Convinced that a CCN cameraman is her true love, an eccentric crossword puzzler trails him as he travels all over the country, hoping to convince him that they belong together.
Genre(s): Comedy
Runtime: 98 minutes
Rating: 4.6/10 (1,170 votes)
Release Date: 4 September 2009
Country: USA
Languages: English
Company: Fortis Films
Sound: Dolby
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sexual content including innuendos.
Director(s): Phil Traill
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Producer(s):
Sandra Bullock - producer
Trevor Engelson - executive producer
Ted Field - executive producer
Jeffrey Harlacker - associate producer
Mary McLaglen - producer
Nick Osborne - executive producer
Writer(s):
Kim Barker - (written by)
Cast:
Sandra Bullock - Mary Horowitz
Thomas Haden Church - Hartman
Bradley Cooper - Steve
Ken Jeong - Angus
DJ Qualls - Howard
Keith David - Corbitt
Howard Hesseman - Mr. Horowitz
Beth Grant - Mrs. Horowitz
Katy Mixon - Elizabeth
M.C. Gainey - Norm the Truck Driver
Music: Christophe Beck
Sandra Bullock - producer
Trevor Engelson - executive producer
Ted Field - executive producer
Jeffrey Harlacker - associate producer
Mary McLaglen - producer
Nick Osborne - executive producer
Writer(s):
Kim Barker - (written by)
Cast:
Sandra Bullock - Mary Horowitz
Thomas Haden Church - Hartman
Bradley Cooper - Steve
Ken Jeong - Angus
DJ Qualls - Howard
Keith David - Corbitt
Howard Hesseman - Mr. Horowitz
Beth Grant - Mrs. Horowitz
Katy Mixon - Elizabeth
M.C. Gainey - Norm the Truck Driver
Music: Christophe Beck
Posted on: September 2, 2009
Posted in: Comedy
September 5th, 2009
My wife and I enjoy Sandra Bullock, and I left the movie, "All AboutSteve" impressed with the growth of her as an artist. I understood thecharacter that she played, Mary Horowitz, who is socially inept, yetbrilliant with words and information. In one sense her characterreminded me of Temperance "Bones" Brennan of the TV show, "Bones," whois clueless about how people think of her.
So for the character, Mary, to jump Steve (Bradley Cooper) on theirfirst date, and to stalk him with the misguided idea that he wants herto follow her, was believable to me since I have met people like that.Sandra Bullock took on a character that was innocent in her socialstupidity, yet made her almost believable in her irritating behavior. Isay, "almost," because she is still quite beautiful and likable. Butshe is no Johnny Depp yet when it comes to character acting.
We found the movie funny and quirky. I felt that they had a goodensemble cast, even though, Sandra Bullock was the center of the story.I don't believe it will ever be hugely popular though. It had the sameunusual character as Will Ferrall and Emma Thompson in "Stranger ThanFiction," although no where as sophisticated as that littlemasterpiece.
If you like quirky comedy, this is a good movie to watch.
September 5th, 2009
Until this afternoon I've been so hot for Sandra Bullock I'd drivefifty miles to watch a silent movie of her ironing bedsheets. Buthaving just sat through her latest movie ALL ABOUT STEVE I've downsizedthat maximum distance to ten feet (and she'd have to be ironingunderwear). ALL ABOUT STEVE seriously challenges "Miss Congeniality 2"for the title of worst Sandra Bullock film ever. This alleged rom-comis a witless, lame ragbag of slapdash clichés devoid of originality,humour or entertainment value. Ms Bullock has built her career playinglovable klutzy outsiders who overcome all manner of (usually)self-induced adversities to triumph personally and professionally. Inthe best of these ("Two Weeks Notice", "Miss Congeniality") her socialineptness has been endearing and often adorable but here it's justplain disturbing. Her character, Mary Horowitz, is unintentionallyborderline autistic. She's very intelligent but totally clueless whenit comes to developing personal relationships or appreciating how herobsession with her job (she creates crosswords for a small Sacramentonewspaper) appears to others. At one point she actually jots down hereditor's advice to "be normal" as if that's the only way she's going toremember it. When she develops a fixation with TV news channelcameraman Steve (Bradley Cooper) after a disastrous blind date andstarts following him across country from one assignment to the next theeffect is scary. Mary (who constantly refers to herself in the thirdperson) is more stalker than smitten, and completely unconvincing toboot. Bullock fails to imbue Mary with even an ounce of credibility asa character, settling instead for a weird mix of childlike innocence,demented schoolgirl and overage virgin. Imagine watching someone withno concept of the meaning of the phrase "to act" being instructed toact. To be fair to Ms Bullock her performance is no worse than thescript or Phil Traill's direction, both of which tarnish thedescription pedestrian with their lazy and total lack of effort andimagination. Rom-coms don't make any claim to be realistic nor doaudiences expect the story that unfolds to be completely plausible oreven likely. But it would be nice to be offered the possibility that itmight happen. A token gesture in the direction of believability rarelyharms an audience's ability to enjoy. For example, showing or perhapssimply suggesting that the CNN-style cable news channel Steve works foremploys more than one cameraman and reporter rather than having him andegotistical journo Hartman Hughes (Thomas Haden Church) as the soleteam dashing from one breaking story to the next across vast distancesapparently at the speed of light. As star and producer of ALL ABOUTSTEVE my beloved Sandy has only herself to blame for this execrablemess. What was she thinking?! Was she thinking? If even there was anargument for installing a fast forward button in the arm of each cinemaseat this film is it. It's ninety six minutes of my life that I'llnever recover. Do her and yourself a huge favour and remember her asshe was, and not what she's become.
September 6th, 2009
It looks like Sandra Bullock is poaching on Adam Sandler's private gamereserve with her abominably bad comedy about a misfit on-the-loose inthe real world. If you remember the kind of sweet but stupid numb skullthat Sandler played in "Billy Madison" and "The Waterboy," then you'llsee the resemblance between Bullock's flaky heroine that everybodywinds up hating soon after they meet her.
Freshman director Phil Traill's shallow comedy "All Above Steve" isabout a harmless but idiotic Jewish-Catholic spinster who earns herliving as a cruciverbalist. In other words, she creates crosswordpuzzles for her hometown Sacramento, California, newspaper. She lacks alife of her own outside her pet hamster and her own loquacity. She is amotor-mouth who never shuts up and doesn't have a clue about life. MaryMagdalene Horowitz (Sandra Bullock) wears a hair style akin to amullet, blazing red boots and prattles on about useless facts andinformation without provocation that make her look tactless as well ascretinous. Mary's charming parents, Mr. & Mrs. Horowitz (respectivelyplayed by Howard Hesseman of "WKRP in Cincinnati" and Beth Grant of"Extract" arrange a blind date for their daughter with Steve (BradleyCooper of "The Hangover") but Mary dreads it. She is so ecstatic whenhe realizes that Steve isn't gay that she attacks him in the back ofhis truck.
As they are ripping off their apparel, Steve gets a call from the cabletelevision news network where he shoots videography. His perpetuallyirate boss Corbitt (Keith David of "Gamer") orders him to cover ahostage situation at a western town studio set. Steve is only too happyto escape from the sexually aggressive Mary so he can get back to workwith the hopelessly narcissistic CCN TV newsman Hartman Hughes (ThomasHaden Church of "Sideways") and their confused producer Angus (KenJeong of "Role Models"), their confused producer. Steve, Hartman, andAngus are clearly a bunch of misfits. Corbitt wants to sack them all,but they keep turning up near stories of interest that he doesn't haveanybody else to cover. During a lull in the hostage crisis, Hartmanspots a fallen horse on the street. Believing that the horse is thefirst casualty, Hartman launches off onto a tangent about the poordeceased beast. While Hartman addresses the camera, the horse revivesitself in the background and climbs back onto its hooves while Hartmanmakes an even bigger fool of himself. Meanwhile, Mary is so elatedabout Steve that she loses her job when she constructs a crosswordpuzzle with questions about Steve that nobody can decipher. Now thatshe has nothing to tie her down, Mary decides to embark on across-country journey to catch up with Steve. Indeed, "All Above Steve"is a different kind of stalker movie. Little does Mary realize thatSteve wants nothing to do with her. Director Phil Traills loves to slipin musical reference clues to "Jaws" and "Psycho" every time that Stevesights Mary approaching. By the time that Mary reaches the scene of thehostage situation, the crisis has been resolved. She learns that Steveis now at an Oklahoma City hospital where a controversy is raging aboutan infant born with three legs. Birth defects are not exactly asuitable subject for comedy, incongruous as they are in terms of humor.Mary arrives to find a circus-like atmosphere with crowds of "pro-leg"supporters and "anti-leg" advocates taking their respective stands.During this fracas, Mary slips into the press area and gets Steve'scamera cable wrapped around her ankle so that he pulls Steve off aplatform when he is shooting Hartman's stand-up. Later, Mary meetsHoward (D.J. Qualls of "The New Guy"), who makes a living carvingcelebrity faces out of apples, and free-spirited Elizabeth (Katy Mixonof "Zombie Prom"), and they wind up driving off to catch Steve afterthe three-legged story runs out of steam.
"All Above Steve" is a screwball road comedy that celebrateseccentricity. Sandra Bullock looks and acts like she is impersonatingactress Rosanna Arquette of "Pulp Fiction" fame. "License to Wed"scenarist Kim Barker's superficial screenplay eventually has our dippyheroine following Steve to the site of a cave-in where class of deafchildren on an expedition is being rescued. Just when the rescue squadfigures that they have evacuated everybody from the hole, Mary fallsinto it on her way to hook up with Steve. Barker must have beenwatching the vintage Billy Wilder comedy "Ace in the Hole" when she waswriting "All Above Steve" because she has used the cave-in asinspiration for the finale.
"All About Steve" qualifies as Sandra Bullock's worst movie.
September 7th, 2009
The movie was 98 min. , I laughed,chuckled, giggled, guffawed for 95minutes and took a couple of breathes in the remaining 3.(I have awitness). Yes humour is a personal thing and this movie wasfabulous,characters perfect (everyone),just what the de-stress docordered.I'm go'in back for more!!!!!!!! P.S. It's a comedy folks!Likein "Blazing Saddles", "Monty Python".It's a 10 ++. Underneath all thisfun is a message for us all. There are some very interesting people outthere who are very smart,kind, generous and most of all willing to lovewith abandon (selflessly) and then there's the others ("it's all aboutme",the epicenter types). The scenario is well portrayed in thisdelightful movie, along with some very amusing stereotyping. for thosewho didn't (or couldn't laugh) find a funny bone. Loved "Mary Horwitz'slisp. Love. live , most of all laugh. Enjoy. Penny
February 2nd, 2010
[...] honours in her career this year for her performance in “The Blind Side”, her portrayal in “All About Steve” wasn’t missed by critics and earned her a Worst Actress nomination. The film itself garnered [...]