Adam Sandler can be a really funny guy; Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and The Waterboy were truly hilarious pieces of dolt comedy. As he showed during his days on Saturday Night Live, Sandler had a real knack for a kind of childish humor that had the ability to appeal to all ages. Unfortunately for him, he hasn’t really been able to come up with anything original beyond the three previously mentioned films; he’s continually recycled his “average guy” shtick in a series of half baked comedies that miss the mark. Sandler’s latest effort, Bedtime Stories is a Disney film directed by Adam Shankman (Hairspray) that combines Disney family friendly sensibilities with Adam Sandler’s humor and blends them into a largely unfunny mess.
Sandler plays Skeeter, another “Sandler average guy,” who grew up in the Sunny Vista Motel, a modest place owned by his father (Jonathan Pryce). Dad was a terrible businessman though and he was forced to sell the place to a wealthy investor, Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths), who turned the motel into a luxury hotel but kept Skeeter on as a handyman. While Skeeter loved growing up in the motel, his sister Wendy (Courteney Cox) was less enthused with the arrangement. She grew up and became a serious-minded school principal who’s losing her job because her school is being torn down.
Wendy has to travel to Arizona for job interviews and she leaves the kids in the care of best-friend Jill (Keri Russell) during the day and asks her reluctant brother, who just dropped in to see what condition his condition was in, to take over during the evenings when Jill has another commitment. The kids, Bobbi (Laura Ann Kesling) and Patrick (Jonathan Morgan Heit), are cheerful kids, glad to have fun Uncle Skeeter around and eager to hear some unique bedtime stories.
With the bedtime stories, comes the point of the film. Skeeter discovers that whatever he makes up in a story, happens to him for real the next day. It rains gumballs in his story; it rains gumballs in his life. The catch is that it only applies to the story elements suggested by the kids; his personal wishes remain unfulfilled. He can’t say, “and then Skeeter met and married the girl of his dreams”–he has to get one of the kids to suggest it. Yes, he has to manipulate them, if he wants something in particular.
Thankfully, Skeeter’s desires are fairly typical. He wants Nottingham’s incredibly good looking daughter, Violet (Teresa Palmer), to fall in love with him. He wants a Ferrari. And when Nottingham builds his new luxury hotel, expected to be the largest, grandest hotel in the country, Skeeter wants to be installed as manager. In his way of thinking he deserves to be manager; after all, he’s been the handyman for 25 years.
What humor there is, remains family friendly throughout; it’s fairly bland and paint-by-the-numbers stuff you can see coming a mile away. A great deal of the humor is focused on a guy named Kendall (Guy Pearce), a rich guy whom Nottingham actually wants to install as manager of his new luxury hotel and making fun of Wendy rather strict parenting techniques. And I don’t know why but there’s a CGI guinea pig with bugged-out eyes that gets A LOT of screen time.
The best part of Bedtime Stories is, well, the bedtime stories. They are somewhat imaginative and it’s clear that Sandler enjoys telling them. They are shown to us with some pretty neat special effects and Skeeter always ends up the hero. And these stories are chance for Adam Sandler to do his “funny voices,” which he seems to love doing.
Boasting a crisp and colorful 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer, Bedtime Stories is yet another release that demonstrates Disney’s unwavering commitment to high-quality high definition video. Shankman’s vibrant, lush palette borders on garish and overwhelming at times, but ultimately provides a relatively appropriate treat for the eyes. Vivid contrast gives daytime exteriors and low-lit interiors impressive depth. Inky blacks and well-delineated shadows enhance the impact of the image with convincing dimensionality.
The only issues I have with the otherwise gorgeous presentation — the appearance of slightly oversaturated skintones, the abundance of overpowering primaries, and the presence of some dodgy CGI (made more apparent in high definition) — aren’t technical problems at all, but rather intentional decisions made by the filmmakers to submerge viewers in Sandler’s childlike dreamscapes.
Disney’s lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track isn’t nearly as impressive as its video transfer. While it’s tough to tell where Bedtime Stories’ pedestrian sound design ends and the shortcomings of its overworked technical mix begins, one thing is clear: it takes more finesse than heightened volume and overwrought LFE support can achieve to make a top tier audio track. While dialogue is generally crisp, it often gets trampled by the sheer bombast of the film’s action sequences. Lines are sometimes muffled, whispers are drowned out, and faint high-end ambience is flushed away. Likewise, while the soundfield swirls with activity, the rear speakers are too aggressive, hindering the integrity and immersive properties of the mix. Other aspects of the track are just as inconsistent. The track is simply overdone and I found myself regularly readjusting the volume.
Bedtime Stories does feature some special features but it’s nothing spectacular when compared to past Disney Blu-ray releases:
• To All the Little People (HD, 5 minutes): Interview segments with young actors Jonathan Morgan Heit and Laura Ann Kesling are strewn together with abundant praise from director Adam Shankman, Sandler himself and other notable adults on the set.
• Until Gravity Do Us Part (HD, 4 minutes): This brief behind-the-scenes featurette follows the cast and crew as they film a somewhat elaborate sci-fi story sequence.
• It’s Bugsy (HD, 4 minutes): Learn how the children’s bug-eyed guinea pig was brought to life on the screen using real animals and CGI enhancements.
• Cutting Room Floor (HD, 11 minutes): A series of twelve deleted scenes that wouldn’t have added anything to the final film.
• Laughter is Contagious (HD, 7 minutes): A collection of Sandler outtakes that should give families who enjoyed the film some extra laughs.
• Bonus Standard Definition Copy of the Film: Don’t have a Blu-ray player in every room of the house? No worries, Disney has included a DVD disc for any SD TVs you still use.
• Digital Copy of the Film – Compatible with portable media player or your computer.
• BD-Live Functionality
