A hotel handyman's life changes when the lavish bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to magically come true.A hotel handyman's life changes when the lavish bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to magically come true.A hotel handyman's life changes when the lavish bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to magically come true.
- Director
- Writers
- Matt Lopez(screenplay)
- Tim Herlihy(screenplay)
- Stars
Top credits
- Director
- Writers
- Matt Lopez(screenplay)
- Tim Herlihy(screenplay)
- Stars
- Awards
- 3 wins & 5 nominations
Videos9
Abigail Droeger
- Young Wendyas Young Wendy
- (as Abigail Leone Droeger)
- Director
- Writers
- Matt Lopez(screenplay) (story)
- Tim Herlihy(screenplay)
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
- All cast & crew
Storyline
In 1974, Marty Bronson builds the Sunny Vista Motel in Los Angeles, California, with the intention of raising his son Skeeter and his daughter Wendy in the place where he works. However he is not a good businessman and the hotel goes bankrupt. Marty is forced to sell his motel to Barry Nottingham who promises to hire Skeeter in a general manager position when he has grown up. Years later, Barry builds a new hotel; forgets his promise to Marty; and Skeeter Bronson is only the handyman of his hotel. The general manager is the arrogant Kendall, who is engaged with the shallow Barry's daughter Violet Nottingham. When the Webster Elementary School where Wendy is the principal will be closed to be demolished, she needs to travel to Arizona for a job interview. Wendy asks her friend Jill, who is teacher in the same school, to watch her son Patrick and her daughter Bobbi during the day and Skeeter to watch them during the night. Skeeter meets the estranged kids with his best friend Mickey and makes up bedtime stories to help them to sleep but the kids add details to the stories, changing their endings. Soon Skeeter realizes that the plot of the stories are coming true and affecting his life. Meanwhile Barry Nottingham decides to give a change to Skeeter to dispute the manager position in his new hotel with Kendall like in one of his stories. But Skeeter has told to his nephew and his niece that stories do not have happy endings. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Taglines
- Whatever they dream up... he has to survive.
- Genres
- Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
- Rated PG for some mild rude humor and mild language
- Parents guide
Did you know
- TriviaThe bulldog shown in the movie is Adam Sandler's beloved pet, Motzaball.
- GoofsIt is mentioned that Skeeter lives in Room 109, but above the door, the number is 111.
- Quotes
Luau Waitress: Kona coffee ice cream.
Skeeter Bronson: Yeah? What's the catch? You're gonna light it on fire? 'Cause I'm on to you, honey.
Luau Waitress: No fire. It would melt. Just take the ice cream and a chill pill.
- Crazy creditsThe Walt Disney logo turns into a pop-up page from a storybook.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Troldspejlet: Episode #41.8 (2009)
- SoundtracksHokey Pokey
Written by Taft Baker, Larry Laprise, Charles Macak
Performed by Ray Anthony and His Orchestra
Courtesy of Capitol Records
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music
Top review
It woke me up.
"What if the stories you told came to life?" Bedtime Stories Promo
Having suffered through Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), I was prepared to suffer through Bedtime Stories, his offering in the 2008 Christmas glut of fine movies that have few for kids. Sandler rules: This is one of the best children/adult stories this year, an ironic twist on romantic and heroic tales told from children's point of view through the masterful child/adult lens of an underplaying, child-friendly master.
Sandler's Skeeter Bronson takes care of his niece and nephew for a week. Of course he hasn't a clue because he hasn't seen them in four years and his job as super-maintenance man at the Sunny Vista Hotel in Las Vegas consumes most of his time and energy. He's the usual Sandler sweet-hearted semi-loser with reserves of child-like sympathies ready to be released.
The conceit is that after telling the humorous tales with the kids' ample and creative input at bedtime, the story elements become real in real life, altered to fit the modern context (e.g., a rain of gumballs actually happens the next day, explainable by a candy truck spilling its contents over a bridge onto Sandler). In this ingenious way, the film recalls the Wizard-of-Oz trick of making real in Kansas what Dorothy had experienced in the Emerald City.
There is nothing deep about this delight, just a small satire of a society that may be losing its sense of wonder and fun in order to bow at the altars of nutrition and commercialism. Not bad for a film I thought would be another Sander nodder. It woke me up to the joys of imagination and love.
Happy holidays.
Having suffered through Adam Sandler's You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), I was prepared to suffer through Bedtime Stories, his offering in the 2008 Christmas glut of fine movies that have few for kids. Sandler rules: This is one of the best children/adult stories this year, an ironic twist on romantic and heroic tales told from children's point of view through the masterful child/adult lens of an underplaying, child-friendly master.
Sandler's Skeeter Bronson takes care of his niece and nephew for a week. Of course he hasn't a clue because he hasn't seen them in four years and his job as super-maintenance man at the Sunny Vista Hotel in Las Vegas consumes most of his time and energy. He's the usual Sandler sweet-hearted semi-loser with reserves of child-like sympathies ready to be released.
The conceit is that after telling the humorous tales with the kids' ample and creative input at bedtime, the story elements become real in real life, altered to fit the modern context (e.g., a rain of gumballs actually happens the next day, explainable by a candy truck spilling its contents over a bridge onto Sandler). In this ingenious way, the film recalls the Wizard-of-Oz trick of making real in Kansas what Dorothy had experienced in the Emerald City.
There is nothing deep about this delight, just a small satire of a society that may be losing its sense of wonder and fun in order to bow at the altars of nutrition and commercialism. Not bad for a film I thought would be another Sander nodder. It woke me up to the joys of imagination and love.
Happy holidays.
helpful•7635
- jdesando
- Dec 25, 2008
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Chuyện Kể Lúc Nửa Đêm
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $80,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $110,101,975
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $27,450,296
- Dec 28, 2008
- Gross worldwide
- $212,874,864
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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