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All About Steve

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For the American Dad! episode, see All About Steve (American Dad!).
All About Steve
A woman in a skirt and go-go boots holds a closed umbrella out while three men stand on her left closely observing her
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPhil Traill
Written byKim Barker
Produced bySandra Bullock
Mary McLaglen
StarringSandra Bullock
Bradley Cooper
Thomas Haden Church
Ken Jeong
CinematographyTim Suhrstedt
Edited byVirginia Katz
Music byChristophe Beck
Production
companies
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
September 4, 2009 (2009-09-04)
Running time
99 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15 million[1]
Box office$40,105,542[2]

All About Steve is a 2009 American comedy film starring Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church and Bradley Cooper, directed by Phil Traill.[3] It is distributed by 20th Century Fox. The title is a pun on the 1950 film All About Eve, also made by 20th Century Fox.

Plot

Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock), a crossword puzzle writer for the "Sacramento Herald," is socially awkward and considers her pet hamster her only true friend. Even more, Mary has two real fascinations: words and her signature red boots.

Because she has never dated anyone long term, her parents decide to set her up on a blind date. Mary is not too fond of this idea and her expectations are low, as she tells her hamster. She is extremely surprised when her date turns out to be really hot (at least in her mind). Steve Muller (Bradley Cooper) is a cameraman for the television news network CCN. Steve is handsome and charming, so Mary is immediately smitten. These feelings are not reciprocated by Steve, after an attempt at an intimate moment (outside of Mary's parent's house) bombs in part because of her awkwardness and inability to stop talking about vocabulary. Steve fakes a phone call about covering the news out of town in order to escape. Trying to get her out of the truck, he tells her he wishes she could be there - an absolute lie.

Mary believes him and decides to pursue Steve, thinking that he really likes her. Mary's obsession gets her fired when she creates a crossword titled "All About Steve," containing clues that the general public would not be able to guess because they are, as the title suggests, all about Steve.

Following her termination, Mary decides to tail Steve around the country in the hopes of winning his affection. Even worse, she is encouraged and invited by CCN news reporter Hartman Hughes (Thomas Haden Church), a strange aspiring anchorman who thoroughly enjoys torturing his cameraman, Steve. Mary annoys bus passengers so much, the driver evicts her. She hitchhikes with a trucker, then later meets and then travels with a pair of protesters - Elizabeth (Katy Mixon), a dumb but sweet and likeable girl and Howard (DJ Qualls), who sells apples he carves into celebrities. She gradually grows close to these two, in part because of similar mannerisms (e.g. using "vamoose" instead of "let's go"), their oddness as well as surviving a tornado together.

Steve and his crew end up cover a breaking news story: an old mine has collapsed with several deaf children stuck inside. Initially, the report is good - the children are rescued. Mary, who arrives on the scene on a tip from Hartman, accidentally falls into the mine shaft while making a beeline to Steve. This immediately becomes the new story - but there's a twist. It turns out not all the children have been rescued, and Mary is trapped with the one left behind. Steve begins to realize that Mary, in her own unique way, is a beautiful person.

Just as Mary figures a way out, the two are joined by Hartman, who is made to feel guilty by Elizabeth and Howard for getting Mary into this predicament. Mary's rescue plan works, but she lets Hartman take the credit for it. By this point, Mary also realizes she does not need Steve in order to be happy - she has real friends. She then states, "If you love someone, set him free; if you have to stalk him, he probably wasn't yours in the first place."

Cast

Production

Production began in July 2007.

Parts of the film were shot at Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena, California. Scenes featuring the collapsed mine and sink hole were filmed at The Walt Disney Company’s Golden Oak Ranch in Canyon Country, California.

Originally scheduled for release on March 6, 2009, the film was not released until September 4th, 2009.[5]

Reception

Critical reaction

The film received overwhelmingly negative reaction from critics. Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film 96th in the 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s, with a rating of 6%, with the consensus report saying, "All About Steve is an oddly creepy, sour film, featuring a heroine so desperate and peculiar that audiences may be more likely to pity than root for her."[6] According to another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 17%, based on 25 reviews.[7] On Film 2010 on January 12, 2010, Jonathan Ross said, "Blink and you'll miss it... I'd blink if I were you." Critics gave the film a D on Yahoo Movies, while 2600 users rated it a B-.[8]

Box office

Despite the initial prediction showing All About Steve taking #2, the film opened at number three, behind the previous two weeks' No. 1 openers, The Final Destination and Inglourious Basterds with $11.2 million.

Home media

All about Steve became available on DVD and Blu-ray on December 22.

Awards and nominations

The movie was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Director (Phil Traill), Worst Actress (Sandra Bullock), Worst Screenplay (Kim Barker), and Worst Screen Couple (Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper).[9]

Sandra Bullock accepted a Razzie award for worst actress, giving out a copy of All About Steve to each member of the audience, promising to attend next year if they all watched to consider if it was "Truly the worst performance."[10] Bullock went on to win an Academy Award for Best Actress for The Blind Side the next day, making her the first person to win an Oscar and a Razzie in the same year.[11][12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "All About Steve (2009) Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
  2. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=allaboutsteve.htm
  3. ^ www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=36457
  4. ^ Moore, Roger. Sandra Bullock's All About Steve--Keith David lands the big laugh", Orlando Sentinel, 2009-01-28.
  5. ^ Cinematical. "Release Date Shuffle: 'Steve' to Fall (Yay!), 'Haunting' to Spring (Boo!)"
  6. ^ "All About Steve Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-09-06.
  7. ^ "All About Steve (2009): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-09-06.
  8. ^ "Yahoo Movies".
  9. ^ "30th Annual Golden Raspberry Awards Nominations" Razzies.com. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  10. ^ BBC News :Sandra Bullock wins worst actress award at Razzies
  11. ^ "Oscar Winners" Oscar.com. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
  12. ^ "Sandra Bullock's Oscar acceptance speech, Razzie acceptance speech". Zap2It. 2010-03-08. Retrieved 2010-03-10.
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