by Ethel Smith

Created on: May 19, 2008

We borrowed the DVD of Night at the Museum from our friendly neighbours, recently. We often swap DVD's between each other and have seen some crackers over the years. As they have small children we often find that the films are really children's films but still great and highly enjoyable. So, when we took this film we were looking forward to it.

I had read a little about the story and film wheras Hubby knew nothing about it. Looking at the outer cover with it's picture of Ben Stiller, who plays the lead role, it looked promising. It had an interesting holgram effect which showed Ben and some strange characters which seemed to appear and disappear.

I won't spoil the plot for those of you have not seen this movie but here's a very brief outline. Skip this if you want to.

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Larry, played by Ben Stiller, becomes in desperate need of a steady job. With nothing else on offer he begins work as a night janitor at the City's Natural History Museum. The three aged watchmen who are about to retire have an hidden agenda for wanting Larry. Amongst these three are Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney. These very old actors played their parts well but, I for one, did not even realise that Mickey Rooney was still alive and acting.

When Larry starts his new job he quickly finds things are not what they seem, at this museum, and his quiet nightshift will be anything but that. This museum takes virtual displays to a whole new level.

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What did we think?.

Well I didn't like this film much at all. Hubby thought it was okay. I had thought that he would really enjoy this film as he usually loves this sort of thing. Having read about it I thought it would be another Jumanji but more advanced and up to date. How wrong can you be?. I loved Jumanji and its characters and special effects but not 'Night at the Museum'.

The comedy was okay but never side splittingly funny. The film sort of dragged along at one point and then lost my attention all together. It has an underlying theme of family guy which was a typical American one of an ex-husband's relationship with his son, now there is a much more upwardly mobile, new model on the scene.

Ricky Gervais as the museum curator did nothing for me. His stupid voice and character just didn't seem to fit and irritated me. Normally I love him. I have worked in galleries and museums and have come across plenty of odd-ball curators, who have been extremely eccentric, but for me his character did not work. His talents were wasted. Robin Williams as a leading character was nowhere near as good as usual. There were plenty of well known faces throughout the film, as with Steve Coogan, another British comedian who I usually like.

Overall I think these disappointing performances were due to the film and its production, not the actor's talents.

The CGI's were clever and entertaining but even these advanced techniques couldn't save the day. Asking my neighbours what they thought, they said that the kids had liked it and I think that sums it up. It will be great family entertainment, especially for youngish children.

It is one of those children's films which sounds as if it has universal appeal and just somehow misses the mark. For all the ingredients of talented actors, okay plot and great effects it just doesn't work for me. People's tastes varying so much means that it may work for you though. However, you may like me be disappointed so don't expect too much. Maybe, as with a lot of films, this one suffered from all the pre release hype and after my negative review you will love it after all.

Genre-Comedy.
Rated PG for comic scary moments.
Running time 104 minutes.
Two disc box set.
Disc two has a few of the usual extra, games, extra scenes etc plus Mcfly music.

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