Plain View #65 - March 28, 2007

Bufe

2 year anniversary!

Dance Mix

The Prestige

Passion of the Christ

TV

Emergency Room

Head for the Mountains

Grocery Test #1, #2, #3

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Since the Natural History Museum in L.A. was one of my favorite field trips as a kid, I was all about seeing Night at the Museum, which is basically about a night watchman who finds out his first night on the job that all of the characters and animals in the displays come to life at night.

Ben Stiller is one of the few current comedians who can make me laugh. Add to him Ricky Gervais' funny boss character who says a lot without saying anything, Owen Wilson's vicious but harmless Jedediah, Steve Coogan as Octavius, Robin Williams (finally) playing an understated and respectable role as Theodore Roosevelt, and Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, and Bill Cobbs as friendly but sinister janitors, and you've got a fun couple of hours.

The movie isn't perfect and isn't hilarious, but it's good for kids and a creative idea. I liked when Ben Stiller performed magic for Genghis Khan. I turned to Ric and whispered, "Tony Wonder!" (that's for you Arrested Development fans).

While Night at the Museum sometimes seems like it was directly funded by an actual museum as a commercial to get more visitors (especially considering the movie's ending), it's entertaining, warm, funny, and good for all audiences. I've seen better, but for a dollar, it was worth it to me.

The more I drive around town, the more I want to buy tree trimmers and a ladder. It's one of my dreams to document shoefiti in the neighborhood on a map, and then one late night, systematically go out and cut all those stupid shoes down from their wires. Free the shoes, everyone. Hanging them is stupid.