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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Entertaining and Overall Great for Kids, July 11 2007
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.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun to watch!, May 1 2007
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!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Watching this movie is a nice way to pass the time, nothing more, Jun 27 2007
"Night at the Museum," the newest comedy from director Shawn Levy (Cheaper by the Dozen, The Pink Panther) driven by funnyman Ben Stiller, is a children's movie made for children and children alone. Basically, the movie put me to sleep. I won't say it was bad. I just felt it was too derivative. It was Jumanji remade to take place in a museum except it was missing any interesting plot dynamics. This is yet another movie about divorced parents fighting over their kids.
The effects were fine. The T-Rex motions looked like some were reused from Jurassic Park. I got the impression that a lot of the effects also involved reusing old Jumanji graphics. Some looked better, some didn't. The movie was busy enough that any flaws in the effects didn't matter. The problem with this movie is that the euphoria is too forced. It isn't inspired by the writing or the plot. Ben Stiller is an often dependable comic actor, but he's forced to squeeze laughs out of a dreadfully unfunny script, and fails miserably. He simply comes off as obnoxious and annoying throughout the film. Usually his kinetic comic style works, but usually he works with good scripts. The talents of several other actors are wasted as well, including Owen Wilson and Robin Williams (who seems almost humiliated to be involved in this film). The trio of old security guards (Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs) were impressively spry, considering they're all in their 80s. They looked like they were enjoying themselves and had else to do.
The kids love the non-stop wild antics of pretty much everything, and the extremely cute, slightly evil, capuchin monkey. My little quibble is how the film doesn't slow down, but when Owen Wilson comes on the screen it makes everything better. Overall, the movie was exactly what the trailer reveals and very little more. A false sense of hurray and hoopla is forced out onto the viewer. Beside that "Night at the Museum," has a very good message as well, about the importance of family, responsibility, and living up to one's potential. These points may be missed by many who only watch for the surface content, but I was impressed by the message.
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