Night at the Museum

The best part of this movie is the concept... history actually comes alive.
Realized in movie-form, it's perhaps a little less dazzling, but it's still an entertaining film. Ben Stiller plays a divorced father who also can't realize any dazzling ideas and, as a result, ends up moving apartments and changing jobs pretty frequently -- much too frequently for his son and his ex-wife. On the plus side she doesn't seem to hate her ex and her new husband (Paul Rudd is wasted here) seems to be a genuinely nice guy that isn't trying to usurp the role of world's best dad. Rather than lose the ability to have his son come and stay with him, Stiller takes a job as a night guard at the American Museum of Natural History. Along with a ring of keys, he's given a battered set of instructions and falls asleep after rapping into the loudspeaker system. When he wakes up, he realizes the giant skeleton of the t-rex is gone... and he finds it at the water fountain. Even though he figures out how to tame the beast, the rest of the museum is in chaos: the wax figures run loose, the stuffed animals prowl the halls, and the miniature figures wage war. Stiller has to figure out how to establish peace... and thwart a plot to steal priceless artifacts that would mean an end to the nighttime life of the museum displays.
My favorite plot in the movie is the miniature epic battle that's waged between the Western settlers (led by Owen Wilson) and the Roman soldiers (led by Steve Coogan). Those two actors have a fantastic chemistry akin to feuding brothers shouting, "He started it!" The movie also features the attractive history student (Carla Gugino) doing her dissertation on Sacagawea, the old guards (Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney & Bill Cobbs), and the wax figure of Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) who helps Stiller navigate the museum.
I'm not a big Ben Stiller fan, but it's an educational kids movie and therefore, the normal things that I associate with Ben Stiller (disgusting bodily humor or sexual gags) were happily missing. Ultimately, it's nice to see anything that attracts attention to the Museum and hopefully people who see the movie will go and check out the Museum, too.

Check out the NY Times review here.
Oh, and on topic... what museum would you want to be locked into for a night? The Guardian blogs ask just this.