Night at the Museum

Review by Clint Morris

Museums are odd places – they’re eerily quiet, there’s never usually anything new to look at, and for the most part, you’re ready to leave after about half-an-hour. Same must apply to any film with the word Museum in the title.

An expensive Christmasy offering from director Shawn Levy (Cheaper by the Dozen) and producer Chris Columbus (Home Alone), the exuberant but only mildly entertaining Night at the Museum is another of these “one note event movies” with plans to pilfer the kiddies (or, more likely, mum and dad’s) cash these holidays.

Ben Stiller (Strange casting choice because kids won’t know him from a bar of soap) plays the newly appointed night watchman of a city museum. On his first night on the job – as hinted by the previous nightwatchmen (Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke and Bill Cobbs); all retiring – he discovers that history really does “come alive” at his new workplace, as everything and everyone from Dinosaurs to Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams), cowboys (Owen Wilson, naturally; attached to Stiller’s hip, cameo’s as the ringleader) and Atilla the Hun turn, well, real. At least, until morning.

I didn’t stick around long enough to see, but I wouldn’t at all be surprised if there’s a part-financing credit to the National Museum of History tacked onto the end of the movie. It’s the only thing that makes sense. I mean, what benefit does the film have to anyone else but a slowed-down attraction beseeching young visitors over the holidays? Not much. Well, not if the littlies have seen Jumanji (1995) or Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), anyway.

This is a strange beast indeed. Devoid of laughs, lacking a workable plot, but with an amazing cast – the fact that Levy has rounded up Van Dyke, Rooney and Cobbs to play pivotal parts in the film is a coup in itself – that seem to be carrying on as if they’re in the next big blockbuster, A Night at the Museum is like a wearisome party made tolerable thanks to some old friends that welcomingly turn up at the last minute.

For all intents and purposes, this is a kids’ flick – but even they’ll get a bit twitchy by the time the middle act (essentially just a repeat of the first act) kicks in. There’s only so many times you can watch Ben Stiller play tag with a bunch of wax dolls that have come to life before it gets old, ya know?

Still, the youngsters will probably be entertained enough by it, I guess, but then again, letting them run under the sprinkler for an hour might also do the trick.

Be interested to see whether museum patronage increases as a result.

2 out of 5

Night at the Museum
Australian release: 26th December, 2006
Cast: Ben Stiller, Carla Gugino, Kim Raver, Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke
Director: Shawn Levy
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