The Rookie Reviews: Night at the Museum

PLEASE NOTE: This review contains plot spoilers for the movie "Night at the Museum."

I was in college when the first "Lord of the Rings" movie came out, and my sister wanted to see it. Each Christmas break, when the movie started and I arrived back at home, we'd go to see it. This year, I flew home as a surprise for the family, and one of my first questions was, "What's our Christmas movie going to be this year?"

There were a few movies we wanted to see with specific people, and one I'm still saving to see with the mission trip crew (We are Marshall; we stayed at a church in the town where the story happened and movie was filmed) so we settled on "Night at the Museum" a movie I'd just seen the ad for in the Minneapolis airport.

Movies that come out during the holidays sometimes get overlooked. And that's sad, especially with a treasure like "Museum."

Here's the outline: A guy with a thousand good ideas, none of which quite ever work, has to find a steady job to keep from being evicted from his apartment and have to move, with his young son, yet again. Told that his resume is too unique (aka useless) to land him a job, he does find one slim possibility: night guard at the Museum of Natural History.

Which, he learns, has a secret. You'll see this part in the previews, so it doesn't spoil anything to say that all the exhibits, big and small, come to life during the night, so the watchman's real job is to corral them and make sure they don't escape.

What do you do when you're in possession of a secret like this? You try and restore your son's confidence in you, help a gorgeous grad student who's stuck on a thesis, and make peace between warring dioramas, of course!

This is a film that could have taken itself way too seriously, but didn't. It's a fun story, with mostly good messages about responsibility, family, cooperation and the value of history. Check this out with family or youth group-- I think you'll enjoy it!