Somewhere in the aperture between From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Jumanji lies the somewhat poorly constructed farce Night at the Museum. Taken to heart, the film serves as an eye-opener to the wonders of history (and, specifically, New York’s Museum of Natural History) and a call to this generation of youngsters to enjoy them. As a vehicle for Ben Stiller, it fumbles more often than it scores (apologies for the football reference; we’re amped up for the playoffs over here) but remains a welcome distraction for adults and a should charm kids, a combination that can’t be said of too many recent “family” movies.
Stiller stars as Larry Daley, a divorced father balancing sporadic, failed employment opportunities with the full-time job of being a role model to his son. Threatened with eviction (seemingly a common occurrence), Larry lands a job as a night security guard at the museum, taking over for three older, retiring guards (highlighted by Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rourke, both still on top of their game after all these years). What Larry wasn’t told when applying for the job is that everything in the museum – from a dinosaur skeleton to an Easter Island head – comes to life from dusk until dawn, and it’s Larry’s job to keep everything in order without losing an exhibit (part of the Egyptian spell the inanimate objects are under turns them to dust if they’re outside the museum walls when the sun comes up).
Larry plays fetch with the T-Rex, trades barbs with a monkey, and tries to orchestrate peace between warring miniature cowboys (led by Owen Wilson, uncredited for his work), Romans, and Mayans, taking the majority of his guidance from Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams, in his most charming role in a while). Each night, Larry learns a new way to control some of the chaos, and each night, a new wrench is thrown into the works.
There’s not really a ton of meat to the movie – two uninteresting Sacajawean subplots and a weak conflict between Larry and his son’s stepdad (Paul Rudd) fill in the significant empty space – and there is a significant lapse in scripting judgement, leading to one giant plot hole if you pay attention, but that doesn’t stop Night at the Museum from being a fun way to spend two hours. Grab the kids, and take them to the theatre. The following weekend, take them to a museum.
Rating: * * * of 5
I was just at the Museum of Natural History. Might be interesting to check out the movie now.
Since when did you start re-using titles?
http://sjuhawk31.livejournal.com/177715.html#cutid1
Matt – shut it. I used “aperture” in the first sentence…that’s impressive enough. Who cares that nobody, including me, reads this regularly enough to realize that I stole my own (and Van Morrison’s) title?