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Autofocus
(Reviewed August 26, 2002)
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This hateful, cheesy, badly acted bio of "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane plays like a cheap made-for-cable throwaway. The most despicable thing about it (aside from the shameless way it slanders the
dead, that is) is the way it censors itself, presumably to get an "R" rating here in the alleged "land of the free."
The "hide the hide-the-salami" scenes in "Autofocus" are not finessed with any attempt at subtlety, the way Stanley Kubrick (unfortunately) inserted digital characters in "Eyes Wide Shut" to block the racy
parts. In "Autofocus," a TV playback of a homemade sex video actually is "cubed out" on the screen, the way people's faces sometimes are replaced by stacks of blurry blocks on news programs. Later, a
video playback is blurred out of focus on another TV screen that the characters in a room are watching, making nonsense of the entire scene (in which Crane and a friend are commenting on the sexual
prowess of the girl in said video).
Greg Kinnear plays Crane with a detached carelessness that is thoroughly unconvincing. Also, Crane is portrayed as too ridiculously wide-eyed and innocent at the beginning of the movie,
considering he already had been in show business for 15 years at that point (he had an L.A.-radio morning show). The on-set "Hogan's Heroes" making-of scenes don't seem to be taking place in this
universe, and the Cranes-at-home scenes (with wife Rita Wilson) are as emotionally fake as...well, as a sixties sitcom. When Crane becomes desperate for work in his later years, it becomes hard to
differentiate between what is supposed to be his slipshod performances on dinner theatre stages and Kinnear's shallow portrayal of the actor in the rest of the movie.
The movie's entire reason for existence is the fact that Crane apparently became a wildly self-indulgent sex addict during the making of his TV series, and developed a fondness for videotaping
himself doing the nasty with hundreds of Hogan-humping honeys. The problem is that Kinnear displays none of Crane's twinkly, gently sarcastic charm; he seems more like a farmboy on the make.
Colonel Klink had more savvy.
Considering that "Autofocus" was directed by Paul Schrader (writer of "Taxi Driver," director/writer of "Hardcore") and costars Willem Dafoe as Crane's partner-in-perversion, the movie should
have been a hell of a lot better than this disappointing, dippy, semi-dirty dirge. Damn!
Back Row Grade: D- (instead of an "F" because, what the hell, it does have some nudity--and it mentions "Gent" magazine, which warmed my heart)
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