30 December 2006. This Jumanji (1995) like growing up tale for an adult male (Ben Stiller) taps into some nice special effects and family value themes that just don't seem to mesh completely. Ben sometimes ends up with his dumb, silly stereotyped character from earlier films. And the casting of criminal characters are a abit of a disappointing shock for older audience members, especially without warning or clues. The female protagonists in this movie are underdeveloped. With good intent, this fantasy world of a museum coming to life had a lot of excitement, cute scenes but it failed to deliver the potential as a classic family comedy fantasy. Ben Stiller's development as a character seemed to be uneven and inconsistent. And unlike Jumanji, it seemed to revolve around the exploits of one man, alone who had to grow up. There was some nice plausible explanations for the use of English language, yet even so it was unnecessarily inconsistent. Fun and entertaining, the movie doesn't reach the levels of its possibilities. Six out of Ten Stars.
Review of Night at the Museum
