Night at the Museum

Cast: Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Jake Cherry, Carla Gugino, Dick Van Dyke, Bill Cobbs and Mickey Rooney.

Director: Shawn Levy

Release Date: 2006

Genre: Comedy/Fantasy

Running Time: 1hr 48 minutes

Rating: PG

Synopsis:

Larry (Ben Stiller) doesn't seem to be having any success in terms of work, and as a last resort applies to be a night guard at the Natural History Museum in New York. He gets the job, but everything isn't quite as it seems? It's as if the museum comes to life at night!

Ben Stiller! Known for playing a good guy who seems to always get himself into some sort of sticky situation that he can't get himself out of. In my humble opinion not the best actor in the world, I do think he has a gift for comedy, which works very well in this movie, but I don't think he'll be winning any oscars anytime soon. Ben plays Larry who is divorced and unemployed, his ex wife isn't convinced when it comes to all of his ideas for new inventions, however his son Nicky is. I really like the relationship between Larry and Nicky,  it was believable and that a lot of people could probably relate.

We have some fantastic characters in this film, especially Robin Williams who plays Teddy Roosevelt, Robin was a truly gifted man who, however what I loved the most was his incredible comic timing, that he's able to bring to this movie. I think he's absolutely fantastic as Teddy, he doesn't have a great deal of on screen time, but none the less he's brilliant and has a fantastic relationship with Larry through out this film, however I'm not too sure on the relationship between Larry and Rebecca, who he meets working at the Museum, are they an item? Who knows? It's never made perfectly clear. There are plenty more characters in this movie that I'm not gonna chat about but are absolutely wonderful and to be honest the only way your gonna know is to watch it.

Night at the Museum really isn't a bad made film, I can understand why some may look at it and think it's absolutely ridiculous and cheesy however I think they are missing the point. It's about a museum where historic creatures/people come to life, of course it's gonna be ridiculous, when we're children we make up stories that seem absolutely absurd but in our mind it's magical and wonderful and that's all this movie is doing. Personally I think the concept is wonderful and entertaining. There are some really funny moments, Some scenes are better then others. It all depends on your sense of humour though.

The set design is pretty cool, rumor has it that they actually filmed inside The Natural History Museum in New York, who knows, either way set or real life, it's pretty damn cool. It reminds me of the wonderful school trips that I took to our local museums. Although they aren't as cool as the Natural History museum and probably about twenty times smaller. I love how much thought and creativity went into each little element of the museum, it's really cool. Speaking of cool, the costume design in this movie is also pretty awesome. As I mentioned before there are plenty of awesome characters through out the whole of this movie, each when unique and different in their own way, along with their fantastic costumes.

The soundtrack really isn't too bad with a wonderful score from Alan Silvestri who also composed wonderful movies like "The Avengers" and "The Croods", personally he did a great job with this film, it's not perfect but it works well. We also have a great soundtrack from Fatboy Slim, Earth Wind and Fire and Keke Palmer. I really like that there is a combination of the two.

This isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, I think personally it will appeal to family's purely because it will appeal to children a lot and is child friendly. Despite it being a PG rating there isn't anything inappropriate in this movie. Night at the Museum is one of those movies that is just a fantastic film to watch when it's raining outside and you have nothing better to do, but watch fun and entertaining movies. I would definitely recommend this movie more to those that are fans of Ben Stiller and Robin Williams too, because you will probably love it. This is a just a great fun film, go check it out.

4/5 stars out of 5!