There's so much pressure around New Year's eve and New Year's day. Pressure to start the year off on the right note, pressure to set the tone for the next 12 months. Steve and I had different goals today but somehow we managed to accomplish it all and we started the year off right.
My goal was simple. I wanted to spend a quiet day at home as a family and get some writing in. I didn't want to write about just anything. I wanted to start a new tradition of writing a letter to my children looking back and looking ahead. I got the idea from Sara at My Sippy Cup Runneth Over. She challenged bloggers to start the year off right by writing a special prayer for the new year for each of their children. I didn't do it in the form of a prayer, but I did get in all of their accomplishments from the last year and all the things they have to look forward to in the next year. I planned to read it to them over dinner but ended up doing it in the dark, at bedtime, spontaneously with each child. They were a little taken back by the sudden depth of our bedtime routine, Bella was even a little embarrassed, but I think they were moved. And we marked the day.
Steve's goal was to start the year off with a movie night. We almost didn't make it though. Our plan was to grab a quick dinner of either Chinese or pizza at the strip mall of the movie theater. We didn't bank on everything being closed and ended up racing to dine at McDonald's to make it to the movie. Talk about starting the year off questionably! But the dietary merits of chicken nuggets aside, the night ended up being great because Bedtime Stories was a runaway hit.
I'm a huge fan of Adam Sandler but I wasn't sure how appropriate Bedtime Stories would be for the kids. For one thing, it's rated PG and we generally only do G movies. Bella is very easily scared so we don't like to push the envelope. But the trailers seemed pretty innocuous so we decided to give it a try. I have no idea why Bedtime Stories was rated PG - the note says mild language, crude humor and some thematic elements, but it was completely fine for my kids.
Adam Sandler is a handyman for a big hotel in Los Angeles. He is his typical goofy Adam Sandler personality. His sister (Courtney Cox) asks him to babysit his niece and nephew for a week while she goes to Arizona to interview for a job. He doesn't know them well because he has been estranged from them and they bond over the fantastic bedtime stories he makes up for them each night. Sandler begins to take a keen interest in the stories once he realizes that whatever elements the children add to the stories end up coming true the next day for him. Keri Russell also stars as well as a funny guinea pig with gigantic eyes.
I read an interview with Adam Sandler where he explained that he really wanted to make a family movie now that he is a father. He was tired of making movies where he did things like pee on the walls and have kids copy that behavior. Bedtime Stories is full of Sandler jokes and maneurisms but it's also full of fantastic dress up scenes with cowboys and indians, gladiators, and even a Star Wars like sequence. There are no scary fights, it's just a great family comedy. I'm crossing my fingers that it's a big commercial success and that we'll get to see more Adam Sandler family movies.
7 comments:
thanks for the review- was wondering how clean the movie actually was. I love his movies but don't want the kids to be influenced to see the adult saracastic humor he uses alot. Thankyou so much.
This movie got pretty beat up by the critics. Glad to hear a "real person" point of view. I love Adam Sandler. Just watched Night at the Museum yesterday with the kids.
http://www.nj.com/parenting/fiona_charles/index.ssf/2008/12/running_errands_with_a_prescho.html
this is the link for my post that got some mean folks stopping by..
I am going to see this movie even if the critics where hard on it. I love Adam Sandler. Thanks for your review.
We also got the Wii Fit and it said I was 50 years old! It cracked me up when you said you were 58 in Wii Years. :)
I ditto everything you said here! I have to say your blog is challenging me to stretch my wings on making my posts better with my writing skills. I tried my first hand at trying to be a better "story teller" today on my post. Check it out and tell me what you think about my story on how my hubby wooed me.
We really want to see this movie as well. It looks great. Thanks for the review.
I'm glad you got so much accomplished!
I really should write letters to my girls regularly.
I really like your letter idea. I set out to do the same thing on my daughters' birthdays, but I haven't kept up with it. You've inspired me to try again this year. I'm looking forward to taking the family to see Bedtime Stories. I find the PG rating to be so unpredictable. My husband and I took our 10 and 12 year olds to see Marley and Me, which was marketed as a family movie. We heard "Shit" and "Ass", jokes about the dog humping and later having his "balls" removed, there was more than a little sexual innuendo around Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson trying to conceive a baby, there was a tough miscarriage scene, and the ending was so sad that all four of us were bawling. There were younger kids sitting around us and they seemed to be pretty restless. I'm glad we saw it, but I was unprepared for some of the content. You just never know with PG!
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