Night at the Museum: A Review
Knowledge is power! is the theme of this fun, friendly film.
Dec 29, 2006
The American Museum of Natural History in New York City provides the elegant and creepy backdrop for this fun and imaginative movie starring Ben Stiller.
Larry (Ben Stiller) is a divorced slacker dad trying to find and keep a job to maintain the confidence of his 10-year-old son. Ben Stiller lands a job as night guard at the Museum and is greeted by three, old moldy museum guards who are ready to retire. These guys are sassy seniors played to great fun by Dick van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, and Bill Cobbs.
But these are mischievous guards who fail to tell Larry the one big secret about the museum: The secret of this museum is that all of its inhabitants come alive at night. So there is a dog-like T-Rex skeleton roaming the halls at night, as well as a cheeky capuchin monkey named Dexter who feels the need to relieve himself on Larry. All of the taxidermic critters come alive, along with the life-size figures of Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) and Sakagawea (Mizuo Peck).
There are other assorted characters in the museum including a tiny, sensitive cowboy named Jedediah (Owen Wilson), a tiny Roman General (Steve Coogan), and a very large Easter Island head. The museum director is played by Ricky Gervais who manages to take vague communication to an all-time high. At one point, he parodies George W. Bush by pulling out the famously flubbed, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice..."
This movie will never win any Oscars, but I highly recommend it because of its redeeming message: Knowledge is power. It is carved into the top of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and Larry only succeeds at his daunting task by educating himself about the colorful characters who roam those marble halls at night.
Look for Mizuo Peck's star to rise quickly. She is practically unknown, lovely and understated as the Shoshone guide Sacagawea, who teams up with the Teddy Roosevelt/Robin Williams character.
Go see Night at the Museum and then go look up how Attila the Hun died. It will shock you!
