'Bedtime Stories' (PG): While "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" messed with Adam Sandler's comedic credibility, all is forgiven "Bedtime Stories," a fresh family yarn that satisfies from start to finish.

Sandler is wonderful as Skeeter Bronson, who grew up hearing fantastical bedtime stories from his motel owner dad, Marty (Jonathan Pryce). His dad also had dreams of Skeeter becoming the manager of the hotel built by Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths), a business magnate who bought out Marty when the motel fell into financial shambles.

After getting a job as Barry's longtime hotel handyman, Skeeter finally lands a shot 25 years later to manage the chain's new mega-facility. But the opportunity comes in the most unusual manner: by making up a bedtime story to tell his nephew, Patrick (Jonathan Morgan Heit), and niece, Bobbi (Laura Ann Kesling), while baby-sitting for a week for his sister (Courteney Cox). Realizing that the children have the power to make the stories come true by adding their own little details, Skeeter makes the storytelling ritual a nightly event, which brings unintended consequences.

Co-starring Russell Brand as Skeeter's hotel waiter buddy, Guy Pearce as his chief competitor and a barely recognizable Lucy Lawless ("Xena: Warrior Princess") as Pearce's confidant, "Bedtime Stories" manages to be fun, light and clean, and avoids traps like gross-out humor that dumbs down so many kid movies. Expertly directed by Adam Shankman ("Hairspray"), the movie is packed with eye-popping special effects (especially involving a pet guinea pig) and is made complete by Keri Russell ("Felicity"), who turns in a charming performance as Jill, a friend of Skeeter's sister who watches the kids during the day shift.

DVD Features: Deleted scenes, a blooper reel, a featurette on Bugsy the bug-eyed guinea pig, and more. (Walt Disney Home Entertainment)

'Doubt' (PG-13): There's no doubt that "Doubt" -- John Patrick Shanley's movie adaptation of his acclaimed play about a Catholic priest scandal -- features the best group of actors in the past year -- and one that's far better than its Screen Actors Guild competitor and Best Ensemble Cast winner "Slumdog Millionaire."

Meryl Streep is a force of nature as Sister Aloysius Beauvier, an overbearing, 1960s New York Catholic School principal who has suspicions about the parish's likable priest, Father Flanagan (Hoffman), but has nothing to prove of any wrongdoing. However, when young nun (Adams) tells her superior about the Flanagan's questionable relationship with a schoolboy, Sister Aloysius frantically goes after the priest for the truth.

While Streep is frightening as Sister Aloysius, she's brings a likable charm to the character as her soft side surfaces more and more throughout the movie. On the flip side, Hoffman's Fr. Flanagan is unnerving because of his charm. If you haven't seen the play, those character complexities will make you have your doubts about Flanagan's guilt or innocence until the final confrontation between the priest and the nun, which is easily one of the most intense movie showdowns of the year. The subject matter makes "Doubt" a difficult film to watch, but an intense and engaging film nonetheless.

DVD Features: Audio commentary by Shanley, production featurettes and more. (Miramax Home Entertainment)

Also New:
'The Day The Earth Stood Still' (PG-13) Keanu Reeves stars in this remake of director Robert Wise's 1951 science fiction classic about an alien who comes to Earth to warn the planet of impending doom. Reeves assumes Michael Rennie's Klaatu role from the original, while his robot counterpart, Gort, appears in a much bigger scale. Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm and Kathy Bates co-star.