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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
An irresistible concept meets computer-generated wonders in Night at the Museum, inspired by a 1993 children's book by Milan Trenc. Ben Stiller stars as Larry Daley, an underachieving inventor waiting for his ship to come in while getting evicted from one apartment after another for lack of funds. Larry's son needs some stability, so the well-meaning ne'er-do-well takes a job as night watchman at New York City's Museum of Natural History. What the soon-to-retire guards (Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs) don't tell him is that an ancient pharaoh's tablet in the museum causes everything on display to come to life at night. Thus, Larry meets representations of Teddy Roosevelt, Attila the Hun, fire-worshipping cavemen, and Roman Empire soldiers, and learns to cope with an excitable T-Rex and man-eating, ancient animals. The film might have left things at that, but an added story element gives Night at the Museum some extra urgency and excitement, especially for kids: Larry becomes responsible for keeping this nightly miracle going and preventing anything in the museum from dying due to exposure to sunrise. Computer effects, as well as wildly imaginative costumes and makeup, help make the film appeal to the 8-year-old in everyone. Director Shawn Levy (The Pink Panther) works with a hugely talented cast, including Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Ricky Gervais, Carla Gugino, and Steve Coogan. --Tom Keogh
All good Pahraohs learn their English at Cambridge
Review date: 2008-07-09 Rating: 10 out of 10
Do not expect an intellectual and highly educational film. It is not. It is a sentimental comedy, all in all. You will learn that you cannot trust old people who are ready to commit a crime whose guilt will be attributed to someone younger, and that only because they want to make some money to expand their old age pension slightly. You will learn that you must not trust appearances and that what looks pretty dead is nothing but alive and what looks pretty alive is nothing but wax or stuffed artifact. You will also learn that when one wants one can always dominate a situation as soon as there is an emergency because any emergency will mobilize everyone towards the only goal of saving the day and seizing the chance that is going by. You will also learn that only a father can make a miracle when he is trying to impress his own son. And all the rest is nothing but trashy exhaust waste water, especially what mothers may say and mothers' boyfriends along with them. History and natural history are two very vivid and lively subjects even if their museums are generally boring and dying with and of boredom. But the film is funny, indeed, and it is full of surprises from beginning to end. It is true also that dinosaur footprints on Broadway or 5th Avenue help a lot to bring some visitors to a dead museum that everyone considers a wasteland till the day when some gigantic animal escapes from it. You will also love the Pharaoh. He is young, attractive and he even speaks Hun, if such a language exists.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines