by Jennifer Claerr

Created on: April 03, 2008   Last Updated: June 06, 2009

Night at the Museum is a lot of raucous fun. Newly divorced Larry Daley, played by Ben Stiller, finds himself desperately in need of a job. He finds one at the Museum of Natural History in New York City, where he becomes a night watchman.

The museum is losing money. The former night watchmen are getting on in years, one of which is played by a very feisty Mickey Rooney. One of the night watchmen, Cecil Fredericks, played by Dick Van Dyke, fills him in on the details. The management plans to replace all three of them with a single, younger night watchman. The trouble is, this job has a catch, and the elderly gentlemen are far from forthcoming about what that catch is. They only provide him with an instruction book, and inform him that he must allow no one to get in or out of the building.

Left alone in the museum at night, Larry thinks he has a boring yet easy job. Then, when an entire Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton simply disappears, he realizes something is amiss. Larry assumes that former night watchman Cecil is merely playing a prank on him. However, when the skeleton appears fully animated, it becomes clear that this is no prank. Surprisingly, the T-Rex only wants to play fetch with one of the bones from his own rib cage.

Soon, more of the exhibits from the museum come to life. The museum quickly degenerates into sheer chaos. Larry is attacked by Huns, meets Sacajawea and gets caught in the middle of a civil war battle. Then he gets trapped in a jungle with dangerous creatures such as lions and snakes, and a monkey named Dexter who is determined to steal his keys and instruction booklet.

The whole film is just action from beginning to end. Tolerable performances are turned in several well-known actors. Robin Williams plays Teddy Roosevelt. He spends most of his time on horseback, but is nevertheless a useful supporting character. He forms an unlikely bond with Sacajawea later in the film. Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan play a man from the wild west and a Roman general respectively, and spend much of the film fighting like schoolboys.

The movie has a lot of fun moments, but in many ways it's like a long, bad joke. Worse, it has to keep telling that same joke over and over until it's not really funny anymore. There's a lot of stress, embarrassing moments and last-minute close scrapes, which get old when they're in every action movie that's ever made. There are some rather unforgivably corny moments, not the least of which is when Larry helps the Huns to get in touch with their inner child. Furthermore, it turns out that the cause of the museum exhibits' liveliness is an ancient Egyptian tablet. Not only does the prop look like it's made of plastic, but the dead Egyptian king who was its former owner hasn't deteriorated in the least despite having been dead for millennia.

All in all, my kids enjoyed this film far more than I did. It's great for a few laughs and some quality time with the family. Just don't expect to learn anything from the experience.

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