ALL ABOUT STEVE (USA 2009) *
Directed by Phil Traill

ALL ABOUT STEVE is the special crossword created by crossword puzzle constructor Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock).  Horowitz is smart, pretty but a social disaster. 

It all starts with a blind date set up with news cameraman hunk Steve (Cooper) Mary thinks the chemistry is undeniable and just knows she’s found her soulmate. She stalks him to the ends of the earth or from one disaster to another, since Steve travels from one end of the States to the other covering natural disasters. 

Half way during ALL ABOUT STEVE, it will dawn on the audience that Horowitz character is so annoying that she will probably not get her man.  The funniest thing about this movie is that 10 minutes near the close of the movie, it will dawn on the audience that this romantic comedy is NOT a romantic comedy after all.  The film shifts gear and accelerates off on a tangent.  With so much research going into the information spurt out by Horowitz, scriptwriter Kim Barker should have used the time to research what makes good comedy.  Her previous LICENSE TO WED script was no better.  Perhaps there is no analogy in life that can be related to a crossword puzzle as assumed in the script.

Bradley Cooper is charming in the film and works convincingly as the good-natured prey.  But Thomas Haden Church (as the news reporter Hartman Hughes) is no comedian as he has also proven in the unfunny flick, IMAGINE THAT.  Ken Jeong (as Hartman’s sidekick) should have denounced his Asian role as the visible minority abused to no end in this movie.  And Sandra Bullock should be shot for allowing this to go on!

With all the effort put into this film, everyone tries really hard especially Bullock, ALL ABOUT STEVE should have amounted to something.  The film traces the characters travelling from one ground breaking news to another as the sub-plots and comedic set-ups move ironically from one catastrophe to another.

Director Phil Traill gained recognition in the film world with his comedy short called DANGLE in which a man discovers on a snowy hill that a cord leading endlessly up into the sky is actually the light switch of the world.  Someone should have just pulled the switch off on this Sandra Bullock movie.

And did I forget to mention that the film is not funny?