Night at the Museum

December 25, 2006

Rated: PG Runtime: 108 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Night at the Museum is a whole lot of fun to watch. Sure, the story is predictable but who cares when you’re laughing your butt off?

Night at the Museum Ben Stiller plays Larry Daley, a middle aged dreamer who bounces from job to job while he looks for his ticket to greatness. He’s not a slacker, he just doesn’t think he’s suited for a “regular” job. Since he bounces around a lot he doesn’t have much money, and tends to get evicted rather often. Larry apparently doesn’t mind, but his ex-wife points out to him that his instability really isn’t fair to his son Nick. When Nick doesn’t tell his dad about “parent career day” at school Larry takes notice and decides enough is enough, then gets himself a job as a night watchman at the Museum of Natural History.

The position is available due to budget cutbacks at the museum, management is looking for a new guy to replace the 3 aging guards played with flair by Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke and Bill Cobbs. After a short tour (and avoiding a fist fight with Rooney!), Larry is given an instruction manual and locked inside the museum for the night. Being a guy the first thing he does is play with the intercom system… then, he takes a nap. When he startles himself awake he sets off to check the place out and notices things have… changed.

Thanks to a magic Egyptian tablet, everything in this museum comes to life each night at sunset and returns to their normal state when the sun rises (feel free to skip the logic issues with the museum being closed and cleared out before sunset each night in the winter, and that Larry got to work, played with the intercom and fell asleep before it got dark on his first night… logic would kinda ruin this movie.) Cavemen are trying to build fire, the Huns are rampaging, lions hunt, monkeys cause mischief and miniature Romans and Cowboys from the diorama battle each other to expand their territory. It’s an ordered chaos and Larry has to maintain the status quo each night.

Of course there’s a villain and some extra drama added to help pace the movie, but the real joy is watching the humor brought on by the all star cast. Robin Williams is excellent (it’s calm Robin, not manic Robin), Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan have some great scenes, Ricky Gervais basically reprises his role in The Office and Mickey Rooney put a huge grin on my face.

When you go see this (and you really should see this in a crowded theater) be sure to stay through the first part of the credits for some extra scenes… Dick Van Dyke has some moves! Four stars for this one, if it had a bit of a stronger opening I would have given it a fifth.

Posted by John | Filed Under 4 Stars, Action, Ben Stiller, Comedy, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Owen Wilson, PG, Robin Williams, Theatrical