Spending the Night with Night at the Museum (2006)

I remember when I first heard about Night at the Museum I thought it was a really stupid movie. The trailers and the concept did nothing for me. Add to that not being a big fan of Ben Stiller and there wasn't much reason for me to go see it. What surprised me was hearing all the positive reviews and hearing about how well it was doing. It was about that time I heard about how big it's cast was. Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson (uncredited... wait, seriously?), Rickey Gervais, Steve Coogan, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Brad Garret and Paul Rudd (if only briefly). That's a serious list of talented funny people there! Ever since then I've been meaning to watch this movie, but never got around to it, or simply forgot about it. Well that's part of the reason I'm doing all this daily movie gig. Hit the jump as I catch up on my history!

So the premise of this movie is simple, a magic Egyptian tablet brings everything in the museum to life, and it's up to the new night watchmen (Ben Stiller) to keep everything under control. Wacky hijinks ensue. Also he's a single dad trying to impress his son. It's this fairly predictable storyline that originally kept me from the movie in the first place, but it actually plays out well thanks to all the great actors.

I really enjoyed Robin Williams' performance as Teddy Roosevelt, even if it was typical Robin Williams. The banter and relationship between Owen Willson's miniature cowboy and Steve Coogan's miniature Octavius is hilarious and had me laughing and smiling several times throughout the movie. Rickey Gervais gave a funny performance as the museum's curator, and Ben Stiller did an alright job as the straight man of the film.

The effects actually surprised me as I thought they were really good. Everything was believably there in the scene for me as the giant T-rex chased Stiller through the halls or the various stuffed wildlife came to life. Costuming for all the human characters was great too. Cavemen, Roman soldiers, Attila the Hun and his men, faceless Civil War dummies, Egyptian Pharaoh and the living bronze Columbus were all impressive. There's so many more people and things you see in this movie that are always catching your eye, it's just visually great all around.

To wrap up I'd just like to say I really liked the action in this movie. The subplot of the museum heist worked well and added some life to the story that I didn't really expect to find. I never found myself bored like I thought I might be, and there were some genuinely funny moments. If you haven't seen Night at the Museum, check it out if you like lighthearted family comedies. I heard there was a sequel made, and I'm now looking forward to seeing that quite a bit!