Post by Mark T. Locker.

When your kid is sick, you let them do pretty much whatever they want. And they learn pretty quickly that they get to do whatever they want.
So when Felix woke all flushed and feeling crummy, we set him up in his comfy chair and asked what he wanted to watch. Without missing a beat, he replied, “Night at the Museum”.

Honestly, there are a lot of worse movies out there that a 4 3/4-year-old might request. Like most mainstream comedy movies, it follows the required formula and chooses the meanings/messages dutifully from the list of clichéd options. In this case, it’s twofold: divorced father with no follow-through is competing with the new husband for his son’s admiration. Also, there is the love interest to win over.

Of course, those parts are just to flesh out a movie which is really about a Natural History Museum whose relics come to life every night due to a magical Egyptian tablet. Larry takes a job as a night guard at the museum in order to garner a little respect from his kid. Of course when he learns that everything (including a T-Rex skeleton) comes to life at night, well doesn’t that just make Larry way cooler than the stock broker step-dad with a cell phone holster.

Like I said, there are worse movies out there to watch. Owen Wilson as a tiny cowboy and Steve Coogan as his natural enemy, the tiny Roman centurion, are pretty entertaining. My kid’s favorite parts? The Easter Island head that always says, “Hey dum-dum! You bring me gum-gum?” And the scene in which Larry and a Capucin monkey get in a slap-fest.

Happy watching!