FILM REVIEW OF ''NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM" (2006)

Children that haven't seen the Robin Williams fantasy "Jumanji" (1995) may enjoy the supernatural shenanigans in the new Ben Stiller comedy fantasy "Night at the Museum" more than their elders. Like the "Jumanji" inspired space epic "Zathura" (2005), "Night At the Museum" plunges average everyday mortals—usually a single father and his children (numbers vary)--into paranormal peril, but the principals don't play games in this variation on a theme. As entertaining and imaginative as both "Jumanji" and "Zathura," "Night at the Museum" (***1/2 OUT OF ****) resembles one of its best computer-generated special effects—the rambunctious skeleton dinosaur that prefers to play fetch with one of its own bones like a dog. Meaning, "Night at the Museum" qualifies as bare-bones buffoonery that shuns literal logic for outlandish laughs. This 108 minute nonsense relies on lowest common denominator comedy with a PG rating. Ben Stiller makes himself appear suitably ridiculous as a divorced dad who wants to impress his impressionable young son. Stiller's on-again, off-again co-star Owen Wilson, best known for "Wedding Crashers," has a small role—literally speaking--but gets in a few jibes at Stiller's expense. Wilson plays a pint-sized cowpoke in a railroad diorama who clashes with an empire-building Roman centurion (Steve Coogan of "Around the World in 80 Days") from another diorama. The two constantly clash with each until our sincere, underdog hero convinces them to stop fighting each other and help him with the animals. Classic TV comedian Dick Van Dyke and classic screen comedian Mickey Rooney steal a couple of scenes from Stiller as villains forged in the "Home Alone" mold.  Although it relies lavishly on its special effects to compensate for its skeletal storyline and its superficial characters, "Night at the Museum" boasts more than enough breakneck adventure. Stiller gravitates between two gals, his ex-wife Erica (Kim Raver of TV's "24") and an attractive museum docent Rebecca (Carla Gugino of "Snake Eyes"), but the movie gives these relationships short shrift. The father and son relationship at the heart of the drama doesn't fare any better, serving largely as a plot device to advance the action. Unlike both "Jumanji" and "Zathura," "Night at the Museum" also contains armies of  Lilliputian soldiers along the lines of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels." Clearly, "Pink Panther" director Shawn Levy and co-scenarists Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon of TV's "Reno: 911" had their work cut out for them. They fleshed out Croatian artist Milan Trenc's 32-page illustrated novel, published back in 1993 by Barrons, and targeted primarily at pre-schoolers. Undoubtedly, Levy and company added the farcical scene where a small monkey urinates contemptuously on our hapless hero.

Brooklyn born Larry Daley (Ben Stiller of "Meet the Parents") is a deadbeat dad in search of a job. Larry is one of those crack-pot inventors who conjure up their ideas a little too late to capitalize on them. He explains to an unsympathetic job counselor, Debbie (his real-life mother Anne Meara), that his finger-snapping lights failed because most people found it far easier to clap rather than snap. While the "clapper" lights proved to be a success, Larry's "snapper" lights sank out of sight. Fearful that his ten-year old son Nick Daley (newcomer Jake Cherry) will be ashamed of him, Larry agrees to take a lowly job as a night watchman at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Of course, it doesn't help matters in Larry's eyes that his ex-wife's new boyfriend (Paul Rudd of "The 40-Year Old Virgin") has convinced Nick to follow in his footsteps as a Wall Street bond trader. The current day watchman, Cecil (Dick Van Dyke of TV's "Diagnosis Murder"), tells Larry that the museum plans to down-size security, and Larry will end up doing the work of three guards. Mickey Rooney of the venerable "Andy Hardy" movies and Bill Cobbs of "New Jack City" play the other two veteran guards. Cecil, Gus, and Reginald will retire from the museum since attendance is severely down. What they neglect to tell Larry is that the animals-on-display, the full-sized replicas of historical figures, and the finger-sized soldiers in the dioramas come alive at night. The next day Cecil enlightens Larry. According to Cecil, an ancient Egyptian artifact on the premises radiates an inexplicable power that brings these displays to life. If any of the museum pieces try to escape, they suffer the unhappy fate of being turned into powder at the first light of day. Otherwise, everything in the museum returns to normal. Craftily, Cecil, Gus, and Reginald have plans for that relic and Larry will be their unwitting fall guy. Virtually everything that can go awry in Larry's life occurs on the second night on his job, but the movie makers play it all for Keystone Kops style slapstick.

Despite the monkey that anoints our hero with a golden shower, "Night at the Museum" is about as family-friendly as a PG-rated movie can get. Although the violence is unmistakably synthetic, some youngsters may cringe at the rampaging T-Rex. The special effects wizards have again broken new ground in computer-generated animation, but the animals
themselves lack personality. Again, the T-Rex skeleton earns some laughs for behaving like a colossal canine. Robin Williams wears a period Rough Riders' army outfit throughout as former president Teddy Roosevelt, but he is as spontaneous as ever. Smitten by a pretty Indian maiden in a Lewis and Clark display, Teddy is too shy to talk to her until Larry coaxes him out of his shell. Chiefly, Levy and his scribes poke fun at Stiller as he struggles to outfox the obnoxious animals or befriend the historical figures. Nevertheless, everything is handled
with such imagination that it is no wonder this lightweight lark coined over $574 million worldwide. Don't leave the theater before the end credits conclude because you'll miss an important facet of the finale. If you enjoy "Night at the Museum," you should also check out "Jumanji" and "Zathura." "Zathura" to see how much better these movies are by comparison.

FILM REVIEW OF ''NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: SECRET OF THE TOMB" (2014)

Beyond its worldwide haul of $560 million, the “Night at the Museum” movies may not be remembered as the most thought-provoking family-friendly film franchise, but they were neither monotonous nor obnoxious.  The final installment “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tablet” (*** OUT OF ****) folds up the franchise neatly with fond farewells to both the late Robin Williams and the even later Mickey Rooney, while it doesn’t wear out its welcome with maudlin sentimentality.  Shawn Levy, who directed both “Night at the Museum” (2006) and “Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” (2009), is back at the helm, but scenarists Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon didn’t pen this entry.  Nevertheless, this featherweight, PG-rated, 97 minute, CGI-laden saga with slapstick galore maintains sufficient momentum.  Comparatively, “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb” isn’t as exciting as “Night at the Museum.”  Ben Stiller is still resourceful as museum security guard Larry Daly.  Moreover, Stiller does double duty and also plays a wacky Neanderthal caveman who believes Larry is his pater familias.  This constitutes one of several running gags throughout “Secret of the Tomb.”  While they appear briefly at the outset, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, and Bill Cobbs are given far less to do than they did as the kleptomaniacal security guards in the above-average original.  In his last film performance, Oscar-winner Robin Williams co-stars again as Rough Riding President Theodore Roosevelt.  Enhancing continuity even more, Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan are back respectively as pint-sized cowpoke Jedediah and Roman centurion General Octavius.  These two tykes score some of the largest laughs, particularly when they utilize an enormous contraption to post Internet messages.  Ricky Gervais returns as persnickety museum director Dr. McPhee; Patrick Gallagher as Attila the Hun; Rami Malek as Ahkmenrah; and Mizuo Peck as Sacajawea. The only change is actor Skyler Gisondo has replaced Jake Cherry as our hero’s teenage son Nick; Cherry played Nick in the two earlier epics.  Indeed, Larry and Jake’s deliberations about the latter’s collegiate future could have been left on the cutting room floor.  Otherwise, little has changed despite the passage of years.  British actress Rebel Wilson, making her debut as Larry’s counterpart, a nocturnal British Museum security guard, adds ample spontaneity.  “Downtown Abbey” star Dan Stevens fleshes out the cast as Sir Lancelot, one of the British Museum exhibits who comes to life, too.  

“Dinner for Schmucks” scribes David Guion & Michael Handelman and Levy freshen up the franchise the third time out with background history surrounding the mysterious Tablet of Akmenrah.  Remember, this gilded Egyptian antique is what enabled the inanimate museum exhibits--whether they consisted of wax, bone, or stone--to cavort about after dark as if they possessed life.  “Secret of the Tomb” unfolds in sun-scorched Egypt back in the year 1938 with an “Indiana Jones” prologue.  A joint Anglo-American archeological expedition is searching for a rare artifact, when Chief Archaeologist Robert Fredericks (Brennan Elliott) shoos his meddling son, Cecil (Percy Hynes-White), off the site.  Quite by accident, the unsuspecting Cecil stumbles onto the mother lode when the ground collapses under him and he plunges into the pharaoh’s burial chamber.  Nothing really hair-raising occurs, but this atmospheric incident sets the stage for all subsequent hilarity.  Naturally, the locals are more anxious about the tablet’s discovery than the myopic archaeologists.  Indeed, they warn these outsiders that nothing good can come of this discovery.  Eighty years or thereabouts later, the sacred tablet that resembles a colossal keypad displays signs of sea-green corrosion.  This oxidization takes a toll on the fixtures so they behave in a menacing manner.  During an after-dinner gala fundraiser for museum donors in New York City, pandemonium erupts when the exhibits run rampant and frighten everybody.  This debacle deprives Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais of “Cemetery Junction”) of his job as curator.  Young Egyptian King Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek of “Need for Speed”) suggests Larry (Ben Stiller) fly the afflicted stone tablet back to the British Museum where his astute father, Pharaoh Merenkahre (Ben Kingsley of “Exodus”), who is one of the exhibits, can clarify what ails the artifact.  Of course, the incredulous Dr. McPhee believes none of the claptrap Larry feeds him.  Nevertheless, he conspires to help our sincere hero gain access to the facility without arousing suspicion.  Evidently, sneaking into a London museum after hours doesn’t constitute anything death-defying where British homeland security is concerned.  The last thing Larry does before he flies off to handle these hi-jinks is quiz elderly Cecil (Dick Van Dyke of “Mary Poppins”) about what transpired in Egypt.  Eventually, Larry and his eccentric posse, including Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), Attila the Hun (Patrick Gallagher), Native American princess Sacajawea (Mizuo Peck), Jedediah (Owen Wilson), Octavius (Steve Coogan),Larry’s son Nick (Skyler Gisondo), a Neanderthal nitwit named Laa (Ben Stiller), and the adorable capuchin monkey Dexter (Crystal the Monkey) bluff their way past a loquacious security guard, Tilly (Rebel Wilson of “Fever Pitch”), who has no clue about their intentions.  Once they enter the London Museum, our heroes find themselves up to their necks in anarchy orchestrated principally by the conceited, sword-wielding, legendary, Round-Table Knight, Sir Lancelot (Dan Stevens), who appropriates the enchanted tablet for himself without realizing the ultimate jeopardy that he threatens one and all into before dawn.

The computer-generated shenanigans of the strange London exhibits, a rambunctious triceratops fossil, are every bit as comical and imaginative as the Big Apple exhibits.  The highlight of the London mayhem occurs when Larry and Teddy pursue the elusive Lancelot inside an M.C. Escher staircase painting.  Predictably, Dexter makes the biggest splash when he gives Jedediah and Octavius a golden shower to save them from the devastation in the Pompeii exhibition.  One of the most surprising surprises occurs during Lancelot’s interruption of the stage play “Camelot,” when he contends with actor Hugh Jackman.  As entertaining as the third outing is, “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb” surpasses neither “Night at the Museum” nor “Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian.”