Bedtime Stories Review

All the trailers and advertisements for Bedtime Stories seem to show the same things-making the movie seem like a comedy meant for kids that features Adam Sandler.  Walking into the theatre, though, my friend and I saw people of all ages; there were families with children who looked to be about four or five, and we even saw a couple who looked like they could be our grandparents.  Naturally, Adam Sandler's reputation as a comedian had brought all these people together, and with a mix of humor for all ages and humor that no one under the age of 10 would get, the entire audience seemed to enjoy the performance.

You meet Skeeter Bronson (Adam Sandler) as a young boy working in the hotel his father owns, making for a slow beginning that picks up fast once Adam Sandler actually takes over his roll of Skeeter, the hotel handy-man, and uncle to two kids, Bobbi and Patrick, who he's never met before.  The title of the movie plays in when Skeeter is left to care for his sister's son and daughter while she is away in Arizona-he takes care of nights, while his sister's friend, Jill (Keri Russell) does the dayshift.  The movie follows a classic Disney pattern-Skeeter tells stories to his niece and nephew, and it's their input that comes to life in the real world, while the people associated with "evil" in the movie get their ultimate punishment in the end, Skeeter gets the girl (Jill), and everyone lives happily ever after.  So Disney tends to have a pattern we all can follow; that's part of Disney's charm for children.  Overall I think it was a well-thought-out movie with impressive acting jobs, especially by the two children (Bobbi, played by Laura Ann Kesling, and Patrick played by Jonathan Morgan Heit), and had a good mix of scenery (Outer-space, ancient Rome, the Wild West...) and little comedic effects (like Bugsy, the guinea pig-"Those [eyes] would be big on a COW!").

The applause at the end of the movie, to me, signaled that Bedtime Stories was truly something worth seeing.  In a day when fewer people clap at the end of movies, it always impresses me when a show gets an entire audience to clap-that is something sincere, and a clear indication of appreciation.  The critics might not have appreciated the movie, but the audience sure seemed to-and in my opinion it's the people who watch the movie for entertainment that matter, not those that watch it for their career.