Night at the Museum 2-Disc Special Edition DVD Review
Posted by Neil Borenstein on 05.04.2007
Good lord, Lawrence, why are you slapping a monkey?
Night at the Museum 2-Disc Special Edition DVD Review
Cast Ben Stiller: Larry Daley Carla Gugino: Rebecca Dick Van Dyke: Cecil Mickey Rooney: Gus Bill Cobbs: Reginald Owen Wilson: Jedediah Robin Williams: Teddy Roosevelt Ricky Gervais: Dr. McPhee Jake Cherry: Nick Daley Paul Rudd: Don
DVD Information Genre: Comedy/Family Region: Region 1 Number of Discs: 2 Studio: 20th Century Fox DVD Release Date: April 24, 2007 Run Time: 110 Minutes Specs: 5.1 Dolby Surround, 5.1 DTS Surround Sound– English, Dolby Surround – French and Spanish; English and Spanish Subtitles; Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Disc One
The Film: Optional commentary by Director Shawn Levy or by Writers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon
Ever wonder what it’s like to play fetch with a T-Rex? How about spending time with Teddy Roosevelt while he rides around on a horse? Maybe an attempt at being peacemaker between a gang of miniature cowboys and miniature Romans is more your cup of tea?
If you were Ben Stiller’s character in the movie, Night at the Museum, you would have the opportunity to do all of those things and so much more as the night guard at the Museum of Natural History. This is because, at night, the museum comes to life.
Night at the Museum is definitely a refreshing source of family entertainment released in theaters during the 2006 holiday season. It just recently hit the DVD shelves on April 24, 2007.
While Stiller is gradually becoming one of the better actors available for comedy films, most of his movies have some colorful humor involved that isn’t quite appropriate for audiences of all ages. While Meet the Parents/Meet the Fockers and Dodgeball are entertaining movies geared more toward an adult audience, Night at the Museum is a Stiller movie that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
Stiller leads a cast that is perhaps the most important part of this movie. Though the CGI effects of this film are definitely the most boasted aspect and while the story is entertaining with a few simple twists and turns, neither of those matter without the right cast of characters to play various critical roles throughout the film. Night at the Museum offers a variety of characters that are well played by their actors. You get a little bit of everything when you watch this movie, and it’s because of a superb cast that compliments itself well throughout the film, even though a lot of them didn’t necessarily have direct contact with each other through filming (ah, special effects at its finest.)
The big picture of this film revolves around the relationship between a divorced father, Larry Daley (Stiller), and his son, Nick (Jake Cherry). Nick lives mostly with his mother and Larry’s ex-wife, Erica (Kim Raver), as well as Erica’s husband and Nick’s stepfather, Don (Paul Rudd). Larry has been unable to find stable work, which not only leads Erica into threatening Larry’s visitation with Nick, but also makes Larry believe he is losing the admiration of his son, which is becoming increasingly directed to Don, who works as a Wall Street stockbroker. In an attempt to win his son over and become the hero, Larry decides it’s time to stop being involved in failed business ventures and instead take up an ordinary occupation that he can not only hold onto for a significant amount of time, but one where he can also make his son proud of him.
It is this that leads Larry to apply and get hired for the position of night guard at the Museum of Natural History – which, just for trivia purposes, is located in Manhattan, N.Y. There, Larry meets a new love interest in the form of Rebecca (Carla Gugino), a tour guide at the museum who is in the process of writing a paper on Sacagawea (the Indian girl involved with Lewis and Clark and also appears on the golden dollar coin in U.S. currency.)
Larry also runs into perhaps the most ingenious part of the film’s casting – three old guards Larry is being hired to eventually replace as one of the ways the museum tries to cut down on its expenses.
First, we have Dick Van Dyke playing Cecil Fredericks, the leader and most conversational of the pack. He is the most welcoming of the new guy in Larry, and makes a point to show him the ropes. Second, we have Mickey Rooney playing Gus, the feisty one, always looking to start a fight with the young guy stepping on his territory. And finally, there’s Bill Cobbs as Reginald, who is the more laid back of the bunch but you can tell the wheels are always turning in his head.
All three of these men who represent an old school in the comedy genre are treasures in this movie. As the film progresses, viewers are able to notice just how talented these actors are even if they’re past their prime on the big screen.
They leave Larry a set of instructions for his first night on the job. Cecil’s most important piece of advice – “It can get a little spooky at night so you might want to put a few lights on. The most important thing – don’t let anything in or out.”
Larry’s first night is a bit, well … off the charts, as he doesn’t really heed Cecil’s warning. At night, everything comes to life. His first encounter is with a T-Rex that chases him after getting a some water from a fountain, but actually just wants to play fetch with one of its own bones. He runs into an Eastern Island Head (voiced by Brad Garrett) that continually calls him a “dum-dum” and asks him for “gum-gum.” And he even has to deal with a pesky little monkey named Dexter who likes to steal keys, one of only a few real animals in the film not requiring CGI.
We soon find out that all of this has occurred ever since the museum added an Egyptian tablet to its collection.
We also find some more intertesting characters inside of the museum, some of which are played by actors who could and have headlined their own films, yet settle for role parts in Night at the Museum with less on-screen time.
Anywhere you find Stiller, you are bound to find Owen Wilson. Wilson has played a key role in movies with Stiller, like in Zoolander and Starsky and Hutch, and also some more minor roles like that of Kevin Rawley in Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers. But no matter the size of his role, Wilson and Stiller are definitely great together in movies. And in Night at the Museum, Wilson plays the role of Jedediah, the leader of a group of miniature cowboys inside one of the museum’s displays. These cowboys are in a constant struggle with a nearby display of miniature Roman gladiators, led by Octavius (Steve Coogan). Throughout the film, Larry attempts to be a peacemaker between these two leaders of feuding factions.
Larry also runs into Teddy Roosevelt, or at least a wax statue of the 26th President of the United States of America that has come to life. This role is played by Robin Williams. Roosevelt is the character that really keeps Larry together. Roosevelt gives Larry advice and helps him perform his task as night guard to the best of his ability in the face of the unforeseen obstacles that are exhibits suddenly coming to life when the museum is closed. But, for as strong as Roosevelt tries to be in advisement role, he has an issue of his own that he must conquer. As brave a man as Roosevelt was, he apparently had trouble addressing issues of the heart.
Larry does eventually study up on how exactly to handle his job efficiently as night guard while having to deal with the commotion that comes along with live displays. He must maintain a sense of order inside of the museum. He must show his son that he can hold a job, and a cool one at that. He must chase his love interest in Rebecca. And, he must deal with another unexpected challenge set up by certain individuals feeling like they have been shortchanged and want to take it out on the new guy.
I thought this movie was very good. I wasn’t expecting anything extraordinary in this film outside of some pretty amazing special effects and a fairly simple, yet entertaining, plot structure. I got out of the movie what I figured I would.
I think the movie has a little bit of everything so that all viewers can enjoy it. It brings together a lot of different stories within the plot in a fairly simple fashion. This isn’t to say that the movie doesn’t draw themes from previous works, especially from the last decade. But it’s the amazing cast put together for this film and the characters themselves that are a big draw and make this movie something unique.
While Night at the Museum will never be confused as a masterpiece, it really is good family fun. It’s a great way to chill out and spend a little less than two hours in front of the TV while watching an entertaining flick. It’s simply a good time. Anybody and everybody should be able to find some pleasure out of viewing this movie.
The Audio
I have no complaints with the audio. Everything sounds good, including the added noise necessary for the special effects of the film.
The Video
At this point, with recent films, it should be no shock that the video looks good on the DVD. Things look as they should and as they did in the theater, and lighting within scenes suits it purpose and comes out well on the screen. CGI is simply amazing, which is crucial considering that is a huge part of the film.
Promos
Before you get to the menu for Night at the Museum, there are promos for recent Fox DVD releases - Everyone’s Hero, Flicka and Eragon.
Disc Two
For anybody that wants any special features outside of optional film commentary, the 2-disc special edition set is the way to go. They go out of their way to give you a good amount of bonus material on the second disc. I don’t really like the tactic of making you purchase a more expensive set without including even a minimal amount of bonus material on the cheaper one-disc set, outside of the optional commentary that I rarely ever pay attention to. But, that’s the DVD business for you.
The bonus features are separated into four groups and a DVD-ROM game called Rexy.
The Loading Dock Optional Commentary by Director Shawn Levy
Here is your deleted and extended scenes from Night at the Museum. There are eight scenes in total – five deleted and three extended.
Deleted Scenes:
I Need The Rent – Larry is pestered for rent within two weeks under threat of eviction. :55
Shabu Shabu – Larry tries to sell the idea of a restaurant to three businessmen, including Shabu Shabu stations for “interacting dining.” He embellishes on the profit to food cost ratio, doesn’t yet have a chef and hasn’t included a resume. But, Larry is the “vibe guy.” Needless to say, this doesn’t really work out for Larry. 3:52
Museum Residents Freed – Larry has some trouble pronouncing names. 1:21
Lewis & Clark Look For Northwest Passage – Lewis and Clark try to find the Northwest Passage via the MTA. :39
Rebecca’s Brownstone – Larry and a few friends from the museum go to Rebecca’s apartment, in which getting her attention turns into an adventure all in itself. They try to figure out the workings of the Egyptian tablet from the museum. 2.51
Extended Scenes:
Alternate Opening Sequence – Larry needs the help of his cable company in order to keep a promise to his son about coming over and watching the Ranger game. 1:12
Presenting Rexy – Larry makes several failed attempts at bringing Rexy to life for Nick. 1:39
Attila Therapy Extended – Larry counsels Attila the Hun and tries to console him about his lonely childhood. He tells Attila it’s good to have feelings. 4:34
The Hall of Biodiversity
Bringing the Museum to Life – This is a look at the special effects of the film. It’s an interesting look at Ben Stiller acting essentially by himself, with the help of Shawn Levy as a stand-in, and the use of green screen in putting together the visual effects. It makes the movie seem completely artificial, but considering it basically is, I guess that’s the point. 6:18
Directing 101 – This feature looks at how Director Shawn Levy played the roles of certain characters during the filming process as a stand-in, as those parts would actually be filled later on through CGI work. Levy playing the part of Rexy so Ben Stiller could act off of something is an example of this. 4:10
Blooper Reel – As I’m sure you would expect, here’s where you are going to find your outtakes from the film, mostly caused by fudged up lines and random laughter. This was pretty funny, though considering the cast; I’m shocked they couldn’t find more than about six minutes worth of material for a blooper reel. 5:46
Monkey Business – Here we have a special look at the capuchin monkey playing the mischievous Dexter in the movie, Crystal. I always find these features interesting considering the great deal of work it must take to train animals to do very specific actions in accordance with a film. 5:01
Comedy Central’s Reel Comedy: Night at the Museum – Hosted by Patton Oswalt on the set of Night at the Museum, this Comedy Central special is just basically an in-depth look at the film overall. We get several clips and star interviews for a great overview of the movie’s plot and cast. After seeing the movie, this feature doesn’t really add anything, as it seems more like a preview-type special feature. But the interview portions are decent. 21:10
The Security Office
Building the Museum – This highlights the creation of a set to look like the real Museum of Natural History. It’s actually pretty cool how well the set designers were able to pull this off, because even though any logical individual can assume it’s not really the museum, it definitely does look like one. It did take the crew a lot of work to pull this off and it becomes easier to understand why this movie had a budget of over $100-million. 7:28
Historical Threads: The Costumes of Night at the Museum – As the title of the feature suggests, this is a look a the costume design for the film and the work it took to make the costumes look as genuine as possible while still making them fun for the movie. 5:10
The Director’s Vision Comes Alive: A Storyboard Comparison with Introduction by Shawn Levy – Here, after an intro from Levy, we are able to see a comparison between Levy’s pre-production storyboard drawings and the final on-film result after production. This is done for three scenes, and the actual film is shown in the top left corner with the storyboard drawings on the lower right corner of the screen, with the drawing also acting as a background to the split screen. 10:31
Stage Coach
Making of Night at the Museum – This is your basic “Making of …” feature. Included is a brief overview of the plot of the film and what goes into making it work, specifically stuff on the cast with comments and clips from the movie. 11:43
Fox Movie Channel Presents: Making a Scene – This feature looks at the first scene between Larry and the T-Rex, which is Larry’s first night on the job when he first finds out things are coming to life. It shows you the evolution of the scene from storyboards to the final product. 10:08
Fox Movie Channel Presents: Life After Film School – Director Shawn Levy sits down with three film students to speak about his life in film. He hits topics such as not being suited for acting quite as much as directing, the upside of going to film school, catching his first break and improvisation in scenes. There is a good job here of relating Night at the Museum experiences into answering the questions asked by the students. 25:20
Trailers:
Night at the Museum teaser 1:44 Night at the Museum trailer 2:25 Robots trailer 2:24 Dr. Dolittle trailer (from 1998) 1:06
Rexy – This is a game to be played on the computer with DVD-ROM capability. It basically has you complete tasks to get to the T-Rex. It’s a fun little game that is otherwise nothing extraordinary.
The 411: I have to say that Night at the Museum is a movie I thoroughly enjoyed. The film has a great cast that really drives the fun of the film via its comedic nature. It’s definitely a movie for everybody. The 2-disc set is great for those that don’t mind spending a bit extra and truly enjoy extras because it offers a lot in the form of bonus material on the second disc. Overall, this DVD has my recommendation for an addition to anybody’s collection.
