Bedtime Stories: Gimme the hot babe, the cash, and the red Ferrari.
Written: Jul 18 '09 (Updated Jul 20 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros:
Consistently funny
Bugsy has real star potential
Cons:
Somewhat formulaic Sandler effort
The Bottom Line:
Bedtime Stories is a cute, likable, consistently funny movie. One of Adam Sandler's better efforts.
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| WulfsDen's Full Review: Bedtime Stories |
Bedtimes Stories stars Adam Sandler as a not too bright, somewhat downtrodden, nice guy who, by a combination of dumb luck and worthiness, manages to win out in the end. This is a totally unique concept except, of course, for almost every other Adam Sandler movie. This is one of his better efforts, so if you liked any of the others, you will probably love this one. The babes are hot, the villain is loathsome and inept, the special effects are first rate, and the funny bits are very funny. It even has a Guinea pig. So what's not to like? Four stars and strongly recommended.
What? Your still here? Don't tell me you want the details. It's an Adam Sander movie, for Pete's sake. Oh well. I suppose.
Many years earlier, Marty Bronson (Jonathan Pryce) owned a small motel where he raised his two children, Skeeter and Wendy. Cash flow problems force him to sell out to mega rich developer, Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths) who wants to build a huge luxury hotel on the site, but not before Barry promises to let Skeeter manage the new hotel someday.
Skip to the current day where Skeeter (Adam Sandler) works as the maintenance guy in the huge hotel. Barry now wants to build an even bigger hotel, and plans to put the current hotel manager Kendall (Guy Pearce) in charge of it. Kendal is also engaged to Violet Nottingham (Teresa Palmer), Barry's rich-hottie daughter. Kendal is, of course, a rat. He and his girlfriend, the snotty hotel receptionist Aspen (Lucy Lawless) are simply after Barry's money.
Meanwhile, Wendy (Courteney Cox) is divorced and looking for a new job. She wants Skeeter to help watch her two kids Patrick (Jonathan Morgan Heit ) and Bobbi (Laura Ann Kesling ) and their huge-eyed Guinea pig, Bugsy, while she is out of town. Skeeter hardly knows the kids, since he came to the conclusion that Wendy's ex-husband was a loser much sooner than she did, and punched him out. Consequently he has not seen the children in four years. Wendy has also arranged for her super-hot tree-hugging friend Jill (Kerri Russell) to take care of them during the day. Lucky trees!!
Being somewhat at a loss with the children, Skeeter decides to tell them bedside stories like his father used to tell him. Imagine his surprise when, on the following day, a weird series of events makes some of the less likely parts of his story come true. Catching on quickly, Skeeter tries to steer future stories to his advantage by adding hot babes, loads of cash, and a red Ferrari to his tales, but the kids have imaginations of their own and the stories take surprising and sometimes dangerous twists. What follows is unpredictably predictable, and mostly hilarious. Russell Brand is also excellent as Skeeter's crazy friend Mickey.
Unfortunately, as fans of SNL will know, Adam Sandler has a penchant for somewhat adolescent potty humor, and he has not totally managed to keep that in check. However, the booger jokes and the like are just in poor taste, rather than being truly offensive, so there is little for parents to worry about. Even the obligatory appearance of Rob Schneider is not too traumatic. However, the fantasy segments that occur when a story is told are wildly imaginative and full visual humor, as well as sly backhand references to pop culture, so kids will laugh themselves silly, and parents will laugh even more. I think it would be perfectly safe to allow kids to watch this movie without supervision, but why would you want to?
Bedtime Stories was ably directed by Adam Shankman. His handling of a fairly big-budget special effects movie is quite surprising, since most of his prior direction has been for TV. Still, while the budget and the effects may have been a stretch, the actors must have seemed very familiar, since almost all the leads have starred in successful series -- SNL, Friends, Xena and Felicity, to name but a few. And, as you may expect from the black-box crowd, while no ones acting particularly stands out, everyone carries their role well enough to tell the story. Of course, Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Richard Griffiths (Harry Potter series) are no strangers to blockbusters or special effects. Those viewers into cameos should keep their eyes peeled for Adams lovely wife Jackie, his daughter Sadie, Baywatch hottie Carmen Electra and football legend Bill Romanowski.
While the eventual outcome of Bedtime Stories is expected (as any good bedtime story should be), the way it reaches its conclusion is anything but predictable. This movie is cute, likeable and consistently funny. The exciting parts (yes, there are exciting parts) are well done too. I particularly like the montage of special effects in the final chase sequence, which reprises many of the effects in the preceding stories, rather like the themes repeating at the end of a symphony. Very well done.
As I said before, if you like any Adam Sandler movie, you will probably love this one. It is certainly the best one I have seen since 2004's 50 First Dates. I gave it four stars, but it only lost the star for being somewhat formulaic in a Sandler way. I would really like to see Adam move a little further from his comfort zone. However, I must admit that if Bedtime Stories was the only Adam Sandler movie that I had ever seen, I may well have given it five stars.
Recommended:
Yes
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