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“Night at the Museum” has an idea that sounds
fantastic until you look closely at it. It’s about a security guard at a large
museum who finds out his first night on the job that between sunset and
sunrise, everything in the museum comes to life. Eric D. Snider said in his
review, “A little close to “Jumanji,” sure, but that’s workable.
The problem is, where can you go with such an idea?
Any scenes taken place outside the museum, or set inside the museum during
daylight hours, will seem unrelated. Snider said, “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 story, it’s an idea. You have to DO something with it to
turn it into a story.
The “Night at the Museum” writers – who Snider credits
as “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 brought to life a Milan Trenc’s children’s book to have
a trio of retiring security guards (Dick Van Dyke, the late Mickey Rooney, and
Bill Cobbs) who tell the new guy, Larry (the hilarious Ben Stiller), the cause
of the museum’s secretive power.
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 adjust very well. Snider said, “Perhaps because the many digital
effects make rampant improvisation too expensive, Stiller is much more subdued
than usual, with the resultant performance for more likable than when he’s
sweatily trying to get laughs.” Levy, for his part, keeps the pace sharp and
the storytelling simple.
The museum has a wide range of exhibits, including
dioramas with tiny Old West figures and ancient Roman warriors. When they come
to life, the tiny wax figures – Jedediah (comedian Owen Wilson) the cowboy and
Octavius (the great Steve Coogan) the Roman – fight with each other rather hilariously
and, according to Snider, “lead their Lilliputian forces to attack Larry.”
On the normal-size deal, there are Huns (Patrick
Gallagher, Randy Lee, Darryl Quon, Gerald Wong and Paul Chih-Ping Cheng), lots
of vicious African mammals, and a wax figure of President Theodore Roosevelt
(Robin Williams) who has a long crush on the wax figure of Sacagawea (Mizuo
Peck). Larry talks with all of them and more, at first unable to control the
pandemonium that takes place every time at sunset, but soon taking control and leading
his responsibilities like a general.
Just about everything else about the movie is insignificant.
That includes Larry’s scenes trying to make his only son Nick (Jake Cherry)
look up to him, and his attempts to become friends and impress a college
lecturer (Carla Gugino). Also, so are the half-hearted attempts to make it look
like Larry has taken control of the late-night pandemonium by learning and
applying history. Who made the rule that “family movies” must be filled with tacky
feeling and life lessons? Can’t a guy just go around a museum being followed by
reanimated mastodons and wax-figure Neanderthals (Kerry van der Griend, Dan
Rizzuto, Matthew Harrison and Jody Racicot)? When that’s the premise of the
movie, “Night at the Museum” is fine.
I saw this movie on New Year’s Day of 2007, I believe,
in IMAX. I fell in love with this movie because it was very entertaining and I
loved every minute of it. If you can, watch this movie because it is an
enjoyment and education for the whole family.
Want to know how the sequels are? Find out next week
when I look at the first sequel in “Night at the Museum Month.”
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