Diane Keaton, Don Keefer, Howard Cosell

In 1973, health food store owner Miles Munroe enters the hospital for a routine gall bladder operation. When he expires on the operating table, Miles' sister requests permission to cryogenically freez...( read more  read more... )e her brother's body. After 200 years, Miles is unwrapped by a group of scientists and awakens to a Brave New World of deadening conformity, ruled with an iron fist by a never-seen Leader. Miles is forced to flee for his life when the scientists--actually a group of revolutionary activists--are overpowered by the Leader's police. He eludes the cops by pretending to be an android, and in this guise is sent to work at the home of Luna, a composer of greeting cards who thinks that the world of the future is perfect as it stands.

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81% liked it

24,128 ratings

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100% liked it

27 critics

PG, 1 hr. 28 min.

Directed by: Woody Allen

Release Date: December 17, 1973

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DVD Release Date: July 5, 2000

Stats: 1,124 reviews

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  • April 30, 2009
    a young man's loving homage to his loves, like chaplin, keaton, lloyd, et al, and why not, and diane keaton (in perhaps the film that made her) his infectiously charming paramour at the time, and the old time new orleanian jazz music (or is it klezmer) (which, again, the man love...( read more)s, hell, he plays it), which makes for one big charismatic matzo ball from the '70's, vey is mir! the last allen film perhaps before he became the writer/director mangod he's known as nowadays.
  • July 9, 2008
    Miles Monroe: Where am I anyhow, I mean, what happened to everybody, where are all my friends?
    Dr. Aragon: You must understand that everyone you knew in the past has been dead nearly two hundred years.
    Miles Monroe: But they all ate organic rice!

    Woody Allen plus Science Fictio...( read more)n equals a very funny premise for a movie. This is a wonderful idea that Allen has come up with, implanting his character into a futuristic world.

    [Miles gets to look at some pictures to identify the people on them]
    Miles Monroe: This was Josef Stalin. He was a communist, I was not too crazy about him, had a bad mustache, lot of bad habits. This is Bela Lugosi. he was, he was the mayor of New York city for a while, you can see what it did to him there, you know. This is, uhm, this is, uh, Charles DeGaulle, he, he was a very famous French chef, had his own television show, showed you how to make souflets and omelettes and everything.

    Allen is Miles Munroe. Miles has just been awoken from a 200 year sleep following one of those standard accidents where a person ends up being preserved and awoken in the future.

    Seen as a threat, Miles is immediately sought by the authorities and forced to be on the run. Miles is alerted by a group of scientists that he must attempt to find an underground activist group looking to overthrow the possibly corrupt government.

    Miles Monroe: I'm not really the heroic type. I was beat up by Quakers.

    Along the way, Miles meets a futuristic poet and hippie, Luna played by Diane Keaton in her first Woody Allen movie, and the two eventually flee together, and attempt to put a stop to possible corruptness, although true to Allen form, there is never a good answer involving leaders.

    Besides the plot, this movie is of course about Allen interacting in a futuristic world. The portrayal of the future Allen has created is very funny while containing various elements of plausibility, making the film serve as a satirical take on human progression.

    It also helps that Woody Allen's dialog matches how great of a physical comedian he can be. There is a sequence where he has to impersonate a robot, which is hysterical. Keaton and Allen also have great chemistry throughout this film.

    Very funny movie.

    Luna Schlosser: What's it feel like to be dead for 200 years?
    Miles Monroe: Like spending a weekend in Beverly Hills.
  • May 29, 2008
    I've only recently started to get into Woody Allen films. Having just watched Annie Hall, which is probably his most recognizable film, I decided to go with "Sleeper". It had been recommended to me by a lot of people and i've heard nothing but great things. However, I must say, I...( read more) was fairly let down. Perhaps I should've done more research on the film before seeing it, but the relentless slapstick gags fell a bit short for me.

    One day Miles Monroe, owner of a health food store, goes to a hospital for a minor surgery. Two hundred years later, he's awoken by scientists. However, little did he know - he was not awoken out of the kindness of their hearts, he was essentially an unwilling recruit from an underground society. The only thing he knows about his mission is that it's called "Project Aires", and shortly thereafter he's sent on his way. Over the course of the movie he disguises himself as a maid robot, eats giant fruit, battles corrupt police officers, etc. Really, in terms of plot, this is essentially a whole bunch of familiar stories jumbled together. The difference, however, is that the protagonist is not a handsome hero, rather it's neurotic Woody Allen.

    The movie starts off very well. Some of the gags are the epitome of "trying too hard", however it's over the top to the point where you're laughing a little bit... then rolling your eyes... then as it keeps going on, the absurdity of it all makes you laugh until you cry. Really classic sketch comedy there. All of the stuff with Woody's "drunken" state after being unfrozen to him posing as a robot was all a blast to watch.

    However, to me the movies downfall was... well, the plot. This would've been lots of fun if it was just a movie about Woody Allen messing around in the future, however there's this whole thing about "The Leader" that seems incredibly rushed and sucks the fun out of it all. I was having a blast watching this, however the last act was probably the worst drop off from great to horrendously bad i've ever seen. It really left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Not only was it all nonsensical and rushed, the movie also leaves you with one of the least convincing onscreen romances I think i've ever seen. When i'm not buying into DIANE KEATON AND WOODY ALLEN as being in love, there's something a bit wrong there.

    That being said, this isn't really a film that anyone could hate. It's all harmless fun, and there's some clever stuff put in there. This is a lot more slapstick than I was expecting, and the intelligent script of Annie Hall is replaced with a screenplay filled more with nonsensical gags and the occasional pop culture reference. Don't get me wrong, this isn't Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell levels of stupidity, it's more along the lines of Monty Python.

    I liked this, but I can't say i'd rush to recommend this to anyone I know. Perhaps it just didn't hold up well with time since this type of comedy is so overdone in 2008, but I found this to be your typical Hollywood fare with a slightly more realized and creative plot. For it's time it was revolutionary and completely innovative, but I find the slightly "smarter" comedy of a film like Annie Hall to hold up more by today's standards. It's good stuff overall, but a mess of a third act and one-liners that fell short really distanced myself from the film.
  • February 21, 2008
    In a rush to homage dystopian fantasies and the slapstick comedy of Chaplin, Keaton, the Marx brother and Harold Lloyd; Woody Allen makes a silly, small scale, mildly funny film with a wild soundtrack and the always fresh presence of the talented, young and beautiful Diane Keaton.
  • January 24, 2008
    Health-food store owner Miles Monroe is accidentally frozen for 200 years and wakes up in a weird future dystopia where Diane Keaton is not considered too annoying to be a female lead. It's a lot of fun as a collection of one liners ("I haven't had sex for 200 years... 204 if yo...( read more)u count my marriage") and slapstick bits that recall the great silent comedians, but the plot is little more than a framework to hang bits from.
  • October 23, 2009
    A weird future, thats for sure. With some of the good old Chaplin humor in it.
  • October 3, 2009
    Cryonics is a very fascinating branch of science.
  • September 18, 2009
    Hilarious and daring Woody Allen sci-fi comedy. Interesting, and nevertheless funny perspective.

    78/100
  • August 26, 2009
    One of Woody Allens funniest movies.
  • August 18, 2009
    One of Woody's classics what more can you say?

Critic Reviews


October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Sleeper is the closest Allen has come to classic slapstick-and-chase comedy, and he's good at it. full review

View more Sleeper reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • MrsCptnJSparrow
    June 4, 2006
    This was my favorit movie when I was 8 years old. I think that says a lot about the woman I grew up to be and I'd just like to say to Woody Allen... "Thank you, who wants to be normal!" I've already watched this movie with my own kids.

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Sleeper Trivia


  • In what movie does Diane Keaton tell Woody Allen: "Miles, do you know that 'God' spelled backwards is 'dog'?"  Answer »
  • In which movie does Woody Allen say the following? "That's a big chicken."  Answer »
  • In this movie a character yells to the sky "....Father, the sleeper has awoken."  Answer »
  • In the movie Sleeper, which of the following has been proven to be one of the best things for you?  Answer »

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