Bedtime Stories (Blu-ray) (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Main Menu Audio & Animation Outtakes Deleted Scenes Featurette-3 short ones
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	99:12
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Adam Shankman
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Adam Sandler Keri Russell Guy Pearce Russell Brand Richard Griffiths Teresa Palmer Lucy Lawless Courteney Cox
Case	Jewel
RPI	?	Music	Rupert Gregson-Williams

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 EX (6912Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) French dts 5.1 EX (1536Kb/s) Spanish dts 5.1 EX (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired Spanish French Dutch Danish Finnish Norwegian Swedish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Skeeter Bronson (Adam Sandler) is the maintenance guy at swanky hotel. A hotel that was built on top of a much smaller hotel which was once owned by Skeeter's late father (Jonathan Pryce). Skeeter's father, a wise man yet an unwise businessman, had sold the family hotel to the eccentric investor Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths) who managed to build the hotel into the foundation of a successful chain. One major proviso of the sale, however, was that Skeeter would one day manage the new hotel. Whilst he is a great maintenance guy, Skeeter is not obviously cut out for management and rather than keep true to his word, Nottingham pits Skeeter against the insipidly snooty Kendall Duncan (Guy Pearce) for the position.

    Skeeter finds a little help from his zany best friend and co-worker Mickey (Russell Brand), to whom he palms off babysitting duties until he discovers that everything his niece and nephew add to their nightly bedtime story has an uncanny way of coming true the next day. With the aid of some supernatural bedtime story intervention, Skeeter sets about getting the job and the girl (there's always a girl - in this case it is Keri Russell).

    Lucy Lawless also features as Kendall's evil lackey and Courtney Cox as Skeeter's sister. Many of the usual Adam Sandler entourage also pop up, including Rob Schneider and Alan Covert. Aussie actress Teresa Palmer (the best part of the little-seen 2:37) also pops up as a Paris Hilton-inspired daughter of Barry Nottingham.

    It is hard to accuse Adam Sandler of selling out at this point in his career, but there's little doubt that his involvement in Bedtime Stories came down to a cosy paycheque rather than any artistic desire. That is not to say that this is not an enjoyable movie, far from it. Bedtime Stories makes for amiable viewing for children and adults alike, though nothing more. There isn't any underlying moral to the story. Both the plot and the jokes are straight from the family comedy 101 playbook. Adam Sandler fans are likely to be a little disappointed with the degree to which Sandler restrains himself in Bedtime Stories, although it is unlikely to come as a surprise to anyone.

    Bedtime Stories is amusing enough for a quiet family night in, but is unlikely to stick in mind long after viewing.

Video

    Bedtime Stories is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio in 1080p.

    The video looks excellent. The image is clear and crisp, with a very mild level of grain in the image that gives a natural feel to it. The colour palette is particularly bright and quite dynamic, displaying excellent dark, shadowy scenes. There is a good level of depth to the blacks and dark colours.

    There is no sign of any video artefacts or film artefacts.

    English subtitles for the Hearing Impaired are provided. they appear to be accurate and well timed.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film features a 5.1 English DTS Master Audio track as well as French and Spanish 5.1 DTS tracks and an English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital track.

    The audio is excellent. The dialogue is crystal clear and well placed in the mix. There are no problems with audio sync.

    Though it is effective enough, the film features a particularly forgettable score. Truly, this is orchestral accompaniment by numbers.

    The surrounds are put to excellent use by the score and for environmental effects. Subtle directional echo has been applied to produce a particularly immersive surround experience. The LFE channel gives the subwoofer a good workout. One particular scene in which it rains gumballs makes for an excellent demo piece for sound systems as it puts everything to work in a particularly fun way (the only grumble being that it is only 5.1 and not 7.1).

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Until Gravity Do Us Part Featurette (3:51)

    A "Making Of" featurette that focuses on one of the CGI-heavy scenes of the film. Interesting stuff, but all too brief and a little shallow.

To All the Little People Featurette (3:51)

    The film's two child actors talk themselves up, only to have Adam Sandler shower even more hollow praise up on them. Press-kit filler.

It's Bugsy Featurette (3:33)

    One of the highlights of the film is Bugsy the guinea pig, the childrens' pet. Bugsy, the occasionally magical guinea pig, is played by a live, well-trained, guinea pig but googly CGI eyeballs have been added to make him a little wacky looking. Make that a lot wacky looking. It sounds awful, but the effect is surprisingly seamless and pretty darn funny. This featurette gives a little look at how it was done and a lot of looks at the many faces of Bugsy.

Laughter is Contagious Outtakes (6:32)

    I hate outtakes/blooper reels. I don't think I have ever come across anyone who feels differently about them either. This is no exception. The usual goofed lines and lame practical jokes are featured as well as a couple of nods to previousl Adam Sandler characters. Filler.

Cutting Room Floor Deleted Scenes (10:20)

    A dozen disposable deleted scenes.

BD-Live

    Access to the Disney BD-Live site for the film. Nothing particularly of not here.

Disc Two - DVD copy of the film

    The second disc in this set is the single-disc DVD edition of the film, which is identical to the version we reviewed earlier here. This disc includes all the same extras as the Blu-ray, only in SD rather than HD.

    This is an invaluable bonus for parents, as it is ideal for keeping the kids away from the "good" TV while you watch you other Blu-rays!

    The US Region A edition of Bedtime Stories features the same contents as the Region B edition, save for differing language tracks, but also includes a third disc containing a digital copy of the film that can be watched on home computers. Not a big loss, particularly given that the set includes a DVD copy that can easily be played on a PC, but enough to make the Region A edition the version of choice by a nose.

    An amiable formulaic family flick featuring Adam Sandler.

    The video and audio are both of a very high standard. The extras are rather light-on, but this set does feature an invaluable DVD copy of the movie as well as the Blu-ray disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall