This film is the symptom of the severe case of mental constipation that has afflicted Hollywood for several years. The filmmakers try very hard to give us a good time, but the result is as substantial as a whiff of stale air.
Ben Stiller plays Larry, an inventor who is unable to hang on to a job. Divorced, and with a son who is losing respect for his grand schemes, Larry finally lands a job as a night watchman at a natural history museum.
This may sound like a boring and routine job, but the mischievous grin on Larry's predecessors' faces hint at another story.
Thanks to a magical Egyptian tablet, the exhibits - from the skeleton of a T-rex to the life-sized wax models of lions and Teddy Roosevelt (played by Robin Williams, who is as noisy and preachy as ever) - come to life after midnight.
There are plenty of CGI effects, but their impact dwindles with each passing minute as the film suffers from a paper-thin plot. The story idea is fun, but it provides only enough material for a 30-minute animation short. Turning it into an almost two-hour film must have been torture for director Shawn Levy, who seems eager to rush through the film rather than tell a story.
The screenwriters, Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, must have been aware of the lack of twists and turns in the plot, as they try to make up for that with a subplot in which the child-like Larry tries to be a responsible father.