Night at the Museum

Honestly, when I first saw the trailers for Night at the Museum back in 2006, I didn't think much of them. I was getting into my teens at the time and I was just starting to get into this magical thing called PG-13 movies. Why would I go back to a movie like Night at The Museum when that movie is meant for kids?

Since then I really hadn't thought too much of it, I haven't been a huge Ben Stiller fan in almost anything he did, I just wasn't at all interested.

Unfortunately, my interest came when Robin Williams passed away. Suddenly, every movie he's ever been in seemed timeless and cherished. It also was about the same time that the third movie came out and I finally got around to thinking that maybe there's something to this franchise. I mean its been going for a while now, it wasn't until right now that I realized this movie is almost a decade old. Its probably about time I took a look and saw what the fuss was all this time.

Night at The Museum follows the story of Larry Daley (played by Ben Stiller). Larry is... well I'm not totally sure what Larry is. I think he's an inventor, he just kind of seems like he's tried to be great at something but has always failed. He is divorced and has a son that has taken a liking to his step father (played by Paul Rudd), and all Larry wants to do is get his sons approval.

After facing eviction, Larry finally settles and gets a job as a night guard at the American Museum of National History in New York City.

There he's introduced to the old night watch made up of a really fun group of actors. There's Cecil (played by Dick Van Dyke) and his two guard buddies, played by Mikey Rooney and Bill Cobbs.

They give him a vague, mysterious job description and put him on the job right away.

Much to Larry's dismay, the things in the museum, from the dinosaur bones, to the wax cavemen, to the figurines showing the roman empire come alive and run amuck in the museum.

I know, I know, this picture is not from the first movie

Now when I first saw it, half the reason I wasn't very impressed was because the plot seemed very predictable. Larry is going to be in wonder of what's going on and have trouble comprehending it, this will be a conflict eventually bringing him to accept his situation and actually make this a great situation.

Its a pretty predictable movie, but again, its a movie made for younger kids, what do you expect?

The surprise I had in this film was how much I grew to actually like the characters. I thought that they gave it all away in the trailers. There's Teddy Roosevelt, there's cavemen, there's a moving dinosaur skeleton. etc. Honestly, there's not a huge surprise if you've seen a lot of the trailers.

However, the characters are actually kind of funny and surprisingly fun to go on this adventure with. If you're going into this movie thinking its going to be hilarious, you're very wrong. Its entertaining for sure, but there's only a couple moments where I chuckled. I mean its a funny situation but I think this is more of an adventure film rather than a comedy film. So while I thought I was going to laugh more at this movie, the whimsicalness of the entire thing kind of made up for how unfunny I actually find Ben Stiller.

If you've never seen this film, I'm not going to say you're missing out incredibly. Its a fun time, especially if you're watching with little kids, which I was doing tonight.

The performances are pretty good for a family adventure film and you can tell that Stiller and Williams are having fun with it, I mean why else would they do two other sequels after this one?

There is something pretty creative and charming about the film. I mean its based off a children's book, one that I had never heard of but perhaps thats the creative part about it. I assume its a good adaptation and fun way to give kids the desire to want and go educate themselves in museums. And I think that was the underlying theme of the film. The movie really makes museums out to be really interesting, even without the sets coming to life and its good to get some kind of push for museums, which I think they're trying to say are dying forms of education for kids.

Am I going to go out of my way to see the sequels of this film? Maybe if I'm really interested in seeing one of Robin William's last films, but honestly I'm glad that I finally saw Night at the Museum and I know what all the hype is about. Is it a ground breaking film? No. But it does have a certain charm to it and it was an enjoyable ride.

But what do you think? Have you seen Night at the Museum? What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! Also shoot me a message or follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24. There you can get updates on my blog and get your fix on movie news and reviews.

I'll leave you with this. I found this guy pretty recently and he does a really fun and pretty darn good impression of Robin Williams. In this video he just compiles all the performances of Robin Williams together in a tribute to the great actor. Enjoy!