Today's review was actually supposed to be a double feature as well, as the kids and I watched both Bedroom Stories and City of Ember, however I wasn't as impressed with City of Ember as I thought that I would be - the kids enjoyed it, and I rated it 3 stars on Netflix, it's just that I don't feel that it's worth blogging about.
With that said, here are my thoughts on Bedtime Stories:
Genre - Comedy/Family/Fantasy
Year Released - 2008
Running Time - 99 minutes
Directed by Adam Shankman (who also directed The Pacifier and the 2007 re-make of Hairspray)
Written by Matt Lopez (who also wrote Race to Witch Mountain as well as the upcoming The Sorcerer's Apprentice) and Tim Herlihy (who also wrote a ton of Sandler's earlier films, including Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, Big Daddy, Little Nicky, and Mr Deeds)
Cast Includes:
Adam Sandler (who was in each of the above movies written by Tim Herlihy as well as Airheads, Bullet Proof, 50 First Dates, and of course - my favorite - You Don't Mess With The Zohan)
Kerri Russell (Honey, I Blew Up the Kids and The Upside of Anger)
Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential, Memento, and Ravenous)
Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon from the Harry Potter films, Sleepy Hollow, and Goldeneye)
Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall)
Courtney Cox (Monica from Friends, the Scream films, and The Tripper)
Teresa Palmer
And of course, Rob Schneider makes a cameo [as both an Indian and a thief]
Rating: 4 Skulls
Plot Summary:
Skeeter Bronson is a down-on-his-luck guy who's always telling bedtime stories to his niece and nephew, and whose life is turned upside down when these fantastical stories suddenly turn into reality. Now, all the outrageous characters and situations that Skeeter has ever imagined have morphed into actual people and events in his life. But can he manage his own unruly fantasies now that they've come true?
Review:
The film starts off, in 1974, narrated by Skeeter's [Adam Sandler] father, who owns the Sunny View Motel. When the motel is bought out by Mr Nottingham [Richard Griffiths] Skeeter's father asks that when Skeeter becomes a man, he be able to run the motel. . .
Jump to the present day where Skeeter is indeed part of the Nottingham Sunny View Motel, however rather than running it, he is the handy-man for the motel.
When Skeeter's sister [played by Courtney Cox] informs him that the school where she is principal is closing and she needs him to watch her children, he accepts. Another teacher at the school [Kerri Russell] has agreed to watch them during the day, while Skeeter watches them at night.
This is where the "bedtime stories" come into play. [you've all seen the trailers, I'm sure - if not, check out the one below] so I am not going to go into great detail there. Just know that the stories are pretty much Skeeter's life fantasized with Medieval, Western, Gladiator, and Sci-Fi settings.
The core of the story revolves around Mr Nottingham wanting to build a better and more grand hotel. He plans on having Kendall [played by Guy Pearce] run the new hotel. [Reason being is that Kendall is dating his daughter, Violet - think Paris Hilton] However when Mr Nottingham asks Kendall to come up with a "theme" for the hotel, the best that Kendall is able to come up with is a "Hard Rock" type of theme. When Mr Nottingham isn't impressed, he informs Skeeter that if he can come up with a better theme than Kendall, then he can run the new hotel. . .
There is more to it of course, but that is all you need to know, for now :-)
Here's the trailer:
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8 comments:
I didn't see Bedtime Stories, I'm just not interested in Adam Sandler in general, but I did see City of Ember (and actually did work up a review of it) and I agree that it's pretty disappointing. It had such great promise—and I really must check out the book—but just came across as inert and half thought-out on the screen.
(If Netflix offered "half-star" ratings, would you have given it two and half skulls instead of three? Netflix really needs more gradations. Flat out "five stars no halves" is too granular for me.)
i honestly thought that bedtime stories was one of the worst films i`ve ever seen, it really was total garbage. It seems to me that nearly all modern comedy films are either embaressingly unfunny or murderously offensive or both.
Ryan,
I too plan on eventually checking out the novel that City of Ember is based upon [I believe that it actually became a series of 4 books]
As for Netflix, their 3 star rating is equivalent to "I liked it", where their 2 star rating is equivalent to "I didn't like it" so a 1/2 in-between would work best, as I was torn between liking it and not liking it - I gave it 3 stars, more for the fact that Netflix will then perhaps inform me of a similar children's movie that I may be unaware of. My children did enjoy the film, more than I did, so the rating is more for them :-)
I am going to go check up your write-up now. . .
J
Snob,
May I ask if you have children?
I think that perhaps has something to do with my rating [similar to what I told Ryan, above]
Children aside, I personally would have only rated the film 3 Skulls, but I have to factor my children's thoughts into my rating as well, as the film is more geared towards them.
As for comedy, I do not think that the film is meant to be laugh-out-loud funny, more of an adventure, happy-ending type feel. Overall, I enjoyed it, for what it was. Sorry to hear that you did not, but therein lies why we blog about what we watch :-)
J
I have, also, occasionally rated a film on Netflix higher than I feel I actually enjoyed the film because of how I think it will affect my recommendations. I've given a lot of five-star reviews to movies that in the my actual world would never get anywhere close to that.
Ryan, I still try to rate my Netflix choices as closely as possible - I don't want them recommending crap! ;-)
J
mr. bonebreaker, i dont actually have any kids myself (although i`m still reasonably young, and as my name would suggest i do intend to get married and have a family at some point, its just that i`ve spent such a long time just watching horror movies and not really doing much else) but i understand what you mean when you said you have to take your own childrens opinions about films into account when rating them (although i still have to say that it still surprises me to hear that you would have still given the film a 3 skull rating even without taking your childrens opinions into account, yes, thats just how truly unendurable i thought "bedtime stories" was). I think its also quite interesting that i thought "city of ember" was truly superb perhaps worthy of a 4 and-a-half skull rating on your ratings system (in fact the only thing that stops me from giving it the 5 skull rating is the slightly weak ending) its also got all the makings of a cult movie. Now, how about this for the definitive ratings system: 0=a totally unwatchable abomination, absolutely appalling, 1=just plain rubbish, 2=almost mediocre but not quite, 3=mediocre, 4=almost a good film but not quite, 5=good solid entertainment, 6=better than good but still not quite good enough to be excellent, 7=excellent, superb, etc, 8=better than excellent, outstanding, marvellous, but still not quite a masterwork, 9=quite simply a masterwork, 10=unmittigated genius beyond all imagining, only a few films in history would be worthy of this rating. Well there it is perhaps the ultimate film rating system, and the good thing about it is you dont really need any half ratings (except maybe for those incredibly awkward and difficult to rate movies).
Snob,
It is pretty funny how our differences are totally opposite, regarding Bedtime Stories & City of Ember :-)
As for your rating system - If I used a 10-point rating system, I would ask your permission to use yours, it is that good - well done!
J
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