PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 12/22/06)

Night at the Museum may be the most effective advertisement ever for the New York Board of Tourism, but as a film, it only works part of the time. The star-studded comedy features some terrific scenic views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline, not to mention the fact that it's one of the few films to spotlight to the city's Museum of Natural History. Unfortunately, Museum's first act is about as interesting as a fifth grade field trip, though once the museum springs to life, so does the storyline.

Ben Stiller plays Larry Daley, a down-on-his-luck divorced dad who is on the verge of being evicted from his Brooklyn apartment and whose ex-wife (24's Kim Raver) decides that their son, Nick, shouldn't spend time with him. When Larry tries to put his life back together, he finds what he hopes will be a stable position as a night security guard at the Museum of Natural History. But when he hears the museum's fossilized T-Rex starts to rumble during his night shift, Larry realizes that New York's reputation as the city that never sleeps doesn't just apply to humans.

At this point, Night at the Museum picks up steam and a veritable living history of comedy fills the screen, with each comedian able to be grouped into separate exhibits. There's the "young comedians" exhibit featuring Stiller, Owen Wilson, and The 40 Year Old Virgin's Paul Rudd in a small but pleasantly diverting role as Nick's bond-trading stepdad. Walk a few paces and you'll find the "They're Still Alive?" exhibit featuring the magnetic Dick Van Dyke and the adorably irascible Mickey Rooney as the old-time security guards that Stiller's Larry replaces. And finally, there is a refreshingly muted Robin Williams, who deserves a gallery all his own as the not-too-serious but thankfully not-too-eccentric Teddy Roosevelt statue that comes to life.

Still, the film isn't as alert as the artifacts that are revived while Larry's on guard duty. But after a slow start, this feel-good family film is a nice postcard from the Big Apple that may benefit New York and the Museum of Natural History as much as it does 20th Century Fox.

— Laine Ewen