Eric D. Snider
Night at the Museum
Movie Review
"Night at the Museum"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: B-
Rating: PG
Released: Friday, December 22, 2006
Directed by:
Cast:
"Night at the Museum" has a premise that sounds fantastic until you look closely at it. It's about a security guard at a large museum who discovers his first night on the job that between sunset and sunrise, everything in the place comes to life. A little close to "Jumanji," sure, but that's workable.
The problem is, where can you go with such a premise? Any scenes set outside the museum, or set inside the museum during daylight hours, will seem irrelevant. Why waste our time with other stuff when there are living dioramas and T-rex skeletons to look at? And furthermore, what's the actual story going to be? "A museum where the exhibits come to life" isn't a plot; it's a premise. You have to DO something with it to turn it into a plot.
The "Night at the Museum" writers -- the hacktastic duo of Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon (both so funny as actors on "Reno 911," and so bad as writers of family dreck like "The Pacifier" and "Herbie Fully Loaded") -- have fleshed out Milan Trenc's children's book to include a trio of retiring security guards (Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, and Bill Cobbs) who tell the new guy, Larry (Ben Stiller), the source of the museum's mysterious power. They also provide conflict when they try to snag that power for themselves.
It's the first special-effects-heavy comedy for star Ben Stiller or director Shawn Levy ("Cheaper by the Dozen," "The Pink Panther"), but both adapt rather well. Perhaps because the many digital effects make rampant improvisation too expensive, Stiller is much more subdued than usual, with the resultant performance far more likable than when he's sweatily trying to get laughs. Levy, for his part, keeps the pace brisk and the storytelling simple.
The museum has a wide range of exhibits, including dioramas with miniature Old West figures and ancient Roman warriors. When they come to life, the tiny li'l fellas -- Jedediah (Owen Wilson) the cowboy and Octavius (Steve Coogan) the Roman -- fight with each other rather amusingly and lead their Lilliputian forces to attack Larry.
On the life-size level, there are Huns, lots of ferocious African mammals, and a wax figure of Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) who has long pined for the wax figure of Sacagawea (Mizuo Peck). Larry interacts with all of these and more, at first unable to control the chaos that ensues every time the sun sets, but soon taking command and governing his charges like a general.
Nearly everything else about the movie is negligible. That includes Larry's scenes trying to make his young son Nick (Jake Cherry) look up to him, and his attempts to befriend and impress a docent (Carla Gugino). So, too, are the half-hearted attempts to make it look like Larry has taken control of the late-night chaos by learning and applying history. Who made the rule that "family movies" must be filled with treacly sentiment and life lessons? Can't a guy just run around a museum being pursued by reanimated mastodons and wax-figure Neanderthals? When that's the order of business, "Night at the Museum" is fine.
Grade: B-
Rated PG, a little very mild profanity, mild action-related violence
1 hr., 48 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
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This item has 11 comments
December 30, 2006 at 8:00 am
Mickey Rooney as a security guard? That's probably an inevitable career turn for him - he hasn't really been in anything since "Pete's Dragon". I'm frankly surprised that he's still alive.
January 15, 2007 at 3:29 pm
What a shame this movie made so much money at the box office. I thought it was terrible. I guess young kids might enjoy it, but that's it. There are so many other movies that are great for young kids that adults can enjoy as well.
January 22, 2007 at 10:16 pm
I thought the parts of the movie when it was night at the museum were fun, but the rest of it killed me. I couldn't get over how many times the microphone was dangling in the picture. It was far too distracting for me to sufficiently be able to sit back and enjoy the movie. It seemed as though basically any scene with one-on-one dialogue had the dangling microphone. Aaaaaah!
April 24, 2007 at 10:48 am
I thought the movie was okay, but it was rather unbelievable in parts. Not the parts where the museum comes to life or the awkward parts where Ben Stiller talks to girls--those are fairly plausible. The thing drove me nuts was that no one slept. Ben Stiller goes to work at night, studies history all day, and goes to work at night again! Even when his son comes to visit: "I just had a full day of school and now I'm going to have a museum adventure with my dad all night and the next day I'm still going to be a pleasant person." That was the obvious fake part for me. I can only suspend my disbelief for so long.
April 26, 2007 at 6:05 am
Come on, they just didn't show the parts where everyone was sleeping. Like, you know, Ben Stiller's character probably caught a few Z's after his shift, but before he went to the library. Or something.
April 29, 2007 at 10:30 am
l like the movie it was good l like the girl sacagawea play by miuzo peck she good and robin willams
May 2, 2007 at 1:38 pm
What bothers me is everything comes to life at sundown... but the museum is always closed by then? In New York in the winter, the sun sets as early as 4:30 PM.
May 6, 2007 at 9:07 pm
What bothered me is Teddy saying he was just a wax figurine, yet all the other figures seem to be "real". Sacagewea...was she real and thus a source of information for a disertation?
I did notice the sleep thing too...here's my theory...the tablet enlivened them as well? gave them energy to be awake? it still didn't make sense and wasn't explained...
Why not end the movie logically?...it would have made more sense and been a better conclusion for Ben stiller's character
I know, I know...walking dinosaur bones are all fine, but some messes getting cleaned up and others not...not logical. Pharoh can come alive, but he cnanot learn English through his coffin and wrappings, while Sacagewea can't hear at all through her glass..not logical...then the sundown thing...why ot just choose midnight?
Ahh I had too much thinking time after this movie
June 25, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Well, I think what we have to remember here is that this is, after all, a kid's movie, and therefore, illogical, just how kids like things because their grasp on logic is generally pretty sketchy. Who else would tell their mommy, "no, I didn't eat that chocolate cake!" when chocolate is smeared from the kid's navel to his eyebrows?
I think it could have been three hours long and merely a tour of the museum alive. That would have been so cool. Forget the sappy back-story! Predictable, predictable, predictable...why couldn't Ben Stiller keep his Zoolander accent going? :)
The only thing that kept me watching the movie was how in the world were they going to get all those animals and whatnots back into the museum before sunrise? And of course, it was some Egyptian magic/trinket/doohickey that made it all better, plus it had a crazy Egyptian name. The ancient Egyptians and all their crap will come back to rule the world, 3,000 years later. Who knew?!
The best part was the hundreds of "little guys in a big world" jokes. They were obviously meant to be the most liked characters in the movie. *roll eyes.
July 29, 2007 at 9:54 pm
I finally saw this movie last night (Netflix is wonderful) and I'm so glad I didn't spend money in a theater to see it. Disappointing, to say the least. I'm always up for a good, kid-type of movie if it's done well. This wasn't. It was like a made-for-TV movie, but with silver screen-level CGI. The turning point was when the pharoah was revealed. When he popped up in his wrappings I actually had a vision that this movie could turn into something worthwhile--perhaps even resemble a real mummified person, you know (tall order I guess)? Instead, it's some good-looking, 20-something Britisher pansy who flits around taking orders from everyone but himself. That was the point where I realized this movie would suck until the credits rolled.
I liked the Civil War guys though. Does that count for anything?
September 10, 2007 at 3:03 am
Making a movie for kids is not an excuse for making a bad film.