Night at the Museum
Short description
Larry Daley, a divorced father struggling to get his life on track and earn the respect of his young son, takes a job as night watchman at New York's American Museum of Natural History. What looks like a dull shift turns out to be anything but: an ancient Egyptian artifact causes the exhibits to come to life after dark. Attila the Hun, Roman soldiers, miniature cowboys, a Neanderthal and a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton all stir into motion, and Larry has to keep the chaos from spilling out of the building. He finds advice from an unexpected quarter, the wax figure of President Theodore Roosevelt.
Shawn Levy directed the film, the fourth of the seventeen features he has directed in chronological order, following Just Married and preceding The Pink Panther. Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant wrote the screenplay, and Chris Columbus, Levy and Michael Barnathan produced. Ben Stiller leads as Larry, with Carla Gugino as Rebecca, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs as the museum's veteran guards, and Jake Cherry as Larry's son Nick.
Made for about 110 million US dollars, the film took in roughly 574 million worldwide, a strong return on its budget. It scores 6.5 out of 10 on IMDb from around 407,000 votes and 6.6 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller base, while critics gave it 5.5 out of 10 across 137 reviews, so audiences have been more favorable toward it than reviewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- During the filming of the Tyrannosaurus Rex scenes, director Shawn Levy himself played the dinosaur, hoping to capture a genuine reaction from Ben Stiller.
- It took trainers several weeks to teach a monkey to hit and bite Ben Stiller.
- The woman sitting in the recruitment agency is Ben Stiller's mother.
- Owen Wilson's role was initially intended to be a cameo, but during preview screenings, his character was so well-received by the audience that the role was significantly expanded.
- Despite Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson frequently having dialogue, they spent only one day together on set. Most of the scenes with Wilson were filmed three months after the scenes with Stiller.
- Originally, Stephen Sommers was scheduled to direct the film.
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