What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that kids will definitely want to see
this much-hyped, effects-heavy adventure. The effects are good
(the dinosaur skeleton is especially fun), but the plot is
uneven and the action hectic, with some point-of-view
camerawork that could potentially startle younger viewers. The
movie features spastic, cartoonish violence by the museum
exhibits that come to life. This includes shooting (Civil War
soldiers), explosions (miniature cowboys and miners), poison
dart-shooting (miniature Mayans), chasing and hunting (dinosaur
skeleton, lions), fighting, and car-crashing. Weapons include
arrows, swords, guns, catapults, spears, axes. There's a
repeated joke about Attila the Hun's preference for ripping off
victims' limbs. Larry has an antagonistic relationship with a
monkey and repeatedly disappoints his son (who acts sad) --
until the end, when he's impressed by his father's quick
decision-making.
Families can talk about the message behind all of the fancy effects. Why is it the important to pursue your dreams? Why is it important to learn, read books, and discuss ideas as you do so? How is Larry inspired by his new friends to go after his dreams? What does Nicky admire about his father in the museum? What's more important here -- the lesson Larry learns, or the cool CGI creatures?
Common Sense Media Review
Mostly cute and often spastic, "Night at the Museum" runs out
of story early, then repeats itself for another 45 minutes or
so. The premise is simple: In an effort to maintain contact
with his 10-year-old son, divorced father Larry (
Ben
Stiller) needs to get a job. His life has been so "up and
down," as Larry puts it, that 10-year-old Nicky (Jake Cherry)
is beginning to see his mother's point, that dad needs to
provide "stability."
To that end, Larry applies to be a night guard at New York's Museum of Natural History, a job he believes will be "ordinary." So he doesn't really listen when retiring security guards Cecil ( Dick Van Dyke), Reginald (Bill Cobbs), and Gus ( Mickey Rooney) advise him to read their handwritten instruction manual and follow the steps exactly and in order. So when Larry falls asleep on his first night, he wakes to find that an amazing change has occurred: The exhibits have come to life!
The scene is actually fun: The T-Rex skeleton, very energetic and nimble, is bounding and skidding across the museum's polished floors, a crew of cavemen are slapping stone together, trying to start fire, and Attila the Hun (Patrick Gallagher) is issuing orders to his limb-rending minions. Larry spends his night scampering from one suddenly mobile display to the next (with many others -- pilgrims, Eskimos, a woolly mammoth -- walking through scene backgrounds), barely avoiding catastrophe.
Just as he escapes the lions (and reads instruction #3: "Lock up the lions, or they will eat you"), he runs into more trouble in the diorama room: Miniature Mayans shoot poison darts at him, and a cowboy, Jedediah (Owen Wilson), orders his crew to knock Larry down and tie him up, just like in Gulliver's Travels . Even after Larry breaks loose from their teeny little ropes (in comic, lumbering slow-motion), Larry finds he must mediate a long-running competition between Jed and the Roman Octavius ( Steve Coogan), as both are trying to get into each other's territory.
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