Rating:

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Adam Sandler movies. It’s either one or the other and usually nothing in-between. More often than not, I find the movies to indebted to Sandler’s comedy while skimping on plot.

My wife is in a different boat. With the exception of 50 First Dates, she’s strictly in the hate him camp. So, when she came home from seeing Bedtime Stories with our 5-year old son and declared that it was a fun movie, I knew I would have to eventually check it out. What content could this movie contain to make her change her mind about Sandler and his man-child humor.

Sandler plays Skeeter, a typical on-screen Sandler slacker character. When he’s asked to watch his sister’s children, he discovers the children enjoy his inventive stories and fairy tales he is forced to tell them—especially since they have no television in the house.

Skeeter starts to think of more than simple tales about gladiators, cowboys and space heroes after he recognizes elements from his stories appearing in the real world. Skeeter takes advantage of these occurrences and manipulates events to allow him a chance at gaining control of the hotel at  which he is employed.

Maybe I’m getting old or the kids have taken an edge off of me, but I found Sandler’s character amusing and entertaining. Purged of the content and hysterics that earn his personal films a PG-13 rating, Bedtime Stories is marred only by a few badly done jokes regarding bodily functions.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I’m humorless, but it’s sad to see filmmakers and writers resorting to burp and fart jokes in kids films, knowing they will summon a cheap laugh.

So, if you’ve wanted to like Adam Sandler, but you’ve been afraid of his caustic style and attitude, the Disneyfication of his character in Bedtime Stories may be just what you’re looking for.

Sadly, the disc I reviewed was the plain DVD included in with the Blu-ray disc. There are no extras on it, but both the 3-Disc Combo Pack and 2-Disc Deluxe Edition DVD of Bedtime Stories include these
exciting bonus features plus DisneyFile Digital Copy:  

1. Until Gravity Do Us Part – A behind-the-scenes look at the film’s mindboggling special effects 
2.  It’s Bugsy – A close up look at the breakout star of Bedtimes Stories, Bugsy the big-eyed guinea pig 
3. To All The Little People
4. Hilarious Bloopers and Deleted Scenes
   
5. The 2-Disc Deluxe Edition DVD set also comes with the featurette Dylan & Cole Sprouse: Blu-ray is Suite.