NEW Night At The Museum (DVD)

Night at the Museum(released Dec/06)stars Ben Stiller as Larry Daley,Robin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt,Jake Cherry as Nicky Daley,Dick Van Dyke as Cecil Fredericks,Carla Gugino as Rebecca Hutman,Mickey Rooney as Gus,Bill Cobbs as Reginald,Owen Wilson as Jedediah and others.This is neat concept taken from a children's book of the same name.The story is neat and clean,generally,and has a good pace.
The story finds Stiller as a struggling single father,trying to keep afloat in so far as looking after his son is concerned.He has had to move a lot over a short period of time and his ex is hounding him.As a last ditch effort he goes to an employment agency who sends him to apply as a security guard at the Museum of Natural History,in the big apple.Acting vets Dick Van Dyke,Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs are on hand as the guards who are passing the torch,so to speak,to Stiller.Van Dyke gives Stiller a tour of the facility,hands him some stapled notes and keys,then leaves.When midnight strikes all the exhibits come to life,in dioramas or standing displays,such as monkeys,lions,wooly mammoths,an Easter Island head,Teddy Roosevelt on a horse,a T-Rex skeleton who plays fetch the bone,and so many more.Stiller is gobsmacked and quits after the first night.As he walks out his son appears with his ex's boyfriend wanting a tour of the museum.Stiller gives him a rain check and decides to try the job one more night.
It seems a golden tablet of a resting pharaoh there is responsible for bringing everything to life.However the curator finds a few messes the next morning after his shift and sacks him.His son just happens to walk in to see what took place,and leaves crushed.Back home at night Stiller explains that it was all a misunderstanding,he has his job back and that he wants his son to accompany him to work that night.At midnight Stiller prepares his son for what is about to happen...but nothing does.He checks out the pharaohs room to find the tablet gone.Soon Stiller learns that the ex guards are in the process of stealing the museums greatest artifacts,including the gold tablet,and are going to fence them in order to pad their retirement income.Stiller leaps into action and succeeds in getting the entire exhibits-brought-to-life to assist him in capturing the guards.After an up and down battle the guards are caught and everything is returned to its normal spot.The guards are made to be janitors to get out of being arrested and the outside antics of some of the museums living displays got on the previous nights news and attendance has suddenly shot up,to the pleasant surprise of the curator.
As I mentioned the film moves along at a good pace and there is little filler here to slow the film down.There are a lot of little neat moments such as Dexter the monkey's close encounters with Stiller,vis a' vis the slapping routine and the constant stealing of Stiller's keys.Teddy Roosevelt's presence(Williams) is a neat touch as he offers Stiller some good advice throughout.This movie will especially appeal to children and the children in all of us due to the myriad of creatures both ancient and new that walk the museum halls after midnight.Watch for Stiller's real life mother Ann Meara who makes a delightful appearance as the employment agent.Also it was an absolute joy seeing Mickey Rooney and Dick Van Dyke playing the security guards.They've still got it!
Technically speaking the film is in its w/s a/r of 1 :85:1 and is clear and crisp.Extras include only commentary.
All in all a nice little distraction that will have the children in all of us in awe at what they see re-created on the screen.The movie has a decent pace to it,and while it is far from perfect,I did enjoy it.Recommended.

Night at the Museum is based on a kids' book of the same name. The film follows a divorced father named Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) who is eager to impress his son Nick with his career. Larry gets a job at The Museum of Natural History. He becomes the museum's night watchman. The museum contains an Egyptian artifact that animates everything inside when the sun goes down. We see wax statues of Neanderthals, Attila the Hun, Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams) and Sacagawea come alive. Animals from the African exhibit come to life and run amok as does a bust from Easter Island and even a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton and a Woolly Mammoth. Most enjoyable are the tiny figure exhibits of the Mayans, some cowboys led by Jedediah Smith (Owen Wilson) and the Romans led by Gaius Octavius (Steve Coogan). We see the chaos this brings to Larry's job but in the end it all works in his favor.

Visually and from an educational standpoint Night at the Museum has its merits. It is thoroughly entertaining and probably great for kids. It plays out in ways which we've seen before, so it's not a perfect movie but it will suffice within its genre. There are also enough adult aimed jokes to entertain beyond a younger audience and that should be no surprise given the history of those who wrote this movie (The State, Reno 911). Beyond those I've already mentioned, this great cast includes Carla Gugino, Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke, Paul Rudd and many others. Paul Rudd plays Nick's stepfather and makes for some of the more genuinely funny moments.

There is little to criticize beyond the lack of depth, which is of course what we can expect from a kid's movie. Ben Stiller is at times great and at times just sort of doing what he needs to do. He is undeniably likeable and critics were a little harder on him than I thought he deserved. The historical depictions are not perfect but my criticisms here are mainly nitpickings. Attila the Hun is not portrayed accurately from an ethnic standpoint and the Neanderthals were much more intelligent and fully capable of using fire. However, Night at the Museum is forgiven because it is an innocent and entertaining story with a lot of harmless fun.

I saw this movie at the theatre and really enjoyed it! Ben Stiller is really good in his role play. So is Robin Williams, Dick Van Dyke (nice to see him again) & Mickey Rooney. Great cast and so much fun to watch them together. The story is an imaginary tale that will keep you entertain and laughing a lot. It's a good movie that the whole family can enjoy.

Even though I already saw it at the theatre, I will still get a copy of this one for sure!