Unseen Movie Review: Night At The Museum

Movies Columns

By Robert Dixter Dec 22, 2006, 6:05 GMT

Hollywood is a weird tricky place. It reminds me a lot of R. Kelly’s bedroom.

In most industries the cream rises to the top, the best and the smartest end up in key positions. Take George W. Bush for instance. See? The theory is sound. However, in the film industry there are many instances where the average fall into positions of power as well. I know you all think this will be another column about Brett Ratner but this time I’m talking about Shawn Levy. Shawn strikes me as a nice decent guy, the kind of man who would drive Lindsay Lohan to rehab or help you remove an unwanted wart. But he doesn’t seem like a very good film director. He’s had a few hits over the years, and most of them have been medium budget, lowest common denominator fare. The kind of stuff studios put out in the hopes of making a quick return. Things like ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ and ‘Just Married.’But now Fox has handed over a $100 million effects heavy comedy to the guy who thinks Ashton Kutcher is the future of funny movies.Shawn’s new movie is ‘Night at the Museum,’ and it has a pretty clever family film concept behind it. What happens at night when the Museum of Natural History is closed? No, it’s not strippers and midget tossing. The entire museum comes to life. Of course, there has to be a silly neurotic security guard who is not prepared for the zaniness that is about to ensue. Did you say neurotic? Well then, hire Ben Stiller. Ben always plays the same guy in every movie he’s in, ‘Something about Mary,’ ‘Meet the Parents’ even ‘Starsky and Hutch.’ He’s the hapless, neurotic, unintentionally funny guy who somehow through being earnest and honest makes everything turn out ok in the end. Sounds a lot like the high school math club captain that usually ends up begging for sex from the girls’ volleyball ringer. I’m not really a fan of Ben’s work and usually see his movies more for his funny co-stars like Owen and Vince. I did enjoy his work in ‘Permanent Midnight’ but that was a while ago, before he realized he could make a ton of money playing the same character over and over again.The buzz online is that this film fails to deliver. It’s very hard when you take a huge film like this, shoot most things on green screen, add CGI effects in post, and still try to maintain a funny family vibe. But let’s face it, this film was never intended to rival ‘Taxi Driver.’It’s meant to be a fair diversion to having to talk to your family on Christmas Day. It’s an excuse to eat popcorn and say you’re doing a family event together even though sitting silently in a dark theater for 2 hours doesn’t really count as quality time.With all my complaining about Shawn and Ben, there’s a part of me that still wants to see this movie. I’m betting the cameos are hysterical. Between Owen Wilson and Robin Williams there should be enough laughs to warrant the $10 admission and $30 bucks for the babysitter. Watching those two guys star in a whole movie gets a little old after a while, but in limited doses they’re like penicillin – good for what ails you.The geek side of me is curious to see if they actually pull off the effects in the film. We all know family friendly films like ‘Night at the Museum’ don’t need to have Lucas quality CGI. The dinosaurs don’t need to look like the T Rex in Jurassic Park, but this gets back to my argument about Shawn Levy, did he go that extra mile and make sure the effects look real even for a family comedy or did he phone it in with a passing C average like he did when he remade ‘The Pink Panther.’