Sleeper

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Sleeper

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Sleeper

Diane Keaton, Don Keefer, Howard Cosell, Howard Cossell, John Beck

In 1973, health-food store owner Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) enters the hospital for a routine gall bladder operation. When he expires on the operating table, Miles' sister requests permission to cryog...( read more  read more... )enically freeze 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 (Diane Keaton), a composer of greeting cards who thinks that the world of the future is perfect as it stands. There's more, but why spoil your fun? Sleeper is the most visual of Woody Allen's earlier films, and demonstrated a more pronounced rapport between Allen and his off- and onscreen leading lady Diane Keaton than had previously existed. The Dixieland score is performed by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Id: 10881042

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Sleeper Recent Reviews
  • moonrivers
    April 30, 2009
    moonrivers
    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.
  • DrZeek
    July 9, 2008
    DrZeek
    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.
  • her69eyes
    May 29, 2008
    her69eyes
    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.
  • pier007
    February 21, 2008
    pier007
    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.
  • 366weirdmovies
    January 24, 2008
    366weirdmovies
    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.
  • samanthaseaotter
    December 8, 2009
    samanthaseaotter
    not bad but it's still Woody Allen.
  • skinnyfists
    November 29, 2009
    skinnyfists
    Dated. Any Allen witticisms seem poorly integrated with the rest of the film and come off as an ill conceived ruse for slotting in some standup material.
  • JATbobDYLAN93
    October 23, 2009
    JATbobDYLAN93
    A weird future, thats for sure. With some of the good old Chaplin humor in it.
  • RachelJezel
    October 3, 2009
    RachelJezel
    Cryonics is a very fascinating branch of science.
  • ElCochran90
    September 18, 2009
    ElCochran90
    Hilarious and daring Woody Allen sci-fi comedy. Interesting, and nevertheless funny perspective.

    78/100
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