Sandler the Storyteller
Two things amused me about "Bedtime Stories"; firstly the number of well known stars who appear in what is essentially and Adam Sandler movie and secondly the only difference between this and a regular Adam Sandler movie is the profanity and sexual humour is toned down whilst the obnoxious side is still there. Does it work? Well for me not really as whilst there were moments which entertained far too often I found my mind wandering and thinking about the other movies I could have watched. But I guess I am not in the target audience for this sort of movie which in fairness is very much for children.
When his sister's school is to be knocked down meaning she will have to away to look for work, Skeeter (Adam Sandler - You Don't Mess With the Zohan) is roped in to looking after his niece and nephew during the evenings. Unfortunately his sister doesn't have a TV in their home and so Skeeter is forced to come up with stories to tell the children which they enjoy so much that they help mould the stories with their own endings. Too Skeeter's shock the stories have a habit of coming true with events happening in his own life as a janitor at a mega hotel. Realising the opportunity this presents he starts to try and tell stories to help him in the real world.
So after an elaborate introduction which basically introduces us to the surprising number of stars in the movie "Bedtime Stories" basically becomes about 4 tales. We see how after making up a medieval tale for the kids on the first night strange things start to happen in real life so he comes up with other tales of the West and so on. This might amuse young children especially with lots of special effects and costumes as the tales are visualized but did little for me.
But the thing is that whilst we have these bedtime stories much of the movie is about little daft moments of humour. We have a guinea pig with ridiculously large eyes, Skeeter making breakfast and using toothpaste between two rice cakes and well to be honest I could go on but I don't have the will to.
The thing is that all of this humour is in fact typical Adam Sandler and Sandler plays a typical slacker style character that seems to bond with kids. The only difference is that whilst Skeeter is a typical Sandler slacker he is not as rude as normal with the level of humour toned down to make this safe for children. What that really means is that Sandler delivers a typical performance which is bolstered by many well known names such as Guy Pearce, Kerri Russell, Courteney Cox and Richard Griffiths, there is even Russell Brand who is not as annoying as he usually is.
What this all boils down to is that "Bedtime Stories" probably works for its intended youthful audience but for grown ups not in touch with the child inside of them it is a bit of a slog.