Night at the Museum

The perfect family film for a Bank Holiday Monday morning, Night at the Museum is a film in which history comes to life. Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is divorced and unable to hold down a steady job in New York City. His ex-wife believes that the constant uprooting is affecting their ten year old son and pleads with him to settle down and get a steady job. Larry takes a job at the Museum of Natural History as a night watchman but soon discovers that the job is much harder than advertised as the exhibits literally come to life after dark.

I’ve seen this film a few times now but I’m not really sure why. It’s quite fun and passes a couple of hours but it’s by no stretch of the imagination, a classic. Night at the Museum is one of those films that you can put on and turn off the brain, allowing the noises and images to wash over you as your eyes glaze over. What it offers is silly fun and a treat for kids. Unfortunately I watched it alone, in my pyjamas.

I think that the film manages its set pieces very well and it always has a lot of action on screen with which to distract the viewer. The movie is busy and highly animated and features a lot of special effects, most of which look pretty good. There are plenty of characters and little sub plots which keeps the movie ticking over and some of these are good fun. I thought that the bickering, fighting and eventual friendship between the miniature Steve Coogan and Owen Wilson characters was a lot of fun and there was a nice romantic subplot between Mizuo Peck and Robin Williams. Some of the other characters were annoying or underdeveloped though and unfortunately these tended to be the central characters.

Ben Stiller does his best with the role but there is little comedy to be had and he mainly just runs around trying to close doors. He gets his hero moment late on but there isn’t much to his character. Carla Gugino is hampered with a character whose only trait is that she is writing about a two hundred year old woman and Ricky Gervais, who I’m a huge fan of, simply plays David Brent in a waistcoat. The film is full of inconsistencies and ridiculousness aside from the obvious museum coming to life. The first thing that annoyed me is the premise that the museum is attracting no visitors. I visited a couple of months ago and found it was one of the busiest buildings I’d ever been inside. There are other problems such as locking up the lions being top of the priority list, one man guarding an entire museum and the language issues but really I think its best not to over think the plot holes in a film like this.

In the end, Night at the Museum is a bit of throwaway fun which features a nice central idea and a few enjoyable moments. It’s ridiculous and silly but generally well made and popular enough to become the first part in a trilogy.   

5/10   

Titbits

• The interiors were shot on a soundstage in Vancouver. They were originally scheduled to be shot in Montreal but Ben Stiller prefers Vancouver so the production moved there.
• Owen Wilson was only meant to be appearing in one scene but his character tested so well in previews that he came back to shoot more.
• The film spawned a sequel in 2009 and Night at the Museum 3 is scheduled for release on Christmas Day 2014. 
• Crystal the Monkey has appeared in films as diverse as American Pie, The Hangover Part II, We Bought a Zoo, Dr. Doolittle and 3:10 to Yuma.