Movie Review: Night at the Museum

Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) needs a job. His ex-wife doesn't want their son to stay with him on visits until he has a stable situation. He's been evicted from his apartment and his resume has items on it such as "invented snapper", which is like the clapper for turning lights on and off, only it works by snapping your fingers instead of clapping. He's convinced he is destined for something big. His son isn't so sure. He's afraid his father might be "just an ordinary guy who needs to get a job."

The woman at the employment agency doesn't even think she can help Larry, but finally she suggests one job that has turned down everyone else she has sent over. It's a night watchman job at the Museum of Natural History. Sounds pretty menial, but Larry discovers that everything comes alive at night in the museum. He has to be sure to lock up the lions so they don't eat him. A monkey keeps stealing his keys. He has to avoid Attila the Hun. Tiny people in the dioramas--cowboys--among them Owen Wilson as Jeddediah Smith, ancient Romans, etc., fight with each other. He has to play fetch with a T-rex skeleton. Larry looks to a wax figure of Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) for advice. Roosevelt tells him, among other things, that here in this museum he might have a chance to be great. Larry isn't sure about this at all, but he has to get everyone to get along and stop a plot to steal the ancient tablet that contains the magic that enables everything to come alive at night. And then just maybe his son can be proud of his dad.

I really enjoyed this movie. It wasn't exactly deep, but it was fun. There was a Brokeback Mountain reference that most people will probably miss--the line "I ain't gonna quit you," when the two leaders of warring factions team up to help stop the plot to steal the tablet. I noticed, among other things, that Attila the Hun could suddenly understand English when Larry started talking to him Dr. Phil-style about how he must have been abandoned by his father as a baby. Or at least he seemed to understand when he couldn't before. But who cares about details like that? Just have fun with it. It's a good family movie; kids may actually want to visit a museum after seeing this.