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The fight for the big movie hit at Christmas time used to be as much a big a deal as who would be the musical number one in the charts until X-Factor swept all the competition away each year. With a tempting teaser trailer and a cast that reads like a who's who of comedy, "Night at the Museum" has taken the number one spot in North America this Yuletide cinema season and duly opened over here in the UK on Boxing Day. Drawn in by the trailer and the equivalent of pester power only in the guise of my good lady, I duly booked the tickets in advance for an opening day showing at my local multiplex.

Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is a down on his luck divorcee facing eviction from his home in Brooklyn. Desperate to temporarily avoid losing his part time rights to look after his son, he takes a job as a night watchman at the Natural History Museum bordering Central Park in Manhattan. Inducted by the outgoing guards who tell him that he is to replace all three of them in a cost cutting drive by the museum (which is losing money hand over fist due to a dearth of visitors), the head guard Cecil (Dick Van Dyke) leaves him a set of keys, a flashlight and an old tattered, instructional manual to cope with his first night's duties. As the doors close and the lights go off, Larry discovers that history really does come to life in this antiquated setting as he suddenly finds himself chased by the skeleton of a dinosaur and that's just the start of his adventure!

Based on Milan Trenc's children's book and adapted for the screen by Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, "Night at the Museum" is a suspension of belief type of story in the mould of "Toy Story" or at least that's what came to mind the most with historical figures coming to life at night in the same way that toys would become animated as soon as the adults weren't around. The story itself takes the movie across a number of genres including fantasy, action and slapstick with the result that it ends up as none of them in a real patchwork quilt of a production. With a cast list like the one assembled for this film, you would imagine that it would be difficult for anything to go wrong, such is the strength and depth of the roll call and yet only Ben Stiller gets to develop any kind of characterisation whilst everyone else is reduced to cameo amongst the customary explosion of special effects. With the mercurial Dick Van Dyke playing the scheming Cecil, Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs supporting as the other guards, Ricky Jervais playing

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