Shadow Reviews #25: Bedtime Stories (2008)

Instructions

My Review: ⭐⭐⭐ So first of all, I’m writing this review while listening to Nirvana among other songs. “Heart Shaped Box” hits good. It’s a little experiment to see how music influences my writing. Anyway, that’s not really related to the movie, just a little preface. Bedtime Stories is a film that’s entertaining enough for a watch – albeit its not a perfect film. It may seem strange to give 3 stars to Adam Sandler – way too many critics lambast his comedies – but in my own opinion, he has a natural knack for his loser role. He’s a master at playing losers, an absolute guru of the societal duds. (Now Billie Ellish is playing) We probably watch his films for him, not for the plot or premise of the film, which does give his movies an acting excuse – but they’re still funny, at least sometimes. (eh, no longer listening to music, since I took a break from writing) Let’s take a look at the characters – or er, character. Well, Sandler as Skeeter was his usual loser routine, he’s single, working a low-class job, has bad taste in clothes, stuff like that. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but Sandler is decently funny in this movie. Some of his jokes completely fell flat, while other comedic idiosyncrasies were genuinely hilarious. I did catch myself laughing a few times. “I’m not reading you those communist books!” I still don’t understand why that made me laugh, it’s not even that funny. Something about Sandler’s personality is just entertaining – but not all the time. Other jokes are pretty juvenile or rely simply on basic delivery: “For freeeeeee?” This lack of consistency is probably why critics despise Sandler, but I digress. As for the supporting characters, they were nice to watch. Russell Brand plays his role well. The hotel owner was an odd fellow, but at least he had a semblance of a character arc. The kids were interesting, they acted like kids, I guess. I don’t have much to say about the other characters because you’re probably watching this movie for Adam Sandler and not Guy Pearce. The plot was generic, but the premise was interesting. If stories could come to reality in real life, what would happen? Evidently, we’ve seen this trope before, but the film has a nice spin on it. Skeeter changes and matures (a little) and ends up happy at the end – pretty average but I didn’t really have any complaints. Skeeter was, however, really materialistic, and this in fact made him somewhat unpleasant to watch. I wasn’t really rooting for him for most of the movie, to be honest. If anything, I was happy that Brand was (spoilers) the ultimate victor at the end. Sandler was simply for the laughs and the loser stock character he needed to provide. At least I had fun watching, which I guess is the ultimate aim of a comedy? Oh, and the special effects are terrible, they were hilarious, but still terrible. Not much to say about them. It was cool when he did a jump kick from a motorcycle at the end, more movies need to do that. So, if you’re a diehard Sandler fan, watch this movie. If you’re a parent who dislikes R-rated comedies, watch this movie. If you’re the average moviegoer – eh, maybe watch this movie, I had fun watching it, and maybe you will too. What I watched it on: DVD Other critics: Rotten Tomatoes: 27% Metacritic: 33, "generally unfavorable"