Movie Review: Bedtime Stories

	RATING: PG GENRE: Comedy RELEASE DATE: December 25, 2008 RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes VIOLENCE FACTOR: None BAD WORDS: A very mild utterance or two RACY: A few vaguely suggestive comments GRANDS

A handyman tells his niece and nephew fantastical bedtime stories that seem to start coming true

by Bill Wine

CRITIQUE:

In a children's movie, being silly is fine, being sloppy is not. Bedtime Stories unfortunately has too much of the latter.

Skeeter Bronson (Adam Sandler) is the handyman at a luxury hotel that his father once owned when it was a modest motel. This is just the first unconvincing plot point in the story. In the next unlikely twist, Bronson has to compete against another staff member for the right to manage the hotel. Whoever comes up with the best décor theme for the revamped hotel wins. This is the kind of half-baked screenplay that movie moguls who don't mind talking down to their young audience rush into production.

When Skeeter babysits for his sister's children, he tells them fantastical narratives — based on his own underachieving life — that sound suspiciously like revenge fantasies, but  are set in unlikely locales like outer space, the Old West, and the Middle Ages. The day after he tells each tale, it seems to come true in his own life. Skeeter begins to suspect that he can determine his own fate by shaping the bedtime stories in a particular fashion.

Director Adam Shankman wastes a talented supporting cast, including Keri Russell, Guy Pearce, Richard Griffiths, Courteney Cox, Russell Brand, and Jonathan Pryce. Shankman encourages them to mug and underdirects the youngsters, who continually smile out of context. His ace in the hole is a saucer-eyed guinea pig which, while admittedly funny, is only cut to so often because the movie lacks real creative juices.

Guinea pig-appreciating grandchildren probably won’t mind the flaws, but grandparents will know that the carelessly concocted Bedtime Stories is neither challenging nor inspiring but simply diverting for the youngsters who can stay awake.

Check out our review of Marley & Me, also in theaters everywhere on December 25.