All About Steve
Good comedic actors in a film that is very much not a good comedy
Tags: Misc DVD 2009 Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Dec 22nd, 2009
I wanted to give All About Steve the benefit of the doubt. I know Sandra Bullock can do comedy, and Bradley Cooper can be a decent straight man. With Thomas Haden Church, Ken Jeong, Keith David and DJ Qualls, the supporting cast seemed to be set up nicely. Sadly, a cameo by Kerri Kinney Silver (from The State and Reno 911) fails to produce some much needed laughs.
Bullock is Mary, a bit of an oddball who creates crosswords for the local paper. Large on factual knowledge but short on interpersonal skills, she takes the attention from her blind date Steve (Cooper) the wrong way. What follows is a cross country stalking spree. There’s plenty of opportunity for humor, but everything falls flat. There’s no charm to Mary’s quirks, a few jumps in logic, and the ending just… ends. There doesn’t seem to be any real sotry here, as Mary is just as weird at the end of the film as the beginning, and nothing has changed for any of the characters.
Let me describe the care and attention that went into the special features. On the second of three pages (because apparently the technology doesn’t exist to include 10 menu items on a single screen) there is the item of Bradley Cooper and Ken Jeong’s goofball ad-lib song, with or without audio commentary. I checked out the songs, which is the two of them goofing around in front of a green screen which showed a series of (mostly deleted) scenes from the film. Then I checked out the commentary which established the setup for this item. At the end of the piece the discussion was simply cut off – mid sentence. I’m not griping because this piece was filler, but that the optional audio commentary for it was prematurely cut off. Why bother putting it in there if you’re not going to give any regard to those people that might want to check it out? The care and attention given to the special features seems in line with the rest of the film – lacking.
Not funny, not romantic, pass on All About Steve. Even fans of Bullock and Cooper will have a hard time sitting through this one.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + Bradley Cooper is a good straight man | 1.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Not funny - Lousy organization of special features - No "spark" |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Not worth renting. | |
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Tags: Misc DVD 2009
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Dec 22nd, 2009 and is filed under DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
