Larry Daley has had a lot of jobs (he's an inventor, among other things), and his ex-wife worries that he's too unstable to be a good role model for their son, Nick. But when Larry (Ben Stiller) gets a new job as night guard at New York's Museum of Natural History, he has a chance to prove that he can rise to the most unusual of occasions. Larry is introduced to his new job by a trio of retiring night watchmen (Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, and Bill Cobbs). They give him a set of instructions that he doesn't take time to read, but after the museum closes and a T. Rex skeleton comes to life--along with the animals in the African mammals display, full-size models of historical figures like Teddy Roosevelt, Lewis and Clark, and Sacagewea, and a zillion diorama-sized cowboys, Roman soldiers, and Mayan warriors, along with everything and everyone else--Larry understands the previous guards' words of warning: "Don't let anything in, or out." Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), who becomes Larry's friend, informant, and source of encouragement, explains that a gold tablet once owned by a pharaoh (who is also on exhibit) contains the magic that brings the museum to life each night, but that anyone or anything that is outside the museum at sunrise will crumble to dust. After a first night during which a capuchin monkey steals Larry's keys and urinates on him, and he loses a Neanderthal to the rising sun, Larry is ready to quit. Teddy encourages him to try again, but the second night is even worse. On the third night, Larry is confident that he knows how to handle things and brings Nick with him to work. But when the three retired guards return with a plan to steal the museum's valuables (including the pharaoh's magic tablet), Larry and the inhabitants of the museum have a grand adventure trying to prevent the theft and get the museum put back together--all before sunrise. Little children might at first be scared (because Larry is scared, at first) of the living T. Rex skeleton, lions, woolly mammoth, and other critters roaming around, but they will soon join the rest of the family in enjoying the various small and large residents of the museum, as well as the humorous crisis that Larry turns into an opportunity to restore his own confidence and gain the admiration and respect of his son. Night at the Museum is a fun movie with some good messages for the entire family.
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