It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Greg Kinnear plays radio personality turned actor Bob Crane this biopic of the troubled 'Hogan's Hero' TV star. The film examines Crane's desire to break into feature films and how his silver screen dreams were thwarted by his constant philandering and strange relationship with an early pioneer in home video equipment called John Carpenter (no - not the 'Halloween' director). Fascinating as the sound stage scenes are with the sets of 'Hogan's Heroes' meticulously constructed and Kurt Fuller absolutely nailing Col. Klink, the film is at its best when the dynamics between Crane and Carpenter are in focus. At times, they seem best buddies, at other times possible lovers, and during Crane's ego trips, questions arise as to who is using who. Less than half the film is dedicated to their friendship though and while the scattered dream/fantasy sequences work well (particularly a part in which Crane hallucinates and thinks he is actually in a German stalag), there is often little to distinguish 'Auto Focus' from other biographical films out there. Never to mind, it is solidly acted enough to be engaging from start to finish. All the insight into the early days of home video technology is pretty neat too and there is a lot to like about director Paul Schrader taking the more challenging approach of focusing on Crane's life as opposed to the mysterious details of his death.

Grew up watching reruns of "Hogan's Heroes" with my family, and always enjoyed Bob Crane. Very talented and underrated man, in many ways. Unfortunately, sometimes a descent is concomitant with a rise. This film does a good job presenting Crane's descent into the underground sex scene of the '60s and '70s, which may have led to his untimely and still officially unsolved murder in Scottsdale, AZ. The details have been disputed by many, but the broad strokes are all present. A tragic end to a wonderful entertainer. Great job by Greg Kinnear as Crane, with a fine supporting cast, fitting soundtrack, and some memorable dialogue.

After several television appearances, actor Bob Crane landed the starring role of Hogan's Heroes, a television series which ran from 1965 to 1971. The majority of baby boomers will remember it well. After the series ended, Crane made several unsuccessful attempts at continuing his television career, including his own television series: The Bob Crane Show was canceled after just 15 episodes in 1975. He was reduced to the dinner theater circuit in the mid to late 1970's when he eventually was murdered in cold-blooded fashion on June 29, 1978. How did he go from television star to obscurity in a matter of seven years? Paul Schrader's film Auto Focus suggests it was Crane's debauched lifestyle that did him in. After Crane's bloodied and bludgeoned body was discovered, police found a large number of home made sex videos with Crane and his friend John Carpenter.Greg Kinnear stars as Bob Crane, the penultimate likable guy and radio DJ, circa 1964. Kinnear has Crane down perfectly, except you have to wonder if Crane was really that superficial or was the script just that superficial? Schrader suggests that Crane really was that shallow, and Crane's pornographic fervor fueled his career decline. Crane never realized it as witnessed by the script's closing narration given by Kinnear as Crane after his death. Despite the support Crane received after death from his second wife about changing his life around, it seems like Crane became a pariah in the industry, increasingly shunned for his inappropriate behavior as an out-of-control womanizer disconnected from reality. The film's "Celebrity Cooks" appearance, which Crane filmed 6 days before he was killed, makes this apparent.Willem Dafoe stars as John "Carpy" Carpenter, the electronic technician working on the cutting edge of the dawning video age. Crane's association with Carpenter drew him deeper into a world of hedonistic sex and pornographic home movies. The film seems to be ambiguous to a certain extent regarding the catalyst for pushing Crane over the edge, but he had already built up a collection of nude magazines of the day, including Gent, Swank, and others. However, director Paul Schrader indicated Hollywood didn't corrupt anybody, but it allowed corrupt individuals to continue their corruption. I agree with Schrader's assessment. The cinematography uses picturesque Norman Rockwell types of colors and settings in the early part of the film, and then it slowly gravitates to darker hues as the film progresses and Crane's personal turmoil becomes more apparent. The fantasy sequence when Crane's Hogan's Heroes' set collides with his personal demons is just one of these darker moments. Kinnear and Dafoe are both interesting enough to carry the film, and as with most of Schrader's films, the supporting cast is excellent. Rita Wilson, as Crane's high school sweetheart and his first wife Anne, is prim and proper in a 1960's sort of way. Maria Bello is fantastic as Patricia, Crane's second wife he married on the set of Hogan's Heroes. Ron Leibman is great as Lenny the agent who increasingly warns Crane to tone down or hide his personal life or his career will suffer. Ultimately, it's a film that draws no conclusions about Crane's murder or passes no judgment on Crane's wild lifestyle. It's simply a sad story about a likable guy who never realizes his addiction to sex and the effect it has on his career and those around him. It's also a film about exploiting celebrity status for one's gain and the unending number of seemingly ordinary people who are only too willing to be hoodwinked by individuals with barely a modicum of celebrity status. Schrader continues his string of disturbing portraits of male protagonists with sexual ambivalence and hangups. Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, Jake VanDorn in Hardcore, Julian in American Gigolo, Paul Gallier in Cat People, Yukio Mishima in Mishima, Robert and even Colin in The Comfort Of Strangers, Wade Whitehouse in Affliction, Alan Riply in Forever Mine, and now Bob Crane in Auto Focus. The sexual dichotomy in Auto Focus is much more extreme than in the other films, and Crane's rise and fall parallels the innocence to cynicism transition American society underwent from the mid 1960's to the late 1970's at the time. Michael Gerbosi wrote the script based on Robert Graysmith's book: The Murder Of Bob Crane. *** of 4 stars.

I've noted my problems with Paul Schrader's films before (too many beautiful compositions, too much arranging the posture of depth without being deep) but this is his biggest embarrassment to date. No one should have given it any rating but "total bomb." I can only hazard a guess that Schrader's Calvinist upbringing, left him with a lifelong obsession with morality and the punishment of sexual transgressions (Taxi Driver, American Gigolo, Comfort of Strangers, Mishima, Hardcore, this). All of his movies could be called The Scarlet Letter: Part 11, 12, 13, etc. He wants to show us people boning on film, but figures he can't without the free pass of a simpleton moral message. So this timorous man continually seeks out stories about salacious or tawdry lives. He does it to underscore morality, but after so many of these teasing films, one also gets a clear picture that Schrader is endlessly horny & envious of his subjects. So what's worse; a character-ruining obsession with porn, or a similarly obsessed director leering at these people?This movie is the Hollywood version of an after-school special. It's "Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Drug Abuser" with sexual addiction swapped in as the issue. It's construction is absolutely shallow. Schrader never gets around to anything BUT the moral message. There is nothing else to it. The point is so utterly obvious the movie is craving other activities to enrich it. Kinnear is miscast as are others (Has the actor playing Richard Dawson viewed even a frame of him in action? Bea Arthur is more like Dawson) and one gets the sense that Schrader wants to revisit the era, mood and accolades of Boogie Nights, but he can't orchestrate anything as complex.If I had one wish for Paul Schrader it would be that he'd have mind-blowing, bone-shaking sex without a shred of guilt about a hundred times in the next few months. Maybe then he'd stop pounding viewers over the head about temperance and restraint. He's not developing an oeuvre, he's just beating a dead horse.There probably was an interesting, thoughtful movie to make about Bob Crane. This ain't it. This is the dumbest, most artless film I've seen in about a year. A special pan goes to the graphic designer who came up with the humorous retro 50's DVD menus. I can't think of less fitting or appropriate visuals for this movie. I'm finished now ...but I think we all learned a valuable lesson. (< sarcasm)