Boxing Day Outings Part 2: Cinema (Night At The Museum)

Director: Shawn Levy
Genre: Comedy/Fantasy
Starring: Ben Stiller (Larry Daley), Robin Williams (Teddy Roosevelt), Jake Cherry (Nick Daley), Ricky Gervais (Mr. McPhee), Carla Gugino (Rebecca), Dick Van Dyke (Cecil), Mickey Rooney (Gus) & Bill Cobbs (Reginald)
Plot: A desperate-for-a-job security guard finds his new job as something which was more than meets the eye.

Its all about a divorced single parent, Larry Daley who was desperate to get a job despite facing separation wanted to be the best dad a son can ever get. After numerous attempts to secure a job, Larry’s application who has initially failed his attempt to secure a dream post ended up being forwarded to the museum to fill-in the vacancy as the museum’s night watchman replacing three retiring (apparently sacked?) old ones.

As the three retired watchman finished their shift that night, a manual was passed to Larry about the thou-shalt-nots about the museum. Ignoring the manual and their advice, he soon fell asleep at the reception desk. Larry was then awaken by strange noises. The first appearance was a T-Rex skeleton who almost drive Larry insane but soon to realise that the T-Rex only wanted to play. Larry soon aware that many other things are also leaving their exhibits now and roam around the floor causing menace.

The characters in the museum centres around T-Rex, Jedediah, a character from the wild west, Octavius; the Roman warrior, Attila the Hun, Theodore Roosevelt – a Civil war general, Sacagewa and Akhmenrah.

Larry then befriended Theodore Roosevelt and learnt that everything in the museum came to life is because of an ancient supernatural Egyptian tablet. He was also warned that the museum exits must be secured at all cost to avoid them escaping and thus turned to dust when the sun rises.

Due to Larry’s unpreparedness to control the museum inhabitants behaviours for the first and second night, the museum descended in utter chaos that almost lead to his sacking. After convincing the Dr.McPhee, Larry was given another chance to prove that he could handle the situation.

During his time in the museum, Larry got to know Rebecca, the reception girl who was also a part time student working on a research about Sacagawea. An idea soon sparked as Larry was keen to impress Rebecca by telling her that she could come and interview Sacagawea herself during his shift. With utter disbelief, Rebecca treated Larry’s invitation as a joke and an insult to her field of studies.

At the same time, Larry was pressured about his son. Being mocked and teased by his ex-wife, Larry wanted to prove to his son that his job was interesting and cool. On the following night Nick was brought to the museum to witness himself the ‘cool’ happenings in the museum.

Surprisingly, the inhabitants of the museum did not came to life that night as the tablet was stolen by those retired watchmen who wasn’t happy about their dismissal and decided to return to the museum with their own sinister plot to steal the tablet and thus, framing Larry in the process so in that way they could have secured their own escape and make fortune out of their hauls.

After a brief scuffle near the exit route with the ex-watchmens, Nick managed to reactivate the tablet and thus, bringing all the exhibits to life again. In the process, Larry released Akhmenrah from his sarcophagus and befriended him. Larry then allied with all the museum exhibits headed by Akhmenrah himself to nail down the perpetrators who tried to steal his tablet.

A plan was soon laid out by Larry and Akhmenrah. All the exhibits was assigned to capture the perpetrators by delegating them to a designated task. The trail leads them out of the museum when those ex-watchmen tried to make a getaway. With assistance from T-Rex, Jedediah, Octavius and Attila, all the ex-watchmen was then captured.

Larry gives a call to Rebecca who comes over just in time to witness the spectacle. She immediately becomes a believer and begins to converse with Roosevelt and Sacagawea.

The museum was then in a huge mess. Larry, Rebecca and Nick manage to clean up the museum; however, Larry was fired by Dr. McPhee because of various news video clips captured by the media about the things that went on that night, such as T-Rex footprints around the park, sightings of cavemen on the roof and animals roaming the streets. When the museum director leaves his office, he soon finds the museum full with thronging visitors who was curious about the sightings the night before thus, making the museum popular again.

Larry gets his job back and decides not to turn in the guards as long as they agree to clean up the museum each morning.

The finale of the movie is a party organised by Larry thrown for the museum inhabitants.

Overall, the show was entertaining. Suitable for family viewing as this movie itself was dedicated for the holiday season. Storyline pretty much predictable.

My rating:

Pic source: IMDB.com