All About Steve (2009)

Directed by Phil Traill
Starring Sandra Bullock, Thomas Hayden Church, and Bradley Cooper

I’ve got to give it to Sandra Bullock in 2009. She popped up in 3 movies, in 3 completely different characters, and she really did an excellent acting job in all of them. It doesn't really matter if you liked the movie or not, she is good in all of them. So, if you want to continue along these lines, then we can step outside, I'm fine with it. Let's go.

In All About Steve, she plays Mary Magdalene Horowitz, a not-so-simple-know-it-all Jewish Catholic woman who creates crossword puzzles for a living and really can’t seem to shut up. When we meet her she is about to meet Steve, a blind date, that her parents have set her up with. They meet and for some odd reason, mostly looks alone if not horniness, she decides Steve is the one. She jumps him in his Bronco he can pull out of the driveway, and he is game, that is until she begins to talk and talk and talk which, in turn freaks him out and he quickly makes up an excuse and leaves. Somewhere in his quick departure he says he “has to work” and “wishes that she could come with him”. She goes home and writes a crossword puzzle that is “All about Steve”, the taste of his lips, the color of his hair, etc. It is published and she gets fired. She sees her termination as a sign that she should go and me be with Steve and quickly runs off across the country to meet him.

Sandra does an excellent job as Mary, in fact, I really do forget that it is Sandra Bullock about 15 minutes in to the movie. Do not get me wrong, she is not going to win an Academy Award for this. In fact, no one associated with this is going to win an Oscar. It’s has a lot of faults, like most chick flicks. But, it is, in my opinion, refreshingly different. I really couldn’t tell where the movie was going even though I thought I could and can in just about every other chick flick that I have watched. There were some pretty funny moments, and it is a good turn for Thomas Hayden Church who is really always pretty great.

The soundtrack was a little odd to me. It seemed to be right out of 2000. The song that is played at the climax of the movie is by the song Train. You know the one. The one that goes, “did you wish upon....a shooting…star…something…something… something….”. I think I even heard some Sugar Ray, and maybe some that song “Be my butterfly…sugar…baby.” Maybe not. Listen to the songs…you’ll know what I was talking about.

As far as the beer goes…I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I forgot to drink a beer for this one. I even had it all picked out. It was a coffee flavored, or coffee-inspired beer, and I really meant to drink it. I just forgot. Maybe that tells you something about the movie. Maybe not. Oh well, I’ll drink it next.

Final Analysis...Sandra Bullock's acting rises above the rest of the movie...I believed she was the crazy ass character...maybe you will too maybe you want...my guess is...you'll either like this movie or think it sucked.

FORCE THE BOYFRIEND: 5 out of 10 (1 means he'll hate it, 10 means he'll like it)

Watch if you liked....The Proposal or Sandra Bullock.

Chick Flick: 3 cartons of ice cream (out of 5)
DVD: 1 pieces of milky chocolate (out of 5)
Beer: 0 manly high fives (out of 5)