Night at the Museum

By Dr. Lin Zucconi

I DVR'd Night at the Museum, Ben Stiller's 2006 comedy and watched it last night. You can rent it on DVD if you can't find it on your satellite or cable provider. It is cute and funny and there are lots of cameo appearances by famous actors young and old. Stiller is on his own locked up as night guard Larry in the NY Museum of Natural History. Larry has a son from a previous marriage and is seen as a hopeless irresponsible dreamy headed guy. He knows he has to redeem his relationship with his son. Maybe this new job can help him.

Thanks to an ancient Egyptian plaque of solid gold placed in the Egyptian exhibit in 1952, every night since then all the creatures and ancient and modern humans portrayed in the museum's exhibits, dioramas and statues come to life. The museum is seeing poor attendance and to cut back, its three old guards Bill Cobbs, Mickey Rooney and Dick Van Dyke) are being replace by the young hapless Larry (Stiller). He has no idea what he is in for when the sun goes down until the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton wakes up and wants to play fetch.

Robin Williams appears as the Teddy Roosevelt mannequin on a horse who has a crush on Sacagawea, Owen WIlson as a miniature Jedidiah, a  wild west buckaroo and Steve Coogan as a miniature Octavius Ceasar. There are also Genghis Khan and his pals, a bunch of grunting Neanderthals, and a bronze statue of Christopher Columbus (who Larry thinks might be Galileo). Most mischievous of all is a capuchin monkey determined to steal Larry's keys and prevent him from locking up the lions.

Very fun, not always the best acting but this is meant to be a screw ball comedy. A good clean hilarious movie. What a brilliant idea the script writer had ... a night in a museum where all the animals and ancient people come to life!

What I liked best was that the movie makes reading history and learning about science important and fun. Doing so is the only way Larry can figure out how to get all these folks to co-operate and not kill each other and the animals under control (and make his son proud of him). There is a great line where the capuchin monkey and Larry are slapping each other and Teddy Roosevelt  exasperated when Larry complains that the "monkey started it" replies, "but you evolved."

Rent it whether you have kids or not....I went to bed with a smile on my face.