Night at the Museum Review

by Homer Yen (homer_yen AT yahoo DOT com)
December 25th, 2006
"A Night at the Museum" - Where History Comes
Alive
by Homer Yen
(c) 2006

What happens when you combine
animals-come-to-life effects of "Jumanji" and the loony exploits of a Bugs Bunny-like episode? You probably get something like "A Night at the
Museum" where chaos always ensues after
nightfall. It proves that working as a security
guard for the nightshift at the Natural Museum of History is probably more interesting than
wandering through it during the daytime as a
visitor.

This very family-friendly fare tells the story of
an underachieving dad named Larry (Ben stiller).
His general demeanor of apathy doesn't allow him
to hold a steady job or even his marriage
together. Now divorced, he is also in danger of losing custody of his 10-year old son. Out of desperation, he takes the first job available,
and that is a lowly $11.50 per hour job as the
night security officer at New York's famous
museum.

Although every story needs a set-up, this one is
about as tiring as being in a museum for 10
hours. Stiller looks generally helpless for the first two-thirds of the film. And based on the
movie trailers, we are paying good money to see
the magical happenings at the museum and not to
watch Larry the loser Dad schlubbing around
trying to figure out how to land that $11.50 per
hour job. My advice to the moviegoer is to
either come prepared with a little extra amount
of patience (because thankfully, everything does
pay off in the end) or to just come into the film about 20 minutes after it has started.

The cast is a tapestry of funnymen. They include venerable actors like Dick Van Dyke, Andy Rooney,
and Bill Cobbs who play outgoing security guards assigned to train Larry. Among other things,
Larry is warned to not let anyone in the museum
OR out.

At night, all of the exhibits come to glorious
life, unbeknownst at first to Larry. Some ideas
are borne of pure creativity such as the Easter
Island stone statue that has a craving for
"gum-gum" and the skeleton of the T-Rex who wants
to play fetch. Some exhibits are of the ordinary
type consisting of animals like lions and
ostriches and monkeys, oh my! And then there are
the surreal exhibits featuring contemporary
comedic actors like Owen Wilson, Steve Coogen,
and Robin Williams. Some of these exhibits are human-sized like Teddy Roosevelt who dispenses
nuggets on leadership, Attila the Hun who is
looking for people to pull apart, Civil War
soldiers who are constantly battling each other,
and cavemen who are looking to start fire. Some exhibits are intricate dioramas featuring 19th
century cowboys, a Roman legion, and Mayan
warriors. In short, when they come to life,
assorted acts of mayhem can be expected.

With so many different options to focus on, there
are lots of opportunities to develop subplots,
whether they are about friendship among different cultures; fighting for a common cause; the need
to impress a son; or bravery. Of course, in a lightweight comedy such as this, each plot is developed with the amount of attention that a sleep-deprived security guard might have at 4am.
But there's enough to keep us occupied, the film
never seems cluttered, and it's not often when a
film has the line, "why are you slapping that
monkey?"

Grade: B-

S: 0 out of 3
L: 0 out of 3
V: 1 out of 3

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