Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Night at the Museum


I’m sure most of you know the drill on this movie: Lovable loser played by Ben Stiller gets a job as the night watchman in the Museum of Natural History. At night all the exhibits in the museum come to life. Chaos and mildly amusing, special-effects-laden whimsey ensues. Everything wraps up in a predictably touching, satisfying manner.

Although NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM never did fully engage my interest, I laughed a few times, had no trouble staying awake, and found it reasonably entertaining. Robin Williams makes a pretty good Teddy Roosevelt, Stiller’s buddy Owen Wilson plays a tiny cowboy from one of the museum’s dioramas and has a good time with it, and it’s always good to see Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney, who, along with Bill Cobbs (one of my favorite character actors), play the former night guards in the museum. I seem to remember that this movie got fairly bad reviews when it came out, but I give it an okay rating.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The story line here sounds like it has elements somewhat similar to the old Thorne Smith novel, The Night Life of the Gods. Can anyone here shed any light on that? IMDB says the movie, which I haven't seen, is based on a book by Milan Trenc. Smith, of course, was the "Topper" creator.

James Reasoner said...

I've never read NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS, although I have a copy of it around here somewhere. But from what I remember hearing about its plot, I think you're right, Keith. I certainly enjoyed the Topper novels, and someone told me not long ago that Smith's novel RAIN IN THE DOORWAY is also good.

mybillcrider said...

"Lovable" and "Ben Stiller" just don't work for me.

Gonzalo B said...

By the way, you can find the full text of Night Life of the Gods here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/forgottenfutures/smith/nightlf/ntlf-00.htm

Charles Gramlich said...

I saw this and enjoyed it. Got some laughs, as you said. I'm generally not a big fan of Ben Stiller's and he was predictable in this one, but it was worth a couple of bucks to see.