Night at the Museum (2006)

Night at the Museum (2006)

6/10

Starring

Ben Stiller

Carla Gugino

Dick Van Dyke

Robin Williams

Directed by Shawn Levy

I never had the privilege of reading the 32 page 1993 children book (The Night at the Museum by Milan Trenc) this movie is based on before even seeing the movie. When I did see this movie, I was impressed at the level of adventure that was packed in a less than two hours movie.

It was fun, funny and the thrills kept coming. The cast were numerous well recognized actors, there was something for everyone in the list. The CGI was well done and the movie itself for me did so well to give the producers a pat on the back.

Night at the Museum is a movie I saw without even reading on it first, just stumbled on it on TV and sat through it. Ben Stiller delivered an A+ acting in this movie where he plays a security guard at a museum.

Ben Stiller’s character Larry was a night-shift security guard at the American Museum of Natural History. Larry is divorced and not getting on well with the Ex and his ten-year-old son is his world and he took the job hoping that he can impress him.

He was hired to replace the retiring security guards Cecil Fredericks (Dick Van Dyke), Gus (Mickey Rooney), and Reginald (Bill Cobbs). During Larry's shift without warning from the previous guards, the whole museum came to life at night. Here is a brief list of what Larry had to deal with:

Tyrannosaurus skeleton who behaves like a dog. A capuchin monkey named Dexter who is very mischievous. Some warring miniature factions of cowboys and legionnaires led by Jedediah (Owen Wilson) and General Octavius (Steve Coogan). Attila the Hun and his army. One of the only reasonable thing in the museum to come to his aid is a wax model of Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams).

He was shocked and scared by these happenings and lost control of the whole museum, until Roosevelt calms him and explains things to him.

The exhibits started coming to life every night since the arrival of an Egyptian artifact, called the Tablet of Akhmenrah. He then informed Larry the dangers of having the museum in chaos and he needs to put things in place to keep the museum in order and its occupants safe.

Things got tricky when Larry found out that some people are trying to steal from the museum and make off with one of its artifacts.

The movie was not well received by critics even though it did well in the box office making more than five times its production cost and a huge sale in DVDs.