- This movie is awesome on the level that any normal person would love to be stuck in a museum and have it come to life like that. The concept in and of itself is enjoyable enough to make the rest of it worth watching, even if sometimes the actual characters take away from your enjoyment of it.
- Ben Stiller is kind of annoying and immature in this movie. Watching him taunt monkeys is not terribly amusing, although I can imagine that it might be for the target audience of this movie.
- I was previously unaware that you could use the word “ass” in a movie that is rated G.
- I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie that was rated G before this one.
- Owen Wilson can do no wrong in my eyes, even if his entire role required him to ham it up as a cowboy obsessed with Manifest Destiny. I’m really confused as to why he gets absolutely no billing anywhere in this movie, though, since it’s not like he’s either a) unrecognizable or b) in a bit part.
- The Roman General was complete and utter LOVE.
- I loved the random and out-of-context comment by the taxi driver about how if the Yankees are paying A-Rod all that money, he should at least be helping them win the World Series every year. I think my dad is secretly the taxi driver.
- Mickey Rooney is awful and annoying.
- Dick Van Dyke is disturbingly spry for a man of his age.
- I’m still overly sensitive about really bad special effects. Whenever Ben Stiller’s character had to interact with any of the CGI characters or animals, it was a really noticeable cut and paste job where the backgrounds or other characters in the scene looked really fake in the way that they do whenever someone is driving a car in a movie made in the 1960s (e.g. the stock footage shown out the rear window, etc.). I just think that if you’re trying to give us the illusion that these minature diorama figures are coming to life, then you should actually pay some attention to making the integration of the real life with the museum displays relatively seamless so that I can suspend my disbelief that Owen Wilson is only two inches tall.
- Lucille from Sin City — Marv’s lesbian parole officer who liked not wearing very much clothes and had her hand eaten by
Scary PotterElijah Wood — was a museum docent in the movie. I always like odd juxtapositions of roles like this; clearly she’s incredibly versatile.
Night at the Museum
Dinosaurs? Check. Me now being forced to see this? Check.
IMDB Plot Synopsis A newly recruited night security guard at the Museum of Natural History discovers that an ancient curse causes the animals and exhibits on display to come to life and wreak havoc.