Synopsis: Capitalizing on his fame as the star of "Hogan's Heroes," Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) dove into the freewheeling spirit of the 60s and 70s with relish, having affairs with numerous women. Eventually, Crane teamed up with video technician John Carpenter to document his exploits, an association that may very well have led to his murder in a Scottsdale, Arizona motel room in 1978, which remains officially unsolved to this day.

Now for the Zone's Eye View:

By Laura Alber

Director: Paul Schrader

Cast: Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Maria Bello, Rita Wilson

"Auto Focus" was a promising idea for a film, but fell short of being very entertaining. The writing was very subdued and uninteresting. Greg Kinnear tried to carry the film, but not even he could save it. Rita Wilson who plays Anne Crane, Bob's first wife, was so misused as an actress and only had about 10-15 minutes of screen time. Maria Bello had a little more time, but still misused. They centered mainly on Bob Crane (Kinnear) and John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe) who was Bob's "filming buddy". The two of them made X-rated material. 

There was no characterization with anyone, including Crane, other than a very sketchy background. If this was an attempt to show who might have had motive to kill Bob Crane, it failed miserably. They could have just called it "We Believe John Carpenter Killed Bob Crane and Here's Why". As the film goes on, we miss out on all his time with Hogan's Heroes, his visitations with his children, his whole family life, everything. All we see is these two middle aged men getting their jollies making porno movies. That may have been fine for a fictional story, but I would have liked to have known more about the "real" man Bob Crane. And, not just one person's point of view, but maybe from the actual family who knew him best. 

I had high hopes for this film and awaited its release, but I was very disappointed with the final product. Everything is so sketchy and fuzzy, we don't know much more about Bob Crane than we ever did, other than he liked to buy expensive video equipment, liked to make pornographic home movies and liked to play the drums. Doesn't seem like a very good reason to sit through a 104 minute film, does it? 

I also thought the idea of having "Bob Crane" (Kinnear) doing voice over monologues was just too much. It was almost like director Paul Schrader knew the audience would be lost, so he threw in a monologue to "explain" the movie to us. A very big disappointment for such a long wait for the release. The Zone rates "Auto Focus" a 2 out of 10, mainly for Kinnear's great attempt to save the movie. 

DVD Extras: 

-Commentary by actors Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe

-Commentary by director Paul Schrader

-Commentary by producers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski and Writer Michael Gerbosi 

-Theatrical trailer(s)

-Five deleted scenes with optional director commentary

-"Murder in Scottsdale" featurette

-Making-of featurette

-Weblink