Bedtime Stories
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
33
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
11
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
San Francisco ChronicleJonathan Curiel
A fun bit of escapism that's even tender in spots. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
"Stories" makes a better Christmas movie than those generic comedies manufactured this time of year. The hits-to-misses ratio for its gags is above average, the sentimentality is kept in check and the film plays well to its audience. Read full review
70
VarietyLael Loewenstein
With Bedtime Stories, Sandler has delivered on his promise to make a movie his kids can enjoy. What's more, he's managed to do so without alienating his core audience. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is a harmless and pleasant Disney comedy and one of only three family movies playing over the holidays. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Bedtime Stories does have a comic buoyancy, even as its plot trots on a predictable course. Perhaps the different accents and sensibilities have something to do with that. Read full review
63
PremiereJenni Miller
Russell Brand is absurd, funny and wonderfully out of place in a family movie. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The fantasy segments, played up in trailers, get bogged down amid the ho-hum tale of a loser making good. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Clean enough to fly the Walt Disney Pictures flag, yet it's full of bimbos and cleavage and shots of Adam Sandler getting kicked in the shins by a dwarf. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The appeal of Bedtime Stories belongs entirely to Sandler. As a comedian, he doesn't have to stoop to a kid's level. He's usually already there. Read full review
50
Village VoiceTim Grierson
While no one was expecting the live-wire daring of "Punch-Drunk Love" or even "You Don't Mess With the Zohan," the Adam Sandler who shows up in Bedtime Stories is that most unnecessary of movie-star guises: the benign family-comedy guy. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Bedtime Stories does divide into two types of comedy: There's the story comedy, in which Skeeter dresses in costume when he performs slapstick and insults people, and then there are the real-life scenes, when he does the same things in regular clothes. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
In this uneven Disney comedy Adam Sandler tones down his arrested-development persona, trading crass humor for warm fuzzies. Read full review
50
Washington PostDan Kois
Best of all is Keri Russell, who plays Adam Sandler's love interest and who brightens the tart rhubarb pie of her performance in "Waitress" with just a pinch of Disney sweetness. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is a rare time when young ones will get more out of a Sandler movie than their parents, who may have grown up with him when he was on "Saturday Night Live." Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazinePerry Seibert
It's not that Bedtime Stories is bad, it's just entirely and thoroughly adequate. Read full review
40
EmpireKat Brown
More ho-hum than ho ho ho. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Sandler's shambling Yogi Bear-ness will be the big appeal to holiday-vacation audiences. Read full review
30
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
Soured by its enervated star and uninspired writing, the movie offers only tiny moments of joy, like a hailstorm of gumballs that's unexpectedly magical. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The shortage of wit and the excess of goo can be summed up in Sandler's line to these children of divorce: "I'm like the stink on your feet — I'll always be there." Read full review
25
New York PostKyle Smith
Sandler's bizarrely clunky kiddie flick, is a sort of upside-down "Princess Bride." Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
It's a dispirited, galumphing mess. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Sandler’s laziness, sloppiness, and cynical pandering are all over Bedtime Stories, and it turns what’s intended to be a graceful intersection of fairytale whimsy and real-world slapstick into an ugly, head-on collision. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
After years of wandering in the wilderness of artistic obscurity – like Vincent van Gogh – misunderstood comic genius Adam Sandler has finally found his audience: 3-year-olds. It makes perfect sense, really. Read full review
20
TimeRichard Corliss
After sitting through this fractious fairy tale, we feel as plucked as a Christmas goose. Read full review
20
Film ThreatMichael Ferraro
Too bad Guy Pearce who plays Kendall, the obvious villain, couldn't do the same thing. His awful performance here will almost make you forget he was "Memento" and "L.A. Confidential." Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
As a PG-rated film opening on Christmas Day under the Disney banner, Bedtime Stories would seem to promise fairly wholesome family entertainment. What it delivers is the glitzy allure of a hotel setting, smarmy double entendres, Ferrari lust, Beverly Hills bling and pneumatic babes -- one of the characters is a surrogate Paris Hilton. Read full review
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