Jumanji-esque jumble of special effects, in which all the exhibits at the Natural History Museum in New York City come to life after dark. This allows for a lot of, frankly an excess of, variety: Lilliputian cowboys and Roman soldiers who tie down the new night watchman like Gulliver; a mischievous monkey who pees on him, pickpockets his keys, and engages in a Three Stooges-style slapfest with him; a T-rex skeleton who wants to play fetch; a talking, bubblegum-chewing Easter Island head; Attila and some Huns; some lions, an elephant, a zebra, a rhino, and so on. It also allows for logical mix-ups whereby, for example, the wax figure of Teddy Roosevelt knows full well he's a wax figure of our twenty-sixth President, while the wax figure of Sakajawea is regarded as the actual, taxidermized Indian maid, a boon to the tour guide who is writing a dissertation on her. Director Shawn Levy oversees one decent cinematic moment, the contrasting views of the Lilliputians letting the air out of the tires of a van at the loading dock, an action which at close range looks as if they're trying to plug a hole in the fuselage of a jetliner at 30,000 feet, while from a distance it looks as if all is calm. Mickey Rooney has a nice little role as a truculent security guard forced into retirement (addressing his replacement variously as "Hotshot," "Hopscotch," "Butterscotch," etc.), and Ricky Gervais, of the British The Office, shows off his narrow range to good effect as another embarrassing boss, the high-handed museum director ("Control your young, please"). Ben Stiller, on the other hand, shows off his own narrow range at great length in the lead role, and Robin Williams (the wax Teddy) and Owen Wilson (toy cowboy) are instantaneously tiresome. With Carla Gugino, Dick Van Dyke, Bill Cobbs. Steve Coogan. (2006) — Duncan Shepherd
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