NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM

Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
20th Century Fox
Grade: B
Directed by: Shawn Levy
Written By: Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, from book
"The Night at the Museum
Cast: Ben Stiller, Carla Gugino, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey
Rooney, Bill Cobbs, Robin Williams, Jake Cherry, Ricky
Gervais, Kim Raver, Patrick Gallagher, Rami Malek, Mizuo
Peck, Steve Coogan, Anne Meara, Owen Wilson
Screened at: AMC Empire, NYC, 12/ 24/06
Opens: December 22, 2006

In Shawn Levy’s “Night at the Museum,” Ben Stiller in the role of a night security guard at a museum gets slapped around by a monkey, chased by a dinosaur that thinks he’s a dog, hunted by a lion, considered an enemy by a 13th-century Asian, an ancient Roman warrior and a 19th century cowboy, attacked by cave men, henpecked by an ex-wife, and looked down upon by his ex-wife’s husband and his ten-year old boy. Like Rodney Dangerfield, he gets no respect, and if that’s not the main thing we all want, what is? If Ben Stiller is not his generation’s Woody Allen, who is?

Shawn Levy, operating in a set nicely designed by Claude Pare to simulate New York’s capacious Museum of Natural History using Thom Lennon’s screenplay, shows us that a security guard’s job can be other than one that requires its inhabitant to do other than simply walk around like a zombie, read the New York Post, and sleep. Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), newly unemployed and horrified by the thought that he may have to move from Manhattan to Queens unless he finds a gig but fast, is sent by an agency to a museum that has turned down everyone else that was recommended. When Larry shows up, the three outgoing guards, Cecil (Dick Van Dyke), Gus (Mickey Rooney), and Reginald (Bill Cobbs), figure that he’s the one. (Why downsized guards would have the authority to choose a successor rather than the director, Dr. McPhee, who is played by Ricky Gervais, is anyone’s guess). The former guards, who have larceny on their minds, believe Larry to be a fall guy, but Larry, determined to regain his young son’s respect, is ready to show his mettle. When night falls and, per an ancient Egyptian tablet, all the creatures of the museum come alive making anarchy reign, he gets his chance to largely hilarious effect.

The film allows Robin Williams as the equestrian Teddy Roosevelt; Patrick Gallagher as Attila the Hun; Rami Malek as the Egyptian ruler Ahkmenrah; Mizuo Peck as the Lewis-and-Clark guide Sacajawea; Steve Coogan as the Roman emperor Octavius; and Owen Wilson as Jedediah to do what they’d be known to do in their own time, while Larry gets his chance to engage in a little romance with the museum’s tour guide, Rebecca (Carla Gugino) and some new bonding with his impressionable son, Nick (Jake Cherry). We wonder how Larry could have ever married Erica (Kim Raver), who looks more like a wax dummy than anything at the museum, but that’s another story. In the tale’s best gag, Debbie (Anne Meara) states that she “feels no connection” with Larry, whom she is interviewing. Ben Stiller is Anne Meara’s real-life son.

Rated PG. 108 minutes 2006 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online