Bedtime Stories

So how does a Disney movie, fit in with a reviewer that claims to have an everyman’s opinion? Well first off, I am married, so I don’t get to exclusively watch Jason Statham movies. Second, this is not just any Disney movie, this is an Adam Sandler, Happy Madison production. So how does Bedtime Stories stack up?

Bedtime Stories is directed by Adam Shankman and starts off with Marty Bronson (played by Jonathan Pryce) running a small hotel in what I would guess is a 1970’s L.A. He has two young children, Wendy and Skeeter, whom live in the hotel and help as much as a a six and eight year old can. It seems to be a happy life, for Skeeter especially; living out the fun that could be had in a hotel. They always end their night with a bedtime story from their father.

As it turns out, all is not well and the hotel is having financial troubles, so a young and very British Barry Nottingham convinces Marty to sell the hotel with the one condition being that Skeeter would run it once he is old enough. Fast forward to present day, and Skeeter Bronson (Adam Sandler) is a 40 something maintenance man working for the now very posh and much larger hotel. Wendy is a soon to be out of work principle and super health-nut mom. The hotel is run by Kendall (played by Guy Pierce) whom is a stuffy yes-man whom is currently dating Mr. Nottingham’s daughter, a Paris Hilton clone, Violet Nottingham (played by Australian actress Teresa Palmer). As Wendy heads out of town to do some job hunting, Skeeter is called in to watch her children Bobbi and Patrick during the evenings, with Jill (Keri Russell), a teacher from their school looking after them in the morning. While the kids are not super-fond of Sandler’s character at first, they warm up to him quickly after he takes a queue from his father and starts telling fantastic bedtime stories which seem to have a strange habit of coming true.

I was initially a little skeptical of this movie, given that it is a Happy Madison production released by Disney. But to be honest it really works. Sandler plays the same basic character he always does, only this time there is no mention of pot smoking or pre-marital sex. The regular crew of the Happy Madison movies makes cameos as always, including Rob Schneider, who plays the uncredited roles of Chief Running Mouth and a Pickpocket. The bedtime story scenes are very funny and well filmed. Pearce does a great job as the British kiss-up as does his fellow protagonist Aspen (played by Lucy Lawless of Xena fame). The love story ends up being pretty trivial, even by Disney standards. It seems to have been thrown in for the sake of it, and is not well thought out. Skeeter’s side kick Mickey often seems forced and really ends up detracting more then helping the comedy. The rest of the movie ends up being exceptionally genuine, and funny. As a whole this movie is not a bad date movie, and may be worth the purchase if you have kids.