Ben Stiller
is Larry Daley, new nightwatchman at New York’s struggling Museum of Natural History, where, unbeknown to the outside world, the exhibits spring chaotically to life after dusk. Larry’s first experience is being pursued by a the skeletal remains of a T-Rex, and at this point the film looks like it could be quite a hoot. But it all goes pear-shaped as soon as an Easter Island statue cracks an insipid joke and the Neanderthals start grunting. According to former security officers
Dick Van Dyke
and
Mickey Rooney
, an ancient Egyptian tablet is to blame. So, with the help of
Robin Williams
’ waxwork Teddy Roosevelt,
Owen Wilson
’s miniaturised cowboy and his nemesis,
Steve Coogan
’s inch-high Octavius, Larry sets out to restore calm… The special effects for this ‘Jumanji’-esque fantasy must have cost a bomb. A shame, then, that the result is such an aimless and riotous mess.