“Good lord boy. Why are you slapping a monkey?”
Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is the new guy on the job. He is the night watchman at the Museum of Natural History. He hasn’t had much luck with jobs lately and has failed in lots of business ventures. He is divorced and his wife believes he is a bad example for their son. This job is his last chance to do good.
Due to the museum losing money they are replacing the three older guards with one new night guard. The three guards are Cecil (Dick Van Dyke), Gus (Mickey Rooney) and Reginald (Bill Cobbs). Cecil gives Larry an instruction book on how to handle night security. And they warn him “Don’t let anything in or out”. But they don’t tell him what is going to happen next. It seems the exhibits come to life. But if they are caught outside when the sun rises, they turn to dust.
There is a T-Rex skeleton that likes to play fetch. A wooly mammoth, miniature old west cowboys and roman soldiers, a capuchin monkey named Dexter, Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt, and a bunch of Neanderthals. Just to name a few. Once things wake up chaos ensues.
Teddy Roosevelt tells Larry that since an Egyptian artifact arrived in 1952 every night everything comes alive. The artifact is the golden tablet of Pharaoh Ahkmenrah. Teddy helps Larry get things under control. The next day Larry reads up on history to try to deal with all the exhibits. Things are a little better. At least until the three original guards decide to steal the tablet. And anything else they can get their hands on. Larry needs to find a way to get all the exhibits to work together to get back the tablet or everything goes away.
"Night At The Museum" was released in 2006 and was directed by Shawn Levy. It’s a fun movie and fast paced. There’s stuff going on all over the place. It’s difficult to keep track of all the exhibits. And it’s perfect for the whole family.
Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson were only on-set together for one day. Stiller talked to a toothpick for the Jedediah scenes. Wilson filmed all of his parts three months later. The "Hunnish" language in the film is completely improvised. The real American Museum of Natural History had twenty percent more visitors during the holiday season following this movie's opening.