Despite the critics 44 percent rotten overall vote and my previous lack of interest, Night at the Museum is clean historical fun for the whole family.

Based off the children’s 1993 book by Milan Trenc, this movie adaptation is directed by Shawn Levy with a running time of 108 min. The release date was Dec. 22, 2006 and the rating is PG due to mild violence and rude language.

Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) plays an unemployed, divorced father who is down on his luck. Realizing his instability and the risk of losing custody of his son Nick (Jake Cherry), Daley reluctantly accepts a security job at the Museum of Natural History.

Due to downsizing, he is replacing the veteran night guards: Cecil (Dick Van Dyke), Gus (Mickey Rooney) and Reginald (Bill Cobbs). After a quick tour of the museum, they hand over the keys, an instruction booklet and some words of advice.

“It can get a little spooky around here at night so you might wanna …put a few light on, but most important, don’t let anything in or out of the museum,” Cecil tells him. That night, Daley falls asleep at the information desk, awakening only to discover the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton is missing.

“Your job is to make sure everyone stays inside the museum, because if the sun rises and anyone is on the outside, they turn to dust,” Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) tells him.

Daley notices that Roosevelt is in love with Sacagawea. But because she and Lewis and Clark are behind glass, he has never had the chance to tell her.

My 7-year-old son loved this movie. “That was awesome mom, we’re buying that, I loved T-Rex,” he said.

The movie does have good special effects, moves at a good pace and tries to teach these positive lessons: You must finish your task, fight your own battles and it hurts people’s feelings when you call them names.

The one thing I did not like about the movie is Cecil told Daley to brush up on his history to help him understand his job.

He does this before his second night of work, spending the whole day reading history books and learning.

Then he goes to work and knows everything about the museum. This gives children the idea that history is no big deal and is taken lightly and learned in one day.

I did like the movie and I would go see it again. I would rate it four out of five stars. At times, I was reminded of Jumanji, but it is not as scary for the children.

This movie is a fun, family time and sure to put you in a good mood.