Bedtime Stories

Has Adam Sandler finally grown up? The continually childish actor has silently got a family in his forties. Daniel Getahun said in his review, “Presumably because his experiments with drama have gone largely unnoticed (most recently in "Reign Over Me") and audiences have tiptoed around his conscientious comedies such as last summer's "You Don't Mess With the Zohan," Sandler has moved in an entirely different direction with "Bedtime Stories."” This is a pleasantly nice movie that the actor can really show his two daughters without being embarrassed.

The story behind “Bedtime Stories,” released in 2008, is as silly as any Sandler movie, but its quirky skill nonetheless makes it unique. As Skeet Bronson, Sandler plays a simple handyman working at a hotel previously owned by his father. Everything comes together for Skeet in getting back the property if he can come up with a better theme for the hotel’s planned renovation than its current Manager, Kendall, played by Guy Pearce, a flattering unmanly and the best-dressed villain of 2008.

During a week spent babysitting with his cute niece and nephew (Jonathan Morgan Heit and Laura Ann Kesling), Skeeter finds out that the symbolic bedtime story he tells the kids – with their excited participation in adding strange twists, of course – foreshadows what happens in his real life the next day.

Trying to take advantage of this ability (who wouldn’t?), he predictably learns that money, women and a red Ferrari aren’t going to be in his story’s happy ending. Getahun said, “It's a muddled and altogether generic lesson that's occasionally interrupted by a limp romantic subplot, but the kids in the audience won't mind: They'll get a kick out of the quotable punch lines and the impressively imaginative visuals.”

For a children’s movie, “Bedtime Stories” claims a surprising amount of talent actors – Keri Russell especially is great as Skeeter’s muse – along with loyal Sandler co-stars (Rob Schneider) and promising comic talents in British entertainer Russel Brand and Minneapolis resident Nick Swardson.

The film’s PG rating (Sandler’s first) is never threatened, so concerns about basic humor can be lessened – unless other’s definition of basic humor includes a farting guinea pig.

Getahun ended his review by saying, “The absence of dirty jokes may be the reason some adults won't find "Bedtime Stories" rip-roaringly funny, but longtime Sandler fans may be surprised to find themselves surrendering to the movie's playful spirit -- the kind of feeling you get when playing with your kids in the back yard or, depending on your tradition, attacking the presents under the tree on Christmas morning.”

In all honesty, this is a good Sandler movie. I know people may not like a lot of Sandler movies, but I have liked every single one that I have seen. Check this one out because it is a good Sandler movie that kids can watch. Have no fear because there is nothing in here that is inappropriate, like a lot of Sandler movies may have. See it and judge for yourself.

Look out tomorrow when I look at another Disney Channel movie that I wasn’t a fan of at all in “Disney Month 2021.”