Charlotte and I have just got back from taking Jude to see Bedtime Stories:
Marty Bronson (Jonathan Pryce) who raises his son and daughter on his own has to sell his homey motel to clever Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths) who promises to make Marty's son manager, when he's grown up and has proven himself. Nottingham pulls down the motel to raise a pricey hotel. Although grown up, Marty's son Skeeter Bronson (Adam Sandler) works as a janitor and general servant, but unlikely as it seems, he still dreams of becoming the manager. When Nottingham announces a brand-new gigantic hotel project, he makes his future son-in-law, base Kendall (Guy Pierce), manager, shattering Skeeter's dream. At the same time Skeeter's sister Wendy (Courtney Cox) has to leave town for a job interview and asks him to alternate looking after her two children Patrick (Jonathan Morgan Heit) and Bobbi (Laura Ann Kesling) with Wendy's responsible-minded colleague Jill (Keri Russell). He doesn't get along with either Jill or the children, but his easy-goingness loosens them all up and once he starts telling his bedtime stories, the children grow fond of him and begin to bring in their ideas about how the stories should go. When the stories turn out to become true in real life, Skeeter tries to manoeuver the stories into a direction which will make his dream come true, too.
It's sounds horrific and given the other films we've taken Jude to see in the last year (Wall-E, Kung Foo Panda, etc) I feared the worst. I was pleasantly surprised!
The stories that come to life thing has been done so many times before (Jumanji , The Never Ending Story), but this is different and funny, even though there are all the usual underdog makes it big by the skin of his teeth and love interest clichés. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.
Russel Brand was just brilliant and I was really pleased he got the girl at the end. Adam Sandler was more anti-hero than hero though really. I spent most of the film thinking he was a complete arse, but Keri Russell played the perfect love interest.
Looking though the cast list later I was very surprised to find that Aspan (the evil hotel receptionist) was played by Lucy Lawless and had lost a significant amount of weight since her Xena days. She doesn't seem to have aged either and was totally urecognisable. At least in Battle Star Galactica you could clearly hear her distinct voice.
I'd recommend this film to others with children, but I'm not waiting with any anticipation for the sequel.
Marty Bronson (Jonathan Pryce) who raises his son and daughter on his own has to sell his homey motel to clever Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths) who promises to make Marty's son manager, when he's grown up and has proven himself. Nottingham pulls down the motel to raise a pricey hotel. Although grown up, Marty's son Skeeter Bronson (Adam Sandler) works as a janitor and general servant, but unlikely as it seems, he still dreams of becoming the manager. When Nottingham announces a brand-new gigantic hotel project, he makes his future son-in-law, base Kendall (Guy Pierce), manager, shattering Skeeter's dream. At the same time Skeeter's sister Wendy (Courtney Cox) has to leave town for a job interview and asks him to alternate looking after her two children Patrick (Jonathan Morgan Heit) and Bobbi (Laura Ann Kesling) with Wendy's responsible-minded colleague Jill (Keri Russell). He doesn't get along with either Jill or the children, but his easy-goingness loosens them all up and once he starts telling his bedtime stories, the children grow fond of him and begin to bring in their ideas about how the stories should go. When the stories turn out to become true in real life, Skeeter tries to manoeuver the stories into a direction which will make his dream come true, too.
It's sounds horrific and given the other films we've taken Jude to see in the last year (Wall-E, Kung Foo Panda, etc) I feared the worst. I was pleasantly surprised!
The stories that come to life thing has been done so many times before (Jumanji , The Never Ending Story), but this is different and funny, even though there are all the usual underdog makes it big by the skin of his teeth and love interest clichés. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.
Russel Brand was just brilliant and I was really pleased he got the girl at the end. Adam Sandler was more anti-hero than hero though really. I spent most of the film thinking he was a complete arse, but Keri Russell played the perfect love interest.
Looking though the cast list later I was very surprised to find that Aspan (the evil hotel receptionist) was played by Lucy Lawless and had lost a significant amount of weight since her Xena days. She doesn't seem to have aged either and was totally urecognisable. At least in Battle Star Galactica you could clearly hear her distinct voice.
I'd recommend this film to others with children, but I'm not waiting with any anticipation for the sequel.
Why does everyone think Lucy Lawless lost weight since Xena? She's always been the same size. See at the opening titles.
ReplyDeleteLol! Must be the camera the angles and armour in Xena. ;-)
ReplyDelete