes (played by the very talented Thomas Haden Church from Sideways), the reporter who is always competing to stand out from his other colleagues, realizes that he can use her knowledge of words and history and encourages her to follow them against Steve`s will. The plot continues to get more and more ridiculous from this point on as we are introduced to some other uninteresting characters and situations.

There is no doubt that Sandra Bullock is a great actress and she has proven it this year with some good movies, but it is also true that good actors can`t do anything if they are not given a decent script which is the case with this movie. Bullock, Cooper, and Haden Church are all great actors, but they are given the wrong instruments in order to stand out. The only reason that I gave it 1 ½ stars is because the movie works in some level as a satire on news and each time that the movie pokes fun of this industry I got a few kicks out of it. However Bullock`s character is so annoying that you just want to get up and leave the moment you are introduced to her. All of a sudden near the end of the movie she seems to miraculously change her behavior and act more normal which is a common tactic in these films in order for the audience to sympathize with her. All About Steve has several flaws and it just didn`t work for me. My advice is: skip this ridiculous movie.