Night at the Museum Review

Sweeping panoramas of prehistoric animals, African landscapes, and zoological wonders of the jungle are the beginning credits of the latest Ben Stiller movie. While the beginning credits may be awe-inspiring, Night at the Museum proves less-so. The comic timing is superb, the plot-line intriguing, the directing and editing expected, and the acting leaves something to be desired.

The basic story is that Ben Stiller plays a well-intentioned but dead-beat dad who can't hold a job and is constantly moving. In an effort to gain the respect and admiration of his son and ex-wife (who is engaged to an unusually and disturbingly peppy bond trader) he gets a job at the Museum of Natural History. The museum is downsizing and replacing it's three old night guards with one new guard. As night descends Stiller's character discoveres that everything in the museum comes to life. After a frustrating encounter with a pernicious monkey, the old and tattered manual he was supposed to learn from, is torn to pieces.

Guided through his first tumultous night by a charasmatic Teddy Roosevelt played by Robin Williams, Stiller is able to restore order to the museum without losing any artifacts to the dawn that turns them to dust should they be outside the museum when the sun rises. His second night, Stiller is not so lucky and one of the Homo Habilis specimens finds his way of the the museum (in part due to the aforementioned pernicious monkey) and fades to dust at dawn.

While watching Ben Stiller lose his keys over and over to the pernicious monkey named Dexter is entertaining it certainly falls short of true conflict, which sadly arrives much to late in the film. The three laid off night guards make it a point to steal the tablet of A-mun Rah which is what causes everything to animate at night. As it turns out, the tablet also brings new life to the aged guards as well. So, steal the tablet and frame the new guard is their plan.

After a good hour of shits and giggles the comedy begins to wear thin and one can hear the audience begin to stir as they await the real point of this movie. One unfortunate side-effect of casting Ben Stiller is that you get stuck with his acting. And his acting is indeed stuck. While the story quality of his movies have moved beyond Something About Mary, the extent ofhis acting has not. It is the same Ben Stiller you have seen in every movie and the same you will see in any future movies.

All-in-all the comedy of this movie is excellent and the acting standard. While Ben Stiller's steady acting may be comforting don't expect an Oscar-winning performance. See this movie in a discount theatre simply for the experience of seeing in the theatre and then buy it on DVD. It's an excellent movie to add to your collection.