“SANDRA BULLOCK ON CRANK”
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church, Bradley Cooper, Ken Jeong, and D.J. Qualls
Directed by: Phil Traill
MPAA Rating PG-13 for sexual content including innuendos.
Genre: Romantic Comedy
By John Delia
The movie All About Steve can be summed up with a quick quip; It’s “Sandra Bullock on Crank.â€Â The movie starts out with an absolutely great beginning that had me laughing at every turn, but midway though the film Bullock’s character becomes very annoying and the film spirals downward to it’s barely credible predictable ending. It’s one of the movies that they should charge half price.
Mary (Bullock) is this highly intelligent single middle-aged woman living with her parents and she makes up crossword puzzles for a living. Got the picture? Well it is even scarier than that, she talks incessantly and hasn’t been out with man for a very long time. Her parents are very supportive of their daughter and on this day when the film begins, they have set up a blind date for her with a news cameraman.
That evening after of strange day of indecisiveness about her date the hour is upon her. When she sees Steve (Cooper) her body goes into horny mode and
in a hilarious sexually charged attempt at getting the best of her date, things take an unpredictable turn. Although the initial reaction to Mary has been good up till then, Steve gets the feeling that he is being taken advantage of. Not to be rude he puts her off by faking a phone call and telling her that he has to go to work because there is breaking news. In the meantime he leaves by saying that he would not be opposed to seeing her again. When Mary shows up at Steve’s news shoot, things start going from bad to worse for the cameraman.
There’s a lot more to the story, but to tell you more would just spoil any good scenes the movie holds. And that is my only problem with it in the first place, an excellent premise, Bullock doing her best to make her character over the top, but no directorial control as to the degree of absurdity.
I did like the acting of Bradley Cooper and Thomas Hayden Church as the inept field news camera team, but even that got a little ridiculous and trite. The only shining element in the film is Cooper’s performance as Steve and the look on his face while being attacked by Mary. It is totally devilishly priceless!
All About Steve is rated PG-13 for sexual content and innuendos, which really helps the film from total failure.
FINAL ANALYSIS: See this film if you must, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. (2.5 of 5 Palm Trees)
For more on Bradley Cooper, follow this link to our interview with him for THE HANGOVER: