Movie Review: Night at the Museum

Night at the Museum

I had other options for movies to see this holiday weekend, but I simply wasn't in the mood for anything heavy or seriously uplifting. I just wanted to have fun, and I thought Night at the Museum would amuse me with special effects if nothing else. The added bonus, of course, was a two hour respite from all of the last minute Christmas shoppers flooding area stores. I'm pleased to say that, while Night at the Museum didn't exceed expectations, it didn't disappoint them, either.

Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is a man with big dreams but a much smaller reality. His ex-wife, Erica (Kim Raver) still cares about him, but she's far more concerned that their son, Nick (Jake Cherry) not be disappointed by his father. Larry, who is once again on the verge of being evicted from an apartment, agrees to seek out a real job so that Erica won't make good on her threat to keep his son away from him until he's more settled. In desperation, he applies for the position of a night security guard at the local Museum of Natural History.

Larry doesn't really know much about the museum and its exhibits, nor does he care. He just wants the paycheck that will enable him to keep his apartment and some small amount of respect from his son. As soon as he gets to the museum, Larry meets a pretty docent named Rebecca (Carla Gugino). She, in turn, introduces Larry to the current security team, and that's when Larry learns that the museum intends to replace the current trio of elderly guards with just one man as a cost-saving measure. The head guard, Cecil (Dick Van Dyke) explains the situation to Larry even as the other two guards (Gus and Reginald, played by Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobb, respectively) interject their own less friendly remarks.

In the end, Larry is left alone at the museum with nothing but his uniform, flashlight, keys, and a rumpled booklet he's told is his job manual. What Larry doesn't know, of course, is that the museum's many exhibits come alive after dark. He discovers that disconcerting fact when he finds a tyrannosaurus rex wandering the halls, but he doesn't have much time to think about it when the T. rex promptly chases after him, jaws wide and tale thrashing. Larry eventually runs into other museum denizens ranging from President Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams) to Octavius (Steve Coogan), the commander of a Roman legion; from Attila the Hun (Patrick Gallagher) to a pride of African lions; and from western wrangler Jedadiah (Owen Wilson) to a bad, bad Capuchin monkey named Dexter.

Larry is less than thrilled with his new job which seems only fair since the Museum Director, Mr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais) is less than thrilled with his new security guard. But whatever anybody might think, there's more going on than meets the eye. And whether Larry is interested in finding out or not, and whether he's inclined to do anything about it or not, he's bound up in events that rapidly escalate beyond his control. Unfortunately, at the same time, his son is rapidly becoming more disillusioned with his dad as well, and Larry is pretty sure that won't end well, either.

I'm not a big Ben Stiller fan, but this was a great role for him. He had the opportunity to do his usual over-the-top mugging, but it fit right in; his general on-screen persona brought the ne'er do well Larry to entirely believable life. Kim Raver is okay as is most of the rest of the cast. Ricky Gervais deserves special mention, though, as his sputtering portrayal of Mr. McPhee was a real joy to watch.

In a movie like this, the real star is the special effects. While some of the miniatures work was occasionally disappointing (come on, computers do better blue screen work than that and to pretend otherwise is simply to work cheap), the animals including especially the T. rex were just terrific. The story line was simplistic (the film is based on a children's book and the movie is aimed at that same market), but still offered up some entertainment along the way. Nobody will win any awards here, but the movie did just what movies like it are supposed to do: it amused me.

Was Night at the Museum predictable? Yup. Trite? That, too. But it was just the movie I needed when everything outside the theatre was beginning to be overwhelming. It was effortlessly fun even with its more visible flaws, and I enjoyed myself. If you and your kids are in the mood for a little fluff, I'd have to say that Night at the Museum will fill the bill just fine.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Night at the Museum is rated PG for "mild action, language, and brief rude humor." As a whole, I'd say the movie would be fine for kids of age 5 or 6 and up. There's nothing here they haven't heard from their older siblings or schoolmates, and there's a little educational value and a couple of sappy moral lessons thrown in for your viewing pleasure to boot. Mom and Dad won't think Night at the Museum is the best movie ever made, but they likely won't hate it, either, and that's high praise for a lot of kids' movies these days! Like I said, I was amused. You could do quite a bit worse than that.