All About Steve

Date watched 16th January 2011
Genre- Romantic/Comedy
Year- 2009
Running Time- 1hr 35 mins
Directed By- Phil Traill
Written By- Kim Barker
Actors- Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, Thomas Haden Church, Ken Jeong et al.
Acting-3/5
Keeping my attention-2/4
Visuals/Direction- 3/5
Story/Plot- 3/6
Total 11/20

Plot

“What happens when the girl from The Proposal goes for the guy from The Hangover?”
Kooky Mary (Sandra Bullock), a cruciverbalist, (crossword creator) is set up on a blind date with Steve (Bradley Cooper, a cameraman for a news channel) by her parents. After a few minutes in her company Steve finds that the chatty and clever Mary is maybe a little bit too ‘weird’ for his liking, swiftly making up a news story to go to so he doesn’t have to carry on with this first encounter. Mary, believing she has met the man of her dreams, follows Steve, and the stories he’s covering in hope of having her happily ever after. Along her way she meets an array of sweet but often wacky characters. Will Mary have her happily ever after?

My Personal Views

Well let me tell you what happens when the girl from The Proposal meets the guy from The Hangover. Five Razzie nominations (two of which were wins, one for worst actress for Sandra Bullock and the other for worst on screen couple for Bullock and Cooper).
I will admit that this movie does have flaws, like–
1. Mary verges on the mad and obsessed at moments through the movie
2. Bradley Cooper looks a bit gormless sometimes (but he does have very pretty eyes!)
3. Some of the acting and story isn’t great
4. WHAT’S WITH SANDRA BULLOCK’S HAIR!!!
But I don’t think it was that bad. Sandra Bullock was defiantly better than a Razzie I would say, but then it was not a performance like ‘While you were sleeping’ and definitely not a patch on ‘The Proposal’.
I think that maybe this movie is a bit too long and my mind wondered somewhere in the middle, but saying that it’s only just over an hour and a half long so it perfect romcom length. The problem comes from the last third of the movie being focused on a deaf child, Mary and a mine shaft (you’ll understand if you ever see it). Surely the writer could have come up with some other way of filling this time, but obviously not. And some of the poor acting has to be laid at the door of the writer I think, they can only work with what they have given to them.
Good parts=
• Ken Jung is a good addition playing it very much straight in this (but anything would be straight compared to his character in The Hangover) which gives this a little bit more depth.
• The end is sweet and really ties up the story well.
• And the scene with the horse at the Wild West attraction is really funny.

In all not too bad and not worth all the Razzies, but it does have its moments of weirdness and makes you think ‘why?’. It’s worth a watch if you are a Sandra Bullock fan (I love her work and I pray that I look as good for my age when I’m in my 40s as Sandra Bullock does) or a complete rom com nut like me.

Additional

Apologies for my bad spelling, I was reading some of my old blogs the other day and some of the spelling is atrocious.
Good news, for me anyway. Someone, other than me, has actually read this blog!! Thank you who ever you are. And someone has even referenced the Abduction Club post on IMDB.com, my favourite web site in the whole world, which makes me so proud that my ramblings have made it somewhere in the world. Thank you everyone who may or may not be reading this right now.

Outcome

Staying in the DVD collection. As is Alex and Emma, I forgot to put that in the blog. I’m just out of practice.