The hunk and the kook: Cooper, Bullock

Directed by Phil Traill. Starring Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church, Bradley Cooper, DJ Qualls, Howard Hesseman 12A cert, gen release, 99 min 

AFTER ALL the hype, All About Steveturns out to be a bit of a disappointment.

I should clarify. This weird, weird comedy – a commercial and critical trough in Sandra Bullock’s recent rollercoaster of a career – has received some of the most appalling reviews handed out to any US film this century. We’re talking worse than Norbit.

Big Momma's House 2was lauded by comparison. If the Americans are to be believed, All About Steveis the cinematic equivalent of genital sandblasting.

Well, it’s certainly a bad film, but it’s bad in quite an interesting way. Bullock plays a zany crossword puzzle compiler who, after a brief, disastrous blind date, develops a crush on a news cameraman named, yes, Steve (Bradley Cooper).

After losing her job for submitting an entirely Steve- related puzzle, she elects to follow the poor sap throughout the country. He turns up at a hospital to report on the birth of a three- legged baby. She’s there. He arrives at a disaster involving trapped deaf children. She’s there again. Everywhere she goes she bombards him with a barrage of anal trivia.

Attempt a film about an annoying person and you risk making an annoying film. Sure enough, Bullock's deranged perkiness fast takes on the quality of Nosferatu's fingers running down a rutted blackboard. But, as the film progresses, it (accidentally, you suspect) begins to stray into the same territory occupied by Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love.

That film wondered what a typical Adam Sandler character would be like in real life. All About Steveinadvertently asks a similar question as regards Bullock's trademark kook. On this evidence, such a character would be scary, socially uneasy and quite possibly certifiably insane.

If bad but odd films are your thing, then look no further.