3549. All About Steve (2009)

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, Thomas Haden Church

Director: Phil Traill

Running Time: 99 mins

All About Steve is an American film about an eccentric woman who, after a blind date cut short, takes to stalking the man she briefly met right across the country.

Yes, All About Steve is right up there as one of the most infamously bad films of the last few years, winning Golden Raspberry Awards galore, one of which lead actress Sandra Bullock even went to pick up in a mockery of the movie.

But, for whatever reason, I actually rather liked All About Steve. It’s no comedy masterpiece, and it really runs out of steam in its final act, but there’s something weirdly sweet about the movie, managing to turn a creepy story about stalking into a rather enjoyable, throwaway road trip movie.

There’s a lot that doesn’t work about this movie, and it certainly isn’t big on real laughs, but it has a manic, zippy atmosphere to it that makes it a rather entertaining film to enjoy with your brain turned right off, bolstered by a rather lovely lead performance from Sandra Bullock.

Again, this is the performance that Bullock won ‘Worst Actress’ for at the Razzies, but without her, this movie would have been eternally worse. Just about striking the balance between weird stalker and sweetly innocent social outcast, I found myself really coming to like what could have been a painfully annoying character.

Bullock isn’t too full-on here, nor is she ever a shrill, infuriatingly silly character, and that really salvages All About Steve from being a puerile mess and in turn makes it an often rather lovely watch.

With the exception of a painfully long and drawn-out final act, Bullock’s pursuit of Bradley Cooper across America is actually quite a fun adventure, as she encounters a variety of ridiculous scenarios and personalities that only add to the silliness of the film.

It’s no masterpiece, and certainly not a comedy that I’ll be remembering long after the credits have rolled, but I have to say that I rather enjoyed All About Steve, a perfectly passable comedy with a genuinely lovely performance from Sandra Bullock. So, that’s why I’m giving it a 6.9 overall.