one of the greatest family films with a magical feeling and many positive messages. holds up surprisingly well even more than 10 years later

Some funny situations, nice special effects and a solid plot. But Stiller will never be one of my favored actors!

why is owen wilson kinda hot as a tiny little cowboy

There's something about Mary always left a bad taste but the more I watch Ben Stiller movies, the more I find him very likeable. This movie is a lot of fun.

Level "Unremarkable" • 5 :heart: • Entertaining but Bad.

Will appeal to kids more than adults. I heard many kids say they thought it was "awesome" upon leaving the theater. A few people may have even learned something about history while watching (but not much).

A fun family treat that has plenty of laughs

Not always a fan of Ben Stiller, but this one is fun! It's one that's also nice to rewatch from time to time.

Much better than I remembered. There's just a LOT to enjoy here in this family movie. It's a kids movie about history. You have to ignore/handwave a degree is historical inaccuracy and/or nuance. Without going in to the many missed opportunities here. What IS there is well done. From a narrative point of view one might expect that the museum coming to life would be the primary force of antagonism. Surprisingly it isn't. Surprisingly education which one expects to be the key to solving the mystery of how to deal with the museum isn't the final resort but the first one. It drives every aspect of Larry's character. After the first night he realizes immediately that understanding the exhibits would be of invaluable help to controlling the museum. He seeks out books, the internet, and an expert (Rebecca), who doesn't serve as a direct love interest or a mistaken love interest.

The exhibits are interesting and characterized well. Larry is done well. It's an enjoyable romp.

Night watchman Ben Stiller takes slapstick abuse from an entourage of famous figures in New York's museum of natural history. There's a superficial subplot about an ancient tablet, responsible for the wax statues and figurines coming to life every night, but the film isn't all that concerned with making sense of it and neither am I. So we're basically left with a hundred minutes of easy sight gags, base caricatures and flashy effects, mixed with overplayed reaction shots and hand-rubbing evil villains. Oh, and there's an empty dash of sappy divorced father / distanced son bonding mush.

I get it, this is a broad family comedy and I can't expect much. My six-year-old boys enjoyed it, and have requested it again since, so it hits the target audience. Plus it merits points for making a trip to the museum and a bit of archival fact-finding seem like less of a chore to younger viewers, so, yay education. Robin Williams is enjoyable as a self-conscious Teddy Roosevelt statue, and Mickey Rooney is hilarious in a set of fiery, brief guest spots, but that's about all that merits remembering. I'm in no hurry to sit through it again.

Decent film, even if 50 percent of it isn't very funny