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Jane Horwitz

"All About Steve" (PG-13, 1 hr. 39 min.)

Sandra Bullock clearly wants to branch out as an actress and one should applaud her for taking risks. In the case of "All About Steve," a determinedly offbeat character comedy with a clever premise, the risks pay off for a while, but then the film goes for cheesy laughs and a cliched feel-good ending. It is frustrating to watch and unlikely to appeal to teen audiences because the satire, when on target, aims at cultural issues that adults will more likely appreciate. These include the epidemic of know-nothingism in our culture and the coarsening and exploitation on cable news.

The film contains one semiexplicit, though comical, sexual situation that's a bit much for middle-schoolers. There is other understated sexual innuendo, occasional crude language, and midrange profanity. The film's frequent and gratuitous ethnic and racial stereotyping of supporting characters has little to do with the narrative. There are cable TV-style news stories depicted: a hostage situation, a tornado, a hurricane, a legal dispute over a baby with three legs (never shown), and deaf children falling into an abandoned mine. No one is hurt.

Bullock plays Mary Horowitz, a brilliant and highly eccentric designer of crossword puzzles -- a "cruciverbalist," to be precise -- who lives with her parents (Howard Hesseman and Beth Grant) and never dates. She always wears bright red knee-high patent leather boots and talks nonstop to the point of psychosis (which the film never deals with). She thinks everyone wants to hear every factoid and synonym she can offer.

Mary is thrilled when a blind date turns out to be Steve (Bradley Cooper), a handsome cable news cameraman. She literally jumps on him in his car. He can't wait to get away from her, but Mary thinks he wants her to follow him on the road. She publishes a puzzle titled "All About Steve" that gets her fired, so she has time to follow Steve. The amoral reporter he works with, Hartman (Thomas Haden Church), encourages Mary to stalk poor Steve. Other oddballs -- among them supporters of that baby keeping its extra leg -- are the only ones who seem to appreciate Mary. Then she lands in the middle of one of Steve and Hartman's disaster stories.

Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages

-- OK FOR MOST (BUT NOT ALL) KIDS 6 AND OLDER:

"Ponyo" G -- This ravishing, wildly imaginative fable by the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki ("Howl's Moving Castle," PG, 2005; "Spirited Away," PG, 2002) has English dialogue voiced by American actors and offers rare delights for most kids 6 and older. Miyazaki tells a complex story, though, and the film's 5-year-old hero faces dangers that could scare some kids under 8. Based loosely on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," it begins with a goldfish who swims away from her father, Fujimoto (voice of Liam Neeson), an undersea wizard. She washes up near a seaside town and is rescued by a 5-year-old boy named Sosuke (Frankie Jonas, the Jonas Brothers' 8-year-old sib). He puts her in a pail of water, names her Ponyo, feeds her, and is shocked when she starts to talk (voice of Noah Cyrus, Miley Cyrus' 9-year-old sis). Terrified that Ponyo will turn human, Fujimoto sends an army of fish to snatch her. Ponyo uses magic to become a real girl and return to Sosuke. His puzzled mom (Tina Fey) takes the little girl in. There are scary storms and dark images, but it all passes like a great watery dream with a very happy ending. One angry phrase, "Bug off!" is used, and Sosuke's mom seems to grab a can of beer.

-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:

"Shorts" PG -- "Shorts" offers raucous, chaotic fun for kids 8 and older, though inspiration and energy wane in the last act. It's told in chapters that jump around the way a kid might say, "Wait, wait, I forgot to tell you that such-and-such happened first!" Comic-bookish special effects show rampaging crocodiles, swooping pterodactyls, and, for grossness, a giant booger with an eyeball in it. There's bullying, but for comic effect, not mental anguish. Director Robert Rodriguez lets kids take the lead, as he did in his "Spy Kids" trilogy (all PGs). In a town called Black Falls, everyone works for mean Mr. Black (James Spader). His snarky daughter Helvetica (Jolie Vanier) and her brothers torment Toe Thompson (Jimmy Bennett), nerdy son of Mom (Leslie Mann) and Dad (Jon Cryer) Thompson. Into their lives drops a multicolored "wishing rock" found by a kid named Loogie (Trevor Gagnon). When Toe wishes for "friends," it produces tiny UFOs piloted by aliens who cook for him and clean his room, but also destroy his science class. The rock always creates more havoc than happiness. Some scenes could worry kids under 8. One kid is swallowed by a croc, then vomited back up, and the bullies pelt Toe with rocks. The film ends on a kinder note and reminds us to be careful what we wish for.

-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"All About Steve" (NEW) Sandra Bullock clearly wants to branch out as an actress and one should applaud her for taking risks. In the case of "All About Steve," a determinedly offbeat character comedy, the risks pay off for a while, then the film goes off the rails. It is frustrating to watch and unlikely to appeal much to teen audiences because the satire, when on target, aims at cultural issues adults will appreciate more. The film contains one semiexplicit, though comical, sexual situation that's not for middle-schoolers. There is other understated innuendo, occasional crude language, midrange profanity and gratuitous ethnic and racial stereotyping. There are cable TV-style news stories that involve a hostage situation, a tornado, and deaf children falling into an abandoned mine, but no one is hurt. Bullock plays Mary Horowitz, a brilliant, highly eccentric designer of crossword puzzles, who lives with her parents and rarely dates. She wears bright red patent leather boots no matter what the season and talks nonstop. She's thrilled when a blind date turns out to be handsome cable news cameraman Steve (Bradley Cooper). He can't wait to get away from her, but Mary thinks he wants her to follow him on the road. Egomaniacal reporter Hartman (Thomas Haden Church) encourages Mary to stalk Steve. Only other oddballs seem to appreciate Mary, until she lands in the middle of one of the cable news crew's disaster stories.

"My One and Only" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) -- Glamorous, self-absorbed Anne Deveraux (Renee Zellweger), fed up with her philandering New York bandleader husband (Kevin Bacon), empties her safe deposit box, buys a Cadillac convertible, takes her teenage sons out of school, and hits the road. It's the 1950s and her aim, as a 40ish Southern belle, is to find a rich man willing to marry her. She encounters instead a broke alcoholic (Steven Weber), an abusive military man (Chris Noth), a mentally ill bigamist (David Koechner), and her own judgmental sister (Robin Weigert). The younger boy, George (Logan Lerman), wants to be a writer and misses New York and his dad. The older boy, Robbie (Mark Rendall), who has a different father, has ambitions to act and is happy to stay with his mother. Zellweger poses and pouts but doesn't summon up much feeling. The film has affecting moments, but feels tedious and long. It's based on actor George Hamilton's childhood memories about his mother. OK for high-schoolers, but unlikely to intrigue many of them, it contains midrange profanity, drinking, smoking, subtle gay themes, and a scene in which Anne is arrested for "soliciting" in a hotel bar. There is a brief threat of violence.

"Post Grad" -- A smart college grad named Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel, "Lena" in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" films, a PG in 2005, and a PG-13 sequel in 2008; and Rory on TV's "Gilmore Girls") discovers it's not so easy to get a great job the day after you get your diploma. So she moves back with her oddball family (Carol Burnett as her cranky grandmother, Michael Keaton as her boyish dad, Jane Lynch as her understanding mom, Bobby Coleman as her eccentric kid brother). Her childhood pal Adam (charming Zach Gilford), who is, of course, in love with her, tires of waiting. Ryden's handsome next-door neighbor (Rodrigo Santoro) offers a brief romantic fling. All this sounds corny, yet the cast is so invested in their characters and the script and direction so sharp, that the movie is truly entertaining. There are a couple of steamy but nonexplicit sexual situations, wine and beer-drinking, midrange profanity and crude humor, jokes about death, gratuitous Latino stereotypes, and a gag about Dad accidentally running over a cat that some will find unfunny. More for high-schoolers who like their humor just a little offbeat.

"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" -- Fueled by impressive digital effects, this futuristic war flick will likely entertain action-loving teens. It is mindless, but it has style. There are cool battles around the Eiffel Tower and under the polar ice cap. The violence is nongraphic, but there is much loud and explosive destruction. People's heads are probed by long needles in laboratory scenes. In the prologue, a glowing hot metal mask is placed on someone's face as punishment. The script uses midrange profanity. In the near future, an arms manufacturer named McCullen (Christopher Eccleston) has a new nanotechnology that can attack tanks, planes and guns by "eating" the metal they're made of. Of course, McCullen is bent on world domination. An American general (Dennis Quaid) is wise to McCullen and intends to use the supersecret G.I. Joe unit to stop him. Ace soldiers Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) join the unit. Duke learns that his estranged wife (Sienna Miller) now works for McCullen.

"Julie & Julia" -- A sizable minority of high-schoolers may appreciate this celebratory adult-focused fable. It tells parallel stories -- one based on Julie Powell's book and blog about how, in 2002, she challenged herself to make all 524 recipes in Julia Child's cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," and the other based on Child's autobiographical "My Life in France." The modern scenes tell a genial fable with Amy Adams as a charming Julie, but the savory main course is Child's life in Paris as a diplomat's (Stanley Tucci) wife after World War II, when she indeed mastered French cooking. Meryl Streep is wondrous as an idealized, funny Julia Child. Writer/director Nora Ephron's film floats easily between mid-20th century Europe and 21st-century Queens. There are a few strongly implied but nongraphic marital sexual situations and mild sexual innuendo. There is heavy smoking, drinking, tipsiness, rare but occasionally strong profanity, and a reference to suicide.

-- R's:

"Extract" (NEW) -- A funny, slightly mean-spirited spoof of American malaise at home and in the workplace, "Extract" is geared to grown-ups. It brims with dry wit, irony, and dead-on characterizations, but not in snarkiness or cheap laughs. Jason Bateman plays Joel, the owner of a successful little factory that manufactures food flavorings such as almond extract. His assembly line workers goof off too much. His wife Suzie (Kristen Wiig) is always too tired to make love, and his annoying neighbor (David Koechner) keeps pushing tickets to the Rotary Club dinner. Joel tells his troubles to Dean (Ben Affleck in hippie hair), his bartender pal. Dean suggests hiring a moronic young gigolo (hilarious Dustin Milligan) to seduce Suzie. If Suzie goes for it, then, Dean says, Joel has the moral all-clear to cheat on her with his new temporary hire, Cindy (Mila Kunis of TV's "That '70s Show"). But we know from earlier scenes that Cindy is a con artist who threatens the very existence of Joel's factory. The film plays recreational drug use for laughs and includes semi-crude sexual slang, drinking, strong profanity, and a subtly implied sexual tryst.

"Taking Woodstock" (NEW) -- This good-hearted, beautifully observed story about the transformed lives of stunned locals on the fringes of the huge, messy invasion of half-a-million young people during the 1969 Woodstock festival should fascinate high-schoolers 16 and older interested in the '60s. Note that the film has frontal nudity, subtly implied sexual situations (both hetero- and homosexual), and portrays drug use, hallucinations. Other elements include drinking, strong profanity, ethnic and homophobic slurs, and brief mayhem. Director Ang Lee ("Brokeback Mountain," R, 2005) always puts character first, which pays off here. The film is based on Elliot Tiber's 2007 memoir. The young Elliot (Demetri Martin) was a not-quite closeted artist. When we meet him he's trying to help his passive father (Henry Goodman) and savagely defensive mother (Imelda Staunton), both refugees from World War II, to salvage their bankrupt cottage colony in the Catskills. When he hears that a nearby town has revoked its permit for a music festival, Elliot calls the producers and offers his town. A dairy farmer, Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy), rents them his land. The film offers charmed performances and distant wisps of great music.

"Inglourious Basterds" -- High-schoolers 16 and older who delight in Quentin Tarantino's flamboyant, mayhem-laced filmmaking style will surely get onto this wildly implausible but wholly arresting yarn -- even if they don't catch all his allusions to other movies (including the misspelled title, taken from a 1978 Italian film). There is graphic violence -- scalping, throat-slitting, skull-bashing, guns. There is a brief graphic sexual situation, strong profanity and much drinking and smoking. Brad Pitt, with a peanut-butter-thick Southern accent as Lt. Aldo Raine, leads a squad of Jewish-American soldiers into occupied France on a mission of bloody revenge. They ambush German soldiers and collect their scalps. (This is Tarantino's riff on war movies, not history. He loots the Holocaust to tell his tale.) In the prologue, an oily SS man, Col. Landa (Christoph Waltz), scares a French dairy farmer into admitting he's hiding a Jewish family. Only one young Jewish woman (Melanie Laurent) escapes Landa's machine guns. Later in Paris, under an alias, she runs a cinema and realizes she could burn the entire German high command during a premiere at her theater. She's unaware that Raine and others are plotting to do the very same thing.

(c) 2009, Washington Post Writers Group.

This news arrived on: 09/04/2009

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