Night at the Museum (2006)

How many times can a monkey slap Ben Stiller before the joke runs dry? The movie never finds out, it just keeps slapping. That one gag sums up the movie: a killer idea, a museum where every exhibit wakes up after dark, stretched over a plot thinner than a gift shop map. The divorced-dad storyline is pure copy and paste. But the T. rex skeleton playing fetch like a giant golden retriever is one of the great movie dinosaur moments, and Robin Williams plays a wax Teddy Roosevelt with so much warm, gruff dignity that he becomes the heart of the place. Owen Wilson’s tiny cowboy feuding with a tiny Roman general is the funniest pair in the building. Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney as the cranky veteran guards are a treat. It still pulled $574.5 million worldwide. A 5.6 because the exhibits are a blast and the human story is a pamphlet. $4,096 says you go to a museum this year and stare at the dinosaur a little too long, waiting for it to blink.

What works: The T. rex playing fetch, Robin Williams’s warm Teddy Roosevelt and the bickering miniature cowboy and Roman general give the museum real life.

What doesn’t: The story is thin, the dad-and-son arc is generic, and the slapping monkey gag gets run into the ground.

Who it’s for: Families with younger kids, and anyone who has ever wondered what the dioramas get up to after closing time.