PLOT: Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear), the charismatic one-time star of hit sitcom 'Hogan's Heroes', used to (early adopter) video himself having sex, with women he met on sleazy theatrical tours. Then his geeky, needy, creepy partner-in-swinging John H. Carpenter (Willem Dafoe) may or may not have bashed his brains in with a camera tripod.CONTEXT: As you'd expect - nay demand from a pr0n-addict film - there's a lot of T'n'A, ie late sixties-style stripping, in Auto Focus. If there weren't, it would be very boring indeed. Many people, celebrities or not, indulge themselves in this sort of thing, so the only thing that makes Bob's story different and not boring is that he met a violent death that officially remains unsolved. His videos were extremely fuzzy, it would appear.SCRIPTING: We've seen the 'washed-up actor pleads with agent' (and he steals it) scene before; we've seen the 'washed-up a*hole has acrimonious divorce' many times. John 'Carp' Carpenter's alleged motivation for smashing Bob's skull is the only character development available, and maybe because they couldn't actually state that John did it explicitly, it's kind of contrived. The movie has no climax (no money shots either).OTHER: The story is weak and melodramatic, but the casting of the Hogan's crew is uncanny. I actually thought it was Werner Klemperer. And the vintage video gear is something to slather over when you're tired of the quasi-hardcore teasers. Is Auto Focus relevant or meaningful in these days of freely available hardcore? It knows who it's talking to, is all.SUMUP: But even pretend explicit sex invariably breaks the fourth wall, and If you're going to break the fourth wall, do it on purpose, not because you're trying to do pretend pr0n. Odd title, too. You can imagine this without seeing it.

"Auto Focus" (2002) covers the last fifteen years of Bob Crane's bizarre life. Crane (Greg Kinnear) was best known for the role of Hogan in Hogan's Heroes, which ran from 1965-1971. The story details how he meets and befriends a video expert named John Carpenter (Willem Dafoe) around the time he gets the gig for Hogan's Heroes. Bob is soon seduced by the temptations of being a big star; "free sex" is the sin du jour of the era and Crane can't resist the scores of beautiful women who want him. Unlike Crane, Carpenter isn't a star and isn't very good-looking, but he's able to continually pick up women simply due to his friendship with Bob. During and, especially, after his popular TV show, Crane experiences a downward spiral as he becomes entangled in the web of loose sex. By June, 1978, he was dead at 49.The movie's based on Robert Graysmith's book "The Murder of Bob Crane: Who Killed the Star of Hogan's Heroes?," which – believe it or not – depicts Crane's plunge into sexual immorality even worse than seen in the movie.Director Paul Schrader is a writer and/or director of quite a few critically acclaimed films, like "Taxi Driver" (writer), "The Mosquito Coast" (writer) and "Hardcore" (writer & director). Speaking of "Hardcore," that film also addresses the subject of sexual hedonism and, in my opinion, is the superior film, mainly because of the fascinating father/daughter relationship that develops between a staunch Calvinist conservative (George C. Scott) and a young lost prostitute (Season Hubley). This isn't to say, however, that "Auto Focus" isn't good, just that it's not as good in my opinion as "Hardcore." If you can handle the sleazy aspects, "Auto Focus" maintains your attention and the actors do a quality job.If you have the DVD, be sure to watch the corresponding documentary on Crane's death and the most obvious culprit, John Carpenter (although there's still the slight possibility that someone else did it).Rita Wilson and Maria Bello are also on hand as Crane's wife and mistress/new-wife respectively. Michael E. Rodgers plays Bob's somewhat nemesis, Richard Dawson.PS: I know someone who worked as a waitress at an A&W in my area during the mid-70s when Crane was forced to do traveling theater work to earn a living, as shown in the movie. She waited on him and another guy and Bob was his typically amiable self, but with a decidedly smart-alecky edge. He didn't leave her a tip! The film runs 105 minutes and was shot in California and Arizona.GRADE: B

I can't imagine how this film has been given such a high rating here. Kinnear didn't come close to capturing Crane's confidence or charisma. His performance made Crane look like a hen-pecked Baptist; not the cocky man who dripped sheer hubris his Hogan character portrayed.The only good thing I can say about this film is that it would have given Ignatius J. Riley hours and hours worth of highly satisfactory mocking privileges.Kinnear appears to be a one-dimensional actor incapable of putting together a performance that doesn't remind viewers of his sniveling role in Little Miss Sunshine or his less than suave Dr. David Ravell in Nurse Betty.

Back when Rob Lowe and Tommy Lee were in grade school, Bob Crane was blazing a self-destructive trail with technical help from his friend, John Carpenter. I didn't grow up with the show "Hogan's Heroes" so seeing this film and reading Robert Graysmith's excellent book "Auto Focus: The Murder of Bob Crane" were eye opening experiences. A gadget man to the stars, John insinuated himself into the lives of Bob and others looking into late 60's audio-video equipment. The beginnings of home video are shown innocently through the kids playing in the Crane house. And then diabolically, with big daddy on the town (and all over America), as the obsessive duo travel on the strip joint and dinner theatre circuits, meeting hundreds of willing women who may or may not have been aware of the full extent of their sex partner's camera oriented games.Eventually, even Bob realizes he's gone too far and wants to change the bounds of his enabler's role in his life. And then it gets deathly dark! If you're aware of this film, you know how it ends. What's disturbing is how we get there. Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe are both awesome in their portrayals of Crane and Carpenter. Two shallow men reached the ends of their ropes and we are left with the sick conclusion that Crane's murderer was probably his "only friend".