All About Steve

Who would have guessed that the teaming of Sandra Bullock, who scored in The Proposal, and Bradley Cooper, so terrific in The Hangover, would result in a prime candidate for Worst Picture of the Year? Incessantly chattering Mary Magdalene Horowitz (Bullock) is a cruciverbalist (creator of crossword puzzles) who lives with her Jewish/Catholic parents (Howard Hesseman and Beth Grant) in Sacramento, CA, and always wears the same red go-go boots. She's supposed to be adorable, but she isn't; she's psychologically disturbed—and extremely annoying. So it's understandable that when her parents fix her up on a blind date with Steve (Cooper), a cameraman for a cable news network, he's quickly turned off by her motor-mouth blathering. But Mary's revved up and ready to run after him—to a hostage crisis in Tucson and a protest at an Oklahoma City hospital, where “pro-leggers” are arguing over whether to amputate a baby's third leg. Then she's off to Galveston, encouraged by Steve's colleague, Hartman (Thomas Haden Church), where she falls down a mineshaft with a deaf child (Delaney Hamilton). Screenwriter Kim Barker labors to find supposed humor in birth defects and stalking, while director Phil Traill clumsily tries to wring laughs out of every awkward scene. Not only is Sandra Bullock wretchedly miscast, but she did it to herself as one of the film's producers. Twice, Mary lists the three elements of any successful crossword puzzle: “Is it solvable? Is it entertaining? Does it sparkle?” If those criteria were applied to this irritating comedy, the last two answers would be no and no. Not recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary (with director Phil Traill, writer Kim Barker, and costars Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church, Bradley Cooper, and Ken Jeong), a Fox Movie Channel's “Life After Film School with Phil Traill” featurette (24 min.), a “Hollywood Dish with Mena Mitcheletti” spoof featurette with Kerri Kenney-Silver (18 min.), an “All About All About Steve” making-of featurette (11 min.), deleted/alternate scenes (10 min.), a gag reel (6 min.), a “Crew Snapshots to Mary's Rap” photo montage (4 min.), a “Bradley Cooper and Kim Jeong's A Capella Duet” scene with optional commentary (2 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a bonus digital copy of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a major comic misfire.] (S. Granger)