COMEDY; PG, 1hr 39min
STARRING: Sandra Bullock, Bradley Cooper, Thomas Haden Church, Ken Jeong

With her unflattering shag and scarlet boots that scream Help Me, bright-spark cutie Bullock (The Proposal) is in graceless motormouth form as Sacramento Herald crossword constructor Mary Horowitz. Mary is a sad case: she lives with her parents (Howard Hesseman and Beth Grant), she doesn't have a man and — third strike — she's a wired mine of information who can't seem to shut up. Then Mary falls crazy in love with a cable-news cameraman (The Hangover's Cooper as Steve), who she meets on a brief but excruciating blind date. Steve counts himself lucky to escape (wouldn't we all), but Mary is fixated and takes off after him cross-country as he films stories hither and yon.

We're supposed to find this unhinged act of stalking adorable, but newsflash: it's a massive embarrassment to watch and a universally degrading shocker for the cast, Haden Church and Jeong (as a puffed-up reporter and frazzled producer) included. The real moral of the story is that there are no magic bullets in Hollywood, even if you are fresh off major hits. And guess what? We all already knew that.
Andiee's Rating: *