Freeview film of the day: Night at the Museum

Night at the Museum ★★★
4.30-6.35pm C4

Ben Stiller stars as a security guard at New York’s Natural History Museum where all the exhibits, animal and human, come to life at night. It’s based on a children’s book that was probably a lot more fun than the film, which relies for its effect on a series of set pieces and sight gags. Some of these are OK – rampaging cowboys, Roman soldiers and a lion or two running through the museum, and Stiller being pursued by a skeletal T rex – and some are not. Robin Williams (as President Teddy Roosevelt), Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney also take part, as does an embarrassingly miscast Ricky Gervais as the head of the museum. Children might enjoy it, though.