Bedtime Stories

Say what you will about MOST Adam Sandler movies, Bedtime Story is actually pretty funny. Give it a shot.

Skeeter is a guy that worked hard all his life for a hotel his dad used to own. He's got high hopes to gain full control over it some day as that was promised to his father by the new owner. Many years have gone by and he's still in a low position though.

Due to circumstances Skeeter has to take care of his niece and nephew for a short while and the young kids prove to be a bit of a challenge for him, but he manages to do it. They demand a bed time story every night, and he gives it to them. He makes up stories himself, but soon all kind of weird things start happening.

And so on. The film rolls on like any typical Disney film. There's the backing story of a "hero" having to "rescue" some people in distress, there's the villain and the regular injustice. Added to that is the funny implications of what happens when a made up story becomes true. This addition gives this film some good laughs, and all in all it works out well enough, worthy of cinema time but not much more than that.

6 out of 10 gum-ball rain showers

"What if the stories you told came to life?" Bedtime Stories Promo

Having suffered through Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), I was prepared to suffer through Bedtime Stories, his offering in the 2008 Christmas glut of fine movies that have few for kids. Sandler rules: This is one of the best children/adult stories this year, an ironic twist on romantic and heroic tales told from children's point of view through the masterful child/adult lens of an underplaying, child-friendly master.

Sandler's Skeeter Bronson takes care of his niece and nephew for a week. Of course he hasn't a clue because he hasn't seen them in four years and his job as super-maintenance man at the Sunny Vista Hotel in Las Vegas consumes most of his time and energy. He's the usual Sandler sweet-hearted semi-loser with reserves of child-like sympathies ready to be released.

The conceit is that after telling the humorous tales with the kids' ample and creative input at bedtime, the story elements become real in real life, altered to fit the modern context (e.g., a rain of gumballs actually happens the next day, explainable by a candy truck spilling its contents over a bridge onto Sandler). In this ingenious way, the film recalls the Wizard-of-Oz trick of making real in Kansas what Dorothy had experienced in the Emerald City.

There is nothing deep about this delight, just a small satire of a society that may be losing its sense of wonder and fun in order to bow at the altars of nutrition and commercialism. Not bad for a film I thought would be another Sander nodder. It woke me up to the joys of imagination and love.

Happy holidays.

Bedtime Stories' script is magnificently written. It has huge character arcs, tent poles, and humor. It can't get better. Only, it feels, at times, it overdoes a little. Overdoes the character arcs, the fiction. It, sometimes, becomes not believable, which is the only complaint I have from the Writer. I can even count the many times it has overdone such moments.

Now, Adam Sandler, has done a remarkable job. He stands tall, gives his best and delivers yet another amazing characrer with a spectacular movie.

Of course, family movies can get way better than this one is, however, it keeps gripping the audience right till the end. Nonetheless, the climax is exceptional too.

The thing about Bedtime Stories is that it is light, funny, easy to digest and all around great for the whole family.

It's just like any other Sandler's movies except this one doesn't contain any only-for-adults jokes.

It might not be the movie I'd recommend to someone who is in for something serious or something that is seriously funny, but this movie has got it all. There's comedy, slight drama and a lot of action; from cowboys to the outer space.

Great writing and great acting.

Really, there's nothing to complain. It's just a very entertaining family movie, which we don't get a lot these days.

I recommend Bedtime Stories to any Disney fans and also to anyone who'd enjoy Adam Sandler's movies, minus the sexual and dirty jokes.