Night at the Museum

Night at the Museum A man takes on a job as a night watchman at a museum of natural history in hopes that it will give him an opportunity to bond better with his young son. However, due to the ever-popular budget cuts the man finds himself in charge of the premises all by himself on his first shift, a shift that suddenly explodes into a chaotic virtual history come to life as the exhibits awaken and begin to rampage through the dusty hallways. The script veers a bit close to Jumanji territory at times, but pulls back away from some of the tone that made that one a little scarier for the younger tots. Here, Ben Stiller is surprisingly restrained as the bumbling catalyst for the evening’s mayhem, a welcome relief from the snarky frat-guy persona that he has relied on as his stock and trade for so long. For his romantic foil, local-girl-makes-good (Part II) Carla Gugino is a welcome presence. And for us borderline gummers in the audience, it’s fun to see Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney get dragged out of the Hollywood Museum and put in another for one more chance to display their comedic chops … dusty as they are.