Bedtime Stories

Venue - Cineleisure

Food - I had a hotdog dammit

A new year is here and here we have a new Adam Sandler movie lurking in the bushes. But what’s this we see? It’s a joint production with Disney? Are kids really ready for barf, fart and loser jokes all at the same time? Are adults ready for a cross eyed hamster and laugh machine galore? Either way, you’d better buy some hot dogs before you get into the cinema.

Most of the film's budget went towards animating a crappy pet

The movie revolves around Skeeter Bronson (Adam Sandler) who works in a hotel and aspires to one day run an actual hotel of his own. The only problem is, he’s only a handyman. One day, Skeeter’s sister has to go out of town for job interviews. He is then entrust to take care of his lil’ nephew and his lil’ niece while their mother is out of town. Being the loser uncle that he is, taking care of children does seem like a chore and the only form of entertainment he can come up with are his Bedtime Stories. But what starts out as merely tall tales and fantasy, soon start to turn into reality as Skeeter realises that the very stories he tells them the night before, come to life the very next day! ZOIKS!

Multicoloured gumballs were always popular at Gay Pride Parades

Putting aside the fact that it’s a Disney movie, there are loads of trademark Adam Sandler type of humour in this film. You’ve got the typical “I am a loser” type of jokes as well as “the moral of the story is..”type of Disney feel to it. It is a good mix and its not surprising that this isn’t the first time Adam Sandler had dived into the children genre (he did a cartoon a while back called 8 crazy nights). Most of his friends are in this film as well so do expect a lot of trademark jokes. On the hindsight, this probably isn’t his best work but with other crappy movies out now, this doesn’t seem like such a bad pick. I would recommend you to at least watch it and you should come out smiling and feeling a bit hungry.

Rating – 3/5

Is nothing like - Bedtime Stories by Madonna

The Spirit

Location – Berjaya Time Square

Been a while since I last went to the movies to watch anything worth reviewing. Think during the past month or so I’ve been more likely to watch a couple of animated features (some even in 3-D) than to have a go at anything remotely serious. So what better way to welcome the New Year then with Frank Miller’s version of an old comic classic by Will Eisner entitled The Spirit.

My City. My Soul. My Vi.

The story is fairly simple. The Spirit is a mask crime fighter in Central City and is hell bent in keeping the city safe from evil. You won’t actually know much about this red neck tie crime fighter except that he is a vigilante who works very closely with the police commissioner. And just to spice things up a bit, the Spirit has an arch-nemesis named The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson). As the story progresses, you will learn that most evilness that is going on is quite closely related to The Octopus and his daily activities. TA-DA!

Low cut dresses usually invited some form of ass grabbing

I know what you’re thinking. Was that really the bulk of the story summarised in 2 minutes? Actually, I wouldn’t say that’s the whole story but unfortunately, that’s pretty much all you need to know if you decide to spend your hard earned cash on this movie. The movie does start out with a bang but slowly falters into the abyss of nowhere. The Spirit doesn’t really have a 24 hour battle with various baddies, but more of decent conversations with them. I guess in a way this movie is like going on a date with that hot chick you’re really into but come date night, you realise that she doesn’t really talk much, has very little knowledge about current affairs, and doesn’t seem to get most of your well rehearsed jokes which you have so conveniently googled the night before.

The casting is alright (Eva Mendes, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson) but for a Frank Miller movie (Sin City, 300) you’d really expect a better storyline. Most people were leaving just before the movie crossed the halfway mark. Think everyone felt that the movie wasn’t really going anywhere and I suppose sneaking into another movie (Bedtime Stories, Beverley Hills Chihuahua, Brainscan : Aku Dan Topi Ajaib) seemed like a better option.

Ratings – 1.5/5