Video Review: 'Steal This Movie'

It's a measure of this biography's misplaced decorousness that it tells the story of Abbie Hoffman — '60s political provocateur and ringmaster of pointed, absurdist activism — using that hoariest of conventions: the journalist uncovering his subject's past. Steal This Movieenters Hoffman's life during his six years underground, and trots out every calcified cliché of the era through interviews and flashbacks. Even at half what it'll cost to rent, this well-meaning mess is no bargain. C-