La Nuit au musée

Excellent fun flick... and best movie Dinosaur in a long time ;-)

I promised my 8th grade nephew I'd take him to a movie this Christmas break - without his younger brothers and sisters. He originally wanted to see that dragon movie, but he found out it sucked, so I suggested this one.

With teens, there's the fine balance between too "kid" oriented and too dark, but he was laughing along the rest of the theater, and lost himself in the fun with the rest of us.

He wants to see it again, *I* want to see it again, and I recommend it for anyone with a sense of fun. It's also the first Ben Stiller movie in a while I can say that about. I hope you all reward the studio for putting out a true "family movie" for the holidays, so we'll see more in the future.

It was good to see Dick Van Dyke, Andy Rooney and Bill Cobbs in light, comic roles, and Robin Williams in a solid supporting role. They all lend the movie more "credibility."

GREAT FUN, easily worth 2 hours and $10.00, more than once over.

All Hollywood movies have one thing in common. They have the special ability to make past eras of history, rich, poignant and interesting. That is the premise of this film, "A Night at The Museum." It is the simple story of a father, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) who has developed a strained relation with his son. The boy, like most children wishes his bond with his father was more secure. Instead, Larry dreams of becoming an over-night success with his wild 'get rich' schemes. In doing so he puts in jeopardy the custody of his son. To remedy this situation, Larry takes a job as a night-watchman at a museum. Unbeknownst to him, three aging guards, Cecil, Gus and Reginald (Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs) do not inform him of their larcenous intentions, nor of the 'Special' magic which descends upon the place each night. Because of the three aging veterans of Hollywood and a well-placed Robin Williams, this movie is destined for Classic status. Due to the incredible artistry of special Effects, what the viewer sees is nothing short of wondrous. This is a fantastic movie. If pressed to find a flaw in the film, I'd say, I would have chosen someone like, Jim Carey or Michael Richards for the father/son scenes as Mr. Stiller was a bit artificial. Still, the movie is worth seeing as it is. ****

I got to see a showing of Night at the Museum last night. I was impressed by the trailers and I got really pumped when I saw people like Stiller, Wilson, Robins, Rudd and more famous comedian actors like Gervais in it.

The movie starts out slow but picks up once Stiller's character enters the museum. Once he enters the chaos begins.

The movie has it's up's and downs. Sometimes it feels like it was trying too hard to be funny. Don't get me wrong this movie is filled with laughs such as the Stiller and the monkey slapping each others face which made me laugh my ass off. Night at the Museum felt like a pattern to me, no funny parts to little giggles and then the movie would make you laugh so hard.

All the famous faces really brought charm to the movie and I don't think it would have work well with anyone else.

Night at the Museum is a fun movie worth seeing but not a movie you will be looking back on in 10 years time.

I came into this movie thinking that it would suck AND disliking Ben Stiller very much. But I thought, hey, free tickets, Monday night, how bad could it be? Well, it wasn't. It was much funnier and had a much better script than I had anticipated. Stiller, famous for being *in* funny situations and not making them, actually acted like a comic character, something of a cross between Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler. Usuaully he's a passive element, but here he propelled the comedy further. Great job. Also, a fantastic group of supporting characters like Gus, Mr. McPhee and Atilla the Hun. The only problem I really had was the son, who was much too perfect and pacific to be of any interest, and was, at most times, quite annoying.

So all of you nay-sayers who judge the film by its previews, tut-tut to you. It's funny, it's fast, and wastes no time with kicking it into high gear. Great special effects, especially the T-Rex. Also, with the poor previews, it leaves you to enjoy the many delightful small twists and turns that keep the movie fresh.

So take off that cloak of prejudice and enjoy, it won't disappoint.

30 December 2006. This Jumanji (1995) like growing up tale for an adult male (Ben Stiller) taps into some nice special effects and family value themes that just don't seem to mesh completely. Ben sometimes ends up with his dumb, silly stereotyped character from earlier films. And the casting of criminal characters are a abit of a disappointing shock for older audience members, especially without warning or clues. The female protagonists in this movie are underdeveloped. With good intent, this fantasy world of a museum coming to life had a lot of excitement, cute scenes but it failed to deliver the potential as a classic family comedy fantasy. Ben Stiller's development as a character seemed to be uneven and inconsistent. And unlike Jumanji, it seemed to revolve around the exploits of one man, alone who had to grow up. There was some nice plausible explanations for the use of English language, yet even so it was unnecessarily inconsistent. Fun and entertaining, the movie doesn't reach the levels of its possibilities. Six out of Ten Stars.