“Night at the Museum” What to expect from this Shawn Levy film
By: Wes Beckwith
If you enjoyed Jumaji you will also like this Milan Trenc book turned big screen movie. Directed and produced by Shawn Levy who also directed and produced Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and The Pink Panther, this film will have your kids interested in history and have you laughing if you like well-done slapstick humor.
The film starts out introducing our lead character, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) as a dead beat dad who can’t hold a job. His wife has moved on to a more responsible husband, his son (Jake Cherry) is loosing faith in him and if he cant find a job soon he will loose his apartment, yet again.
Larry narrowly lands a job as the night security guard at the museum where he meets Cecil (Dick Van Dyke), Reginald (Bill Cobbs), and Gus (Mickey Rooney). Dick Van Dyke is a breath of fresh air in this film and helps pick up the pace as the plot takes a little to long setting up Ben Stiller as the irresponsible father.
Just in time to wake up the kids, the museum is finally empty, dark and we wait for the exhibits to come to life. Larry’s first clue that his job will be anything but ordinary is when the giant skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus Rex is missing. Larry is soon greeted by Lions, Monkeys, Neanderthals, Attila the Hun, Octavius, Sacajawea, and Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (Robin Williams).
The second half of the movie is filled with very nice visual effects from fantastic animation to very nice lighting and texturing of animals and environments. I was really impressed with the visual effects, Rhythm and Hues, Rainmaker, Lola Visual Effects and The Orphanage did a really good job throughout the film on all accounts. IMDB also gives VFX credit to Gentle Giant Studios but we did not see them in the credits, so we want to be sure to give them credit.
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The pre-visualization was done by Image Engine Design and the miniature work was done by Cinema Production Service Inc. both did a fantastic job of blending there work in with the visual effects studios.
Conclusion & Ratings: 3.5 Stars
We give this film an 3.5 out of 5 stars primarily because this is a great family film with very good visual effects… topped of by getting to see Dick Van Dyke again in a feature film. We have read some of the other reviews on this movie, but think they are being a little hard on the film. If you go in to the movie expecting a brilliantly directed film, you are going to be disappointed, however, if you come into the movie expecting as slapstick kids film, you will leave happy.
The film was slow in parts but over all will keep your attention.
IMDB Film Ratting – 6.5 out of 10 star with 2,594 votes at the time of this review.
Cast (in credits order)
Ben Stiller - Larry Daley
Carla Gugino - Rebecca
Dick Van Dyke - Cecil
Mickey Rooney - Gus
Bill Cobbs - Reginald
Jake Cherry - Nick Daley
Ricky Gervais - Mr. McPhee
Robin Williams - Teddy Roosevelt
Kim Raver - Erica Daley
Patrick Gallagher - Attila the Hun
Rami Malek - Ahkmenrah
Pierfrancesco Favino - Christopher Columbus
Charles Q. Murphy - Taxi Driver (as Charlie Murphy)
Steve Coogan - Octavius
Mizuo Peck - Sacajawea
Special Effects
Other Companies
