Cinema Sunday: Night at the Museum

Today's Cinema Sunday, I'm going to look at a Ben Stiller movie from 2006 that I only saw last week, Night at the Museum.  

This one is for Andrea. 

My wife has been wanting to see this movie for years.  But every time there was a chance to for her to see it, something would get in the way. 

About a half-dozen times, her department would try to have a lunch and movie event at work. Night at the Museum was the selected movie. A couple of times, the event was cancelled out right. A couple more times, upper management would get antsy about a lunch event going more than an hour. One time they got the OK to do a movie but it had to be G rated as to not offend anyone. 

They finally got to do the lunch and movie event at work with Night at the Museum.  

While Andrea was on vacation. 

I bought Night at the Museum on DVD as a present for Andrea. But it wouldn't play in our Blu-Ray player because the disc was programmed for use in Romania or some damn thing I never heard of.  I bought the damn DVD in a Wal-Mart in North Carolina. What the hell were they doing with a DVD programmed for use in Romania?   

I came across Night at the Museum scheduled on the Straz channel while I was watching Outlander. So I recorded it on the DVR and finally, after years of false starts, Andrea got to see Night at the Museum.  

What would be funny here is if I told you that after all this time and all this trouble, Andrea thought the movie sucked. 

Well, Andrea doesn't work that way. She is easily entertained. She enjoyed it quite a lot. 

Night at the Museum stars Ben Stiller as Larry Daley who gets a job as a night-shift security guard at the American Museum of Natural History in New York where stuff comes alive at night.  

Stuff like the Tyrannosaurus skeleton acting like a playful dog.

Or the mischievous capuchin monkey named Dexter whose sole purpose in life seems to be making Larry's life a living hell.  

And the rival miniature civilizations led by Old West cowboy Jedediah and Roman general Octavius.

And a wax model of Theodore Roosevelt. And his horse.  

Roosevelt lays out some helpful plot exposition to catch Larry and the audience up on what's going on.  When the Golden Tablet of Pharaoh Ahkmenrah came to the museum in 1952, all of the exhibits come to life each night. If the exhibits are outside the museum during sunrise, they turn to dust. 

Thanks, Teddy.  

Larry would just as soon run in the opposite direction of this insanity. But Larry's in a bit of a corner.  Because Larry is  unable to keep a stable job, his former wife Erica thinks Larry is  a bad example to their ten-year-old son Nick. Larry is worried that Nick respects his future stepfather, a bond trader named Don, more than him. But when it becomes apparent that Nick thinks his dad working for the museum is pretty cool, Larry decided to hold on and make the best of things.  

Basically Ben Stiller is in Ben Stiller Mode here, the moderately likeable screw up who doesn't want to be a screw up. I don't want to make like of Stiller's work here. It's a sort of the he's pretty good at. But it is the sort of role that Robin Williams would have added some emotional depth to back in the day. 

Robin Williams is on hand as Teddy Roosevelt and the movie really comes alive whenever he's on screen.  

Another delight is having Dick Van Dyke on hand as Cecil, the retiring guard that Larry is replacing.  Spoiler warning: Cecil is the bad guy. Which is kind of hard to accept when Cecil looks like Dick Van Dyke.  Well, Cecil has his motives as the museum is looking to save money by replacing him with a young and cheaper night watchman.  

That cost cutting move is from Dr. McPhee, the curator of the Museum of Natural History.   We know Dr. McPhee in an insufferable prick because he's played by Ricky Gervais.

Almost stealing this movie are Owen Wilson as "Jedediah", a miniature cowboy figure and Steve Coogan as "Octavius", a miniature Roman general figure. Their unrelenting rivalry and bickering eventually morphs into a most unlikely buddy action/comedy duo.  

Rami Malek (Freddie Mercury from Bohemian Rhapsody) turns up as the mummy of Pharaoh Ahkmenrah. Cool! 

Night at the Museum is an enjoyable little movie. It may not achieve great heights of cinematic excellence but it doesn't screw things up either.  Yes, everything you will expect to happen will happen. Larry will make things right with his son while saving the American Museum of Natural History from financial ruin.  The chaotic exhibits in the museum will learn life is better if they just work and play well together. 

But even if the destination is pre-ordained, the journey to get there is pleasant, amusing and fun. 
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Next week on Cinema Sunday, the subject turns to comedy and to westerns and no, it's not Blazing Saddles. 

We saddle up with James Garner to "Support Your Local Sheriff."