new on home video | This week’s DVD releases

Available Tuesday:

“Bedtime Stories” (PG, 99 minutes): Adam Sandler brings his immature charms to the role of Skeeter Bronson, a handyman with dreams of running the posh L.A. hotel where he changes the light bulbs. Saddled with his niece and nephew for a week and faced with the unwelcome concept of reading to the kids at bedtime, Skeeter instead makes up his own bedtime story, a tale of a medieval handyman who’s allowed to compete for a chance to run the kingdom. The next day, his hotel’s owner (Richard Griffiths) is allowing Skeeter to compete for a chance to run the joint. Instantly, of course, Skeeter is back with the kids, eagerly telling a bedtime story that rewards him with a Ferrari. There’s a moral here about the power of storytelling, but it’s trapped under layers of Sandler-worship and computer-generated monsters. Contains mild rude humor and mild language. DVD Extras: Featurettes; deleted scenes; bloopers.

“The Day The Earth Stood Still” (PG-13, 103 minutes): Although this remake, which stars Keanu Reeves, is likely to make audiences pine for “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” it’s not a complete failure. Reeves is uniquely well suited for the role of Klaatu, the alien life form that warns earthlings of the coming apocalypse unless they change their ways. Helping him is astrobiologist Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly), whose young stepson, Jacob (Jaden Smith), thinks Klaatu is the enemy. The real star of both versions of the movie, a robot named Gort, has been confiscated after trying to save Klaatu’s life. Solemn, sober and efficient, the film gets the job done and moves on. Contains sci-fi disaster images and violence. DVD Extras: Three-disc special edition contains commentary with writer David Scarpa; deleted scenes; featurettes

“Doubt” (PG-13, 104 minutes): Meryl Streep brings her characteristic focus and wily craft to Sister Aloysius, the steely principal of a Catholic school in the Bronx, circa 1964. When a charismatic young priest named Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) shows an interest in the newly integrated school’s only black student, Sister Aloysius entertains suspicions about the priest’s motives. But the story comes to be about much more than just Father Flynn’s guilt or innocence: power, spiritual discipline, institutional politics and corrupt hierarchical rot. Just when you begin to think you know who the cat and mouse really are, in steps Viola Davis to steal not just her scene but the entire movie. As the mother of the student in question, Davis presents “Doubt” with its most sobering and finally haunting philosophical quandaries. Contains thematic material. DVD Extras: Commentary with writer/director John Patrick Shanley; featurettes.

“The Tale of Despereaux” (G, 93 minutes): The film’s titular mouse is a big-eared outcast who has been an embarrassment since birth. There is also Roscuro (Dustin Hoffman), something of an epicurean rodent who has come to the Land of Dor for the annual unveiling of a new soup. Matthew Broderick makes Despereaux sound like a white guy from the suburbs; Hoffman is terrific, just as he was earlier this year in “Kung Fu Panda.” Neither, however, provides enough of a reason to care. Contains moments of peril. DVD Extras: Featurettes; games; interactive map of Dor

“Yes Man” (PG-13, 104 minutes): Why did Jim Carrey make this movie? The film doesn’t have a plot; it has a premise. What if someone never says no? Will his life improve by 1,000 percent? Yes. And that’s it. There’s no more to it than that. Open yourself up to experiences, and your life will burst into confetti and you will meet and fall in love with Zooey Deschanel. Is there anything good about the film? Yes. Terence Stamp, the lion-faced Brit, plays the self-help guru who converts Carrey into a yes man. Contains crude sexual humor, language and brief nudity.

Also: “Alexandra,” “American High School,” “Beverly Hills 90210: Season 7,” “Donkey Punch,” “Faith Like Potatoes,” “I.O.U.S.A,” “Last Days of the Filmore,” “Operation Valkyrie” and “TCM Spotlight: Doris Day Collection.”

—The Washington Post