Night at the Museum

Director:Shawn Levy
Release Date: 22 December 2006

 

Cast:
Larry Daley: Ben Stiller
Rebecca: Carla Gugino
Cecil: Dick Van Dyke
Gus: Mickey Rooney
Reginald: Bill Cobbs
Nick Daley: Jake Cherry
Dr. McPhee: Ricky Gervais
Teddy Roosevelt: Robin Williams
Erica Daley: Kim Raver

 

Ben Stiller is arguably one of the top comedians working today after films like Zoolander and Tropic Thunder it’s great to see him in full form in this action-adventure comedy: Night at the Museum. Stiller plays a down on his luck father of a young son. He is unable to keep jobs; his career is littered with entrepreneurial schemes that never took off. Soon his son will have a new step-father, a successful Wall Street financier (played by Paul Rudd). Stiller worries he will lose his son’s respect to the titan of finance and takes a job at the Museum of Natural History to be able to show the boy that he can keep a job.

His first night on the job is an eye opening experience for him. The three older night guards (played superbly by legends Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney joined by veteran actor Bill Cobbs) give Stiller a bit of advice: Don’t let anything get out. At first he Stiller is nonplussed by the warning but soon finds that the exhibits have the uncanny ability to come to life after the museum is closed. His job becomes harder still when he finds out that any exhibit left outside when sunrise appears will turn to dust. The special effects team did some great work here and they are well worth seeing.

Needless to say that complications do arise, there is a love interest (played by the lovely Carla Gugino) who doesn’t believe Stiller’s stories of reanimated exhibits and to top it off is a Museum director played by the excellent British comedian Ricky Gervais.

All the actors give excellent performances with top-notch comedy writing and excellent effects. The film is good for a whole family but hasn’t been dumbed down for the little ones so it can be enjoyed by adults as well.

 

 

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