So today’s Sunday and it’s usually a day where I take a break from blogging during daytime and spend some time with people, usually family, that I don’t really get as much time to during the weekdays. My uncle yesterday asked some of us if we wanted to go out to watch a movie today and so I agreed, not knowing which movie we were going to see.
When I was informed that we were going to see the Night at the Museum 2, I kind of groaned inside since the movie looked like it was meant for little kids. But since my two younger cousins wanted to see it, I just went along with it and we all went out to see it as a Sunday family movie get together.
At first, I did not know what to expect since I’ve never seen the first one, but the plot was not very difficult to figure out. It’s starts off with a well off businessman (played by Ben Stiller) named Larry Daley who is interviewed on a show to promote his new invention: the glow in the dark flashlight. Later, he revisits the museum he used to work at, as a night guard, and notices that all the meaningful pieces are being shipped off to the Federal Archives since people nowadays, want an upgraded museum with futuristic technology. He has one night to prevent this from happening.
During this one night, he goes through a good versus evil adventure with some rather amusing characters of the movie, including Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams), Kahmunrah the Evil Pharaoh (Hank Azaria), Jedediah Smith (Owen Wilson), and Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams). Larry gets a call from Jedidiah Smith saying that they are being attacked by the evil pharaoh’s army who is looking for a magical table - a tablet that is supposed to unleashed all of the underworld’s minions to destroy the world in which he will conquer. It’s Larry’s job to protect this from happening all before sunrise, which he successful does so with the help of his affectionate companion Amelia Earhart.
At the end of the movie, the pieces of the museum are saved, instead of being shipped off. The museum opens to the New York public and somehow all the characters – statues, sculptures, fossils , etc. – come back alive again because of magical tablet (the main prize during the movie) and become is just as entertaining to the public as any futuristic museum would be. Larry Daley then sells his business and returns to being a night guard for the museum. As the movie is about to retire, he spots the exact person that plays Amelia Earhart in the museum; they meet each other, and she asks him to show him around, which he agrees to do so.
I didn’t really go into the movie expecting anything much, but after seeing it, it wasn’t that bad. I’d say it’s a good 105 minutes of heartwarming entertainment for light audiences. Most people, especially my family who started to talk about what to do next after the movie, would probably view this film as a see-and-forget type movie. C’mon let’s face it, how many of these movies are there? Too many. But I try to see if movies contain a message that’s deeper than just visual entertainment, because entertainment to me is not that big of a deal and doesn’t have a lasting, meaningful effect. That’s why I’m not that big of a fan of stupid comedy type movies.
But watching this movie, the simple, overall message I would say is do something that you love and you will seek true happiness. Simple, but profound, and is easily embedded through Larry’s (Ben Stiller) storyline from the beginning of the movie to the end of the movie.
For example, he was made fun of in the beginning of the movie by George Foreman, who pokes fun at him for being a “night guard” at a museum, a job that isn’t really comparable to being the “head man at” a large company. The audience laughs. As he walks out of the business, you can tell that although he’s wearing a business suit and drives a nice car, a part of him seems missing.
In the middle of the movie, he confronts Theodore Roosevelt (Robbin Williams) riding a horse before the entire exhibit will be shipped out the next day. Theodore speaks with him and his finals words, “Larry, the key to true happiness is…” but then Larry is interrupted by a business call. When he looks back up again, but it’s too late as sunrise has already turned these figures back into inanimate objects.
It isn’t until the end where the movie almost ends and he gets another chance to ask Theodore Roosevelt, “Hey, do you remember back when you said what is the key to true happiness until we got cut off by sunrise?”
“Oh, yes.” Theodore replies.
“Well, I figured it out,” Larry says.
“And what it is?”
“It’s doing the things you love, with the people you love.”
“Oh… I was just going to say physical exercise, but that works too.”
Theodore gives him a pat and walks off. It’s funny, but profound at the same time. Larry learns than it’s not about being famous, wearing a nice suit, or driving a nice car, but about doing the things you love and doing it with the people you love, which to him was, exploring the museum exhibit as a night guard and with all the different historical characters of the movie.
The lesson I got out of this that I would want to share with other people is if you have a job that you hate and you’re just doing it solely because of money, maybe it might not be a bad idea to reconsider choosing a job that you love even though you might not get as much money. To some people, true happiness doesn’t just have to come from money, but simply from just what you do and who you do it with.
So it might be a idea to think of, and who knows, maybe the best thing to do, is mix the best of both worlds. But for the sake of this movie, Larry ended up not having to really work because he enjoyed what he did, and that can be summed up in a famous quote by Confucius, “Choose a job that you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
Photo Credit: Lisa Andres
