NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM

In this 20th Century Fox film, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is a divorced father who just wants a dependable job to avoid eviction and moving away from his ten-year-old son. Night watchman at the almost forgotten Museum of Natural History? Sure, why not? The three old night guards, Cecil (Dick Van-Dyke), Gus, and Reginald give him a tour of the place. It's just your average museum: some wax figures, miniature settlers, a T-rex skeleton, some stuffed african animals, and a mummy with his Egyptian Tablet. The men leave him with an instruction manual and the words, "Just don't let anything in... or out." Do men ever read the instructions? No. What's to know about being a night watchman, right? To his amazement, the T-rex skeleton comes to life before his eyes! He thinks that maybe he should've read that manual before the capuchin monkey tore it up. And before Attila the Hun and the dinosaur set him running for his life. Luckily, a kindly wax Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) helps him bring order to the museum on the first night. The freaked-out watchman is informed that the mummy's Tablet is what makes everyone come alive at night. As long as nobody gets out of the museum to turn to meet a terrible fate of turning to dust at dawn, things should be just fine. This is NOT what Larry bargained for, but he wants to make his son, Nick, proud again, so he brushes up on some history and tries to make Huns, squabbling settlers and Romans, and monkeys get along. But when the tablet is stolen and the occupants of the museum turn loose into the streets, what can Larry do?

This is a funny movie directed at kids, but one that adults can laugh at too. But it does fall a tad short of being perfectly family friendly. There is a cuss word, and some mild violence (some fist-fighting with burglars, being shot with a tiny "poison" dart, getting bit on the nose by a monkey, etc). A tiny bit of disrespect is shown by Nick to his father, basically because Larry has lost it by the divorce and his job shifting all the time. One of the old nightguards has a bad temper and likes to call people names like "weirdee" and "snack shack". But good heart is shown in that everybody stops fighting and starts partying and being friends in the end. But this "roll-on-the-ground funny" is justly rated PG.

Directed by
Shawn Levy

Produced by
Chris Columbus
Stephen Sommers
Bob Ducsay

Written by
Ben Garant
Thomas Lennon

Starring
Ben Stiller
Robin Williams
Dick Van Dyke
Owen Wilson
Mickey Rooney

Music by
Alan Silvestri

Cinematography
Guillermo Navarro

Distributed by
20th Century Fox

Release date(s)
December 22, 2006

Running time
Theatrical:108 minutes