MOVIE REVIEW - All About Steve

Finally, the new Sandra Bullock film All About Steve is in the theaters this weekend. They've been threatening to bring this out for about a year, and here it is. Another Bullock comedy that looks amazingly like a lot of other Bullock comedies.

You're going to hear buzz about this being the worst movie of the year, and you can be rest assured...it is not. Not even close. So far this year there have been many, many worse. But that doesn't mean AAS doesn't have troubles.

Bullock plays Mary Horowitz. She is a socially awkward, crossword puzzle author, who works for the Sacramento Herald. Her life includes writing the weekly puzzles for the paper, and not much else. She has a blind date with Steve (Bradley Cooper) and falls for him at once. He does not fall for her at all. In fact, he can't wait to get away from her and her flapping yap. He is a news cameraman for a national news service and he travels around chasing major stories for the network. She follows him, and basically becomes a stalker. Although the joke being on her, she has no idea that she is viewed as such. And well, you can probably get the point here. The laughs are at her expense.

To be fair, there are some really funny moments here, and there are some moments of feeling for Mary. She sees only through her naive eyes, and the world is spinning too fast for her. But these moments are too few and way to far between. Where this movie misses with me is simply this. Mary is not awkward enough. She is obnoxious though, and there's a big difference. She is filled with useless knowledge that she can't stop spewing to everyone in earshot. She also is chronic talker in this movie with half the lines not really funny. To me, this doesn't make her awkward, it makes her irritating.

The idea here is way better than the end result. If Mary is a more awkward, we develop a real empathy for her, and root for her a little more mightily. The gaping flaw in this movie is that, it tries so hard to be so funny, that it doesn't ever grow a heart. They threw all their energy into a comedy that isn't funny, and dabble in a little sensitivity. And overall, it misses the mark. This idea could get a do-over and be much better. Making Mary a little more..under doggy, and not going for cheap laughs that don't come. The problem here is not the cast with Bullock, Cooper and the very funny Thomas Haden Church, it's the writing plain and simple. It's not good, and the picture suffers.

All About Steve. This movie will have an audience. There was a big crowd the today, and some out loud laughter. Over all, a good idea. The result, misses the mark.