The film is about Skeeter (Sandler), and how a magical experience proves that sometimes happy endings can happen. Skeeter has been in the hotel business for a long time. His father owned the hotel he is currently working in, but 25 years ago (when Skeeter was just a kid), his old man sold the hotel to make it a part of the growing Nottingham chain. Skeeter overheard this deal being made and Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths) promised Skeeter's dad that one day Skeeter would run the hotel. Marty's old hotel was torn down and a new, elaborate one was built in its place. Ever since that day, Sandler's character has been the hotel's repairman and diligently showing what he's worth so that one day he can take over as the General Manager. And Skeeter thinks that day is soon to come when Barry Nottingham announces a new mega hotel to replace the current one. Unfortunately for Skeeter, the sleazy, brown-nosing Kendall (Guy Pearce) is named the new manager.
At the same time, Skeeter's sister (Courteney Cox) has to head out of town to go on an interview for a new job, and he is left looking after his niece, Bobbi (Laura Ann Kesling), and nephew, Patrick (Jonathan Morgan Heit), whom he hasn't really seen in four years. So Skeeter's life has become a big mess. Not only does he have to take care of his sister's kids at nights, but he has also entered into a bit of a competition with Kendall to decide on a theme for the new hotel. The winner of said competition gets to become the General Manager. But exactly how Skeeter got into this competition is the real focus of the movie. When Skeeter told his nephew and niece a bedtime story about Sir Fixalot being underappreciated in his kingdom and being given the chance to rule it if he can beat Sir Buttkiss, strange things happen.
Over the next few nights, Skeeter tells various stories to the kids trying to influence the strange magic that is going on. One night, he tells a tale about a cowboy who gets a new Ferrari for free. But he quickly realizes that, for some reason, the parts that come true are the parts of the stories that the kids tell. And these kids have quite an active imagination.
There are a pair of women in Skeeter's life as well. One is the daughter of the hotel chain's owner, Violet Nottingham (Teresa Palmer), who is obviously a Paris Hilton parody, and the other is one of Patrick and Bobbi's teachers, Jill (Keri Russell).
The last few characters include Aspen (Lucy Lawless), Kendall's henchwoman, Mickey (Russell Brand), Skeeter's hilarious sidekick and the kid's pet guinea pig, Bugsy. The only member of these supporting characters that I didn't like was the movie's mascot, Bugsy. At first, I thought the little rodent had something to do with the magic of the movie and was somehow responsible for the stories coming to life. Well, if that was the case, then it was lost on me, and if it wasn't, then there really seems to be no point for that guy. I understand the need for comedic relief, but Brand does more than enough in this department.
Special features include a dozen or so deleted scenes (some of which might have actually helped the overall plot), and a few short featurettes. One featurette talks about the fight scene in Skeeter's space-based story. In that featurette, we get an in-depth look into the fight choreography and CG that went into the scene. In another featurette, we get to see how the cast worked with the kids and another focuses on the guinea pigs that were cast as Bugsy.
While I enjoyed Bedtime Stories, seeing it on Blu-ray meant that most of the special features looked very cartoony and fake. The movie simply didn't upscale all that well. But this particular version comes with the DVD and digital copy as well, so if and when your kids desire to see it constantly, you can always bring the DVD version in the car with you. Bedtime Stories is worth a rental first, and if you find your kids really like it, then consider purchasing the film.
