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Review: Bedtime Stories
A series of clunky sequences illustrate the tall tales improvised by the babysitter. One moment we are transported to ancient Greece, at others we ride alongside gun-slinging cowboys and zoom across outer space, writes Rashid Irani.
Bedtime Stories
Cast : Adam Sandler, Keri Russell
Direction : Adam Shankman
Rating : **
He (Sandler) is a goofy handyman at a hotel which was once owned by his father (Jonathan Pryce, wasted in an underwritten role). When his schoolteacher sister (Courtney Cox) leaves town for a few days, she entrusts him with the care of her two kids.
Lucklessly, there’s little in the bedtime stories he tells his nephew and niece that’s funny or inventive. Rather, the outcome is an overblown computer-enhanced fantasy.
A series of clunky sequences illustrate the tall tales improvised by the babysitter. One moment we are transported to ancient Greece, at others we ride alongside gun-slinging cowboys and zoom across outer space. The yarns even begin to figure in the handyman’s real life, giving him the opportunity to pip his arch-rival (Guy Pearce) for the hotel manager’s post. We wonder what prompted Mr. Pearce, the estimable actor from L. A. Confidential and Memento. to accept such an embarrassing assignment.
The screenplay is hare-brained. To be fair, some stray scenes like the antics of bug-eyed guinea pig are mildly amusing. Otherwise Bedtime Stories only contributes further to the decline of Adam Sandler’s career as a comedian. To be avoided!
