Incognito

Mrs. Doubtfire

Director: Chris Colombus

Cast: Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan, Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence, Mara Wilson, Harvey Fierstein

Released: November 24, 1993

Oscar nominations: 

Makeup (won) 

This is a movie I've seen several times and it was a childhood favorite of mine. It still makes me laugh today, though if you think about it, this movie is really messed up! I don't think they could make this movie today. Not because of the transphobia (they could easily take that out), but just because it's so messed up what this guy does just to be with his children. The '90s (especially the early '90s!) were a different time. I remember seeing this in the theater with my family and it was packed. 

Daniel and Miranda Hillard (Robin Williams and Sally Field) live in a beautiful San Francisco home with their three children: fourteen-year-old Lydia (Lisa Jakub, the only other role I've known her from is Independence Day (she played Randy Quaid's daughter)); twelve-year-old Chris (Matthew Lawrence, probably best known for playing Shawn's half-brother in the later seasons of Boy Meets World); and five-year-old Natalie (Mara Wilson, who was also in Matilda and the remake of Miracle on 34th Street). We learn that Daniel's and Miranda's marriage has been rocky for quite awhile now. Miranda gets a phone call from her fussy old lady neighbor who is complaining about all the noise coming from her house. She comes home early to find her husband has given their son an elaborate birthday party complete with farm animals (the goats are eating the petunias on the front steps and the pony ate the birthday cake she had brought home), rap music blaring and hyped-up little kids on sugar (one who is even swinging from the chandelier; ooh, I would've been livid!). They get into a huge fight and this is the last straw for Miranda and she tells him she wants a divorce. He wants them to get help, but she is done with him! I never understood how these two were ever married. She is very type A, by-the-book, likes a schedule, very orderly, while he just likes to have fun! And it's said they've been having problems for fourteen years! They just never made sense as a couple to me. She tells him that they've "grown apart", they're "different", and they "have nothing in common" (that's an understatement!). 

At a court hearing, Miranda is awarded sole custody of the kids since she has the house and a career. (Daniel was fired from his job as a voice actor for an animated series at the beginning of the movie because he refused to voice a character who smoked. Miranda is a high-end interior designer, so you know she's the one bringing in the money and is able to pay for their beautiful Victorian home. I read that it sold for $4.5 million in 2016 and I'm still sure it cost a pretty penny in 1993!) The judge tells Daniel he will have visitation rights every Saturday and Daniel isn't happy about this arrangement, but he is assured that it's only temporary and that he will be assigned a court liaison to oversee his case. He has three months to get a job and a place to live and if he is deemed fit to be a parent, then the judge will consider a joint-custody arrangement. 

He finds an apartment and with the help of his court liaison, Mrs. Sellner, gets a job at a television studio where he will be boxing and shipping film reels. So now he has a place to live and a job, so he's on the right track... or is he? 

The first Saturday the kids spend at his apartment doesn't go very well. His place is a mess because many of the boxes haven't been unpacked yet. Miranda was one hour late dropping off the kids and now she's an hour early to pick them up. When they hear her honk the car outside, they get up to leave, but he yells at them to sit down and tells them, "You're on my time now. You're my goddamn kids too." 

Miranda lets herself in and sarcastically says, "Oh, Daniel, how charming" as she looks around. Rightfully, he is not happy with her and she explains her earliness, saying she has a lot of errands to run: the bank, the market, and she has to drop off an ad for a housekeeper at the newspaper office. Okay, so throughout this movie, I am on Miranda's side 99% of the time, but I can absolutely understand Daniel being angry with her here. Why doesn't she just run those errands without her three kids? She still has an hour left! I'm sure she can do all that within an hour! And she'll probably be able to get them done quicker without the kids in tow! But, of course, she needs to mention the housekeeper so Daniel can ask her about that. She tells him she wants "someone to be there when the children get home from school, to clean, possibly start dinner." She's going to pay this person $300 a week. He asks to see the ad and she reluctantly agrees. While she's distracted with the kids, he changes a couple of digits in the phone number. We all know what he has planned! 

But before he goes to drastic measures, he does ask her if he can take care of the kids after school. He can pick them up and they can stay with him until she gets home from work and he'll drop them off. She replies, "I'll think about it," which they all know means no. She must really hate her ex-husband if she doesn't want to save $300 a week and just have him take care of the kids! However, Miranda seems to think her decision in not letting him take care of the kids is justified when Natalie lets her know, "We're his goddamn kids too!" The icy look Miranda gives to Daniel! Mother Miranda did not like that! 

Next we get a montage of Daniel calling Miranda several times and using different voices, pretending to be someone interested in the housekeeping job who clearly isn't qualified. Even though he used different voices, I found it suspicious that Miranda never recognized any of these callers as her ex. I'm sure she's familiar with his different voices or at least would recognize his tone or something. When he finally calls as the perfect English nanny (something tells me Mary Poppins was an inspiration!), he knows Miranda is going to hire her. She tells Miranda that she has worked for the Smythe family of Elbourne, England for the last fifty years. So, two things: I looked up Elbourne, England, and no such town exists. There is a Melbourne, England (which I did not know existed; I just know the city in Australia and I think there's a Melbourne in Florida. I am kind of surprised this will not be a problem for him later, but I'll get to that when we get there). Also, how could she have worked for the Smythe family for the last fifty years? We are never really given an age for Daniel's created nanny, but later it will be mentioned that he was impersonating a sixty-year-old woman, so that means she would have been working for the Smythe family since she was ten! Maybe at the time of the call, Daniel was imagining her to be seventy or older? I don't know why I'm so invested in the timeline of a fictitious English woman, but I am! Miranda tells the caller about her children and the "perfect English nanny" lays it on a little thick calling the girls "two precious gems" and the boy "the little prince." When Miranda tells her there might be some cooking involved, she replies her only rule is that "they'll only eat good, nutritious food." Daniel must have known that would give his English nanny bonus points because Miranda has a huge grin on her face and asks her to come for an interview Monday evening at 7:30. Also, that will not be her "only rule". So even though Daniel had a whole backstory ready for his perfect nanny/housekeeper, he had forgotten to give her a name and when Miranda asks her for her name, he is caught off guard. It makes no sense why he wouldn't have a name ready, but we do get the iconic scene of him glancing at the paper and seeing the headline that reads "Police Doubt Fire Was Accidental" and getting the name that way. Just think, if he had already thought of a name ahead of time, we probably would have gotten something boring like "Imogen Potter" (lol, I just came up with the most random English name I could think of; I know Harry Potter came out after this movie, but I was thinking of Beatrix Potter). Although he needed inspiration for the last name, he comes up with Mrs. Doubtfire's first name on his own: Euphegenia. Is that even a name? It sounds very...unseemly. 

Daniel goes to see his brother, Frank (Harvey Fierstein), who we had met earlier in the movie and found out he works in theater, making costumes and masks. He asks him, "Can you make me a woman?" and he has come to the right place! I do have to wonder what he would have done if he didn't know anybody in this line of work. There's no way he could have pulled off pretending to be a totally different person without Frank's help! When Euphegenia Doubtfire is created, we only see her from the back, but we are shown close ups of Daniel putting on a padded, ample female bodysuit (Mrs. Doubtfire is a bit on the pudgy side), being fitted for a mask (which will be the thing that really sells him as being a totally different person), and zipping up the skirt.

Okay, a quick disclaimer. So obviously the pronouns are quite confusing, but I will be using she/her when talking about Mrs. Doubtfire. 

The first time the audience meets Euphegenia Doubtfire is the first time the Hillard family meets her too. (Although I went back and watched the trailer and they totally show Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire from several scenes. I feel like they would keep that hidden from audience members if this movie were made today (though it would be a totally different movie!) and the reveal of Mrs. Doubtfire would be a surprise for the audience. Miranda has the kids all line up in front of the stairs to meet her. Chris says the thing that everyone is probably thinking: "Geez, you're big for a lady." She laughs it off and tells him she played football and was the captain of the women's team. Obviously, Daniel knows what he's doing because his son loves and plays soccer and Mrs. Doubtfire brings up Stuart Little to Natalie because he knows that's one of her favorite books. Lydia is the only one who isn't exactly charmed by Mrs. Doubtfire. She asks her mom why can't Dad take care of them. Of course, Mrs. Doubtfire has some thoughts on this! She tells Miranda that perhaps the childrens' father would be "a more appropriate person." This right there should have been Miranda's first clue! Why would this woman, who would be getting $300 a week, suggest someone else? There's no way if she were real, she would turn it down! 

Miranda tells Lydia, "If he would get a job and a decent apartment" (I thought he already had a job at this point?),  and Mrs. Doubtfire interrupts to say, "I'm sure you normally would encourage the children to step out of the room before you verbally bash their father." Okay, a few things here:

-I don't think Miranda was "verbally bashing" her ex.

-Would someone who was just meeting their employer for the first time really intervene like that? Sure, it might be a little uncomfortable if the mother was talking bad about their father, but she really wasn't. She does make a joke and says if she sent her kids to another room every time she talked bad about Daniel, she might never see them again. I love how she laughs at her own joke and how stone-faced Mrs. Doubtfire is. 

I did find it a little weird that Mrs. Doubtfire called Natalie "Nattie" and Lydia ""Lydie" without anyone telling her they go by those nicknames. I was trying to think if Daniel had called them by those nicknames earlier in the movie, but couldn't remember. He does call them by those names later on in the movie (as their dad). 

After the kids have gone upstairs, Miranda tells Mrs. Doubtfire that the kids are upset with her and the Englishwoman replies, "Probably the divorce" without really thinking and when Miranda asks, "How did you know?", she replies that she can "sense" it the way Lydia talked about her father. They continued talking in the kitchen where Miranda asks her potential housekeeper if she would like some tea and Mrs. Doubtfire offers to make it. When she opens the cabinet, she goes on about the perfectly organized cubby where everything is in its place complete with name tags. Miranda tells her that her husband never appreciated it. By Mrs. Doubtfire's overly enthused tone, I could sense that. I laughed when Mrs. Doubtfire called Miranda's husband "a dolt". 

She continues making the tea and cracks a joke that there isn't a label for everything. When Miranda points out she seems to know where everything is, Mrs. Doubtfire tells her "everything is so accessible." She brings up the divorce again and asks Miranda if her ex not appreciating her organization was the reason she divorced him. This seems like very dangerous territory! 

Miranda tells Mrs. Doubtfire that she reminds her of someone and that it feels like they've known each other for years. Mrs. Doubtfire replies, "Maybe we knew each other in another life." This drops really quickly when Miranda tells her that she would love for her to come and work for her.

When Daniel returns to his apartment still dressed as Mrs. Doubtire, Mrs. Sellner, his court liaison, is waiting for him to check on his apartment. It seems kind of late for this kind of thing. Come to think of it, so did Miranda having the meeting with Mrs. Doubtfire on a Monday night. Why not have her come over on a Sunday afternoon? But I digress. At first Daniel starts talking in his regular voice, then quickly changes to Mrs. Doubtfire's English (though, she sounds more Scottish, but my ear is untrained when it comes to the dialects of the UK) accent. She introduces herself as Daniel's sister; "his much older sister", haha, he adds that when Mrs. Sellner gives her a doubting look. She asks if Mr. Hillard is home and tells her she has an appointment with him. Mrs. Doubtfire tells her she'll go inside to get him and he'll be right there, but Mrs. Sellner offers to come in with her. Daniel isn't getting off the hook that easily! 

As Mrs. Sellner waits in the (very messy) living room, Daniel quickly goes to his room where he takes off the padded bodysuit, wig, face mask, etc. From his bedroom, he talks to Mrs. Sellner using many puns about the changes he's gone through. As he's talking to her, he puts the mask on a head of a mannequin in front of an OPEN window. Nothing can go wrong there! 

When Daniel appears (pretending he's just stepped out of the shower and and was getting dressed in his room), he tells Mrs. Sellner he has two jobs - one where he's working at an educational film and TV company and one where he's cleaning houses. Mrs. Sellner gives him a look because his own apartment is a mess. He jokes it's not his place he's cleaning. I'm surprised he mentioned the housekeeping gig because what if she had asked for the number of his employee? That would have been awkward! She doesn't, though. She asks about his sister and he tells her she's his half-sister (probably to explain why she's so much older!) and that she's half-English and half-American. I suppose he has to say she's half-American because he's American, but Mrs. Doubtfire is giving 100% UK vibes.

Daniel mentions that his "sister" makes a great cup of tea and Mrs. Sellner asks Daniel if she could make some tea. Why Daniel doesn't tell her his sister had a long day and is getting ready for bed, I don't know. That's all he had to do. He tells her to wait right there and he'll go get his sister. As he's in his room changing back into Mrs. Doubtfire, the window is open and two kids in the apartment across from him are laughing and pointing at him. He goes to pull the blinds and this is when he knocks the head mannequin over and the mask flies down to the street below and gets ran over by a truck. 

He runs into the kitchen to start making tea, frantically looking for anything that can hide his face. This scene was so stress-inducing! He hears Mrs. Sellner asking if she can help and as Mrs. Doubtfire shouts "No!" just as Mrs. Sellner walks into the kitchen, he grabs a cake (don't ask why he had a whole cake in his fridge), sticks his face in it and pops up and exclaims, "Hellooooo!" to Mrs. Sellner with frosting covered all her his face. We've all seen this scene; you know what I'm talking about! It always cracks me up the way he says "Hellloooo!" Transformed now into Mrs. Doubtfire, she explains to Mrs. Sellner that she's wearing her nightly meringue mask and starts pouring the tea. Oh, man, I laughed so hard when large drops of frosting plop into the tea cups. I think three fell into Mrs. Sellner's cup. Mrs. Doubtfire laughs and tells her now she's got her cream and sugar. I bet Mrs. Sellner is sorry she asked for tea in the first place! I would have been so grossed out! 

Oh, here's a fun fact: this movie takes place in April because in the kitchen you can see a calendar opened to that month. 

Frank must have had some replacement masks ready to go because in the next scene we see Daniel retrieving one from his house. 

It's Mrs. Doubtfire's first day on the job and when she arrives the kids are watching The Dick Van Dyke Show. I'm sorry, but no. No kid from the '90s (or any time) would be watching some black and white comedy from the '60s. This was probably the only show they could get the rights to. These '90s kids would be watching Duck Tales or Animaniacs or Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?! Trust me, I was there, I know! 

Lydia isn't happy when Mrs. Doubtfire turns off the TV and tells them it's time for homework and that she's in charge from three to seven and they will " follow a schedule" and those who don't follow it will be punished. Now why didn't Daniel do this as their dad? Maybe he could have saved himself a lot of hassle if had had been a parent instead of trying to be his kids' best friend! The word "punish" has little Natalie pretty freaked out, but Lydia tells her sister their new baby-sitter is lying and she wouldn't punish them, but Mrs. Doubtfire replies, "Don't fuss with me." Heh, I chuckled with how she accentuated the "fuh" sound in fuss. I have to wonder if that was a callback to the famous Elisabeth Shue line in Adventures in Baby-Sitting, also directed by Chris Columbus. 

The next thing we see are all the kids cleaning while Mrs. Doubtfire is laying on the couch reading the paper and sipping an iced tea. Lydia is vacuuming, Chris is cleaning a wall and Natalie is polishing the silver. I had to laugh at the oldest getting the easiest job. I can understand vacuuming and maybe some light dusting, but washing the wall and polishing silver? That seems a bit extreme. Why not have them do something like empty the dishwasher or take out the trash? Those seem like more realistic chores for kids to do. If I were one of those kids, I would hate Mrs. Doubtfire and I would definitely rat her out to my mom about how she made me do all these chores while she just lounged around. Lydia calls her out on it and says what she's doing is exploitation. 

While the kids are upstairs working on their homework, Mrs. Doubtfire is starting an elaborate dinner with four boiling pots on the stove (the most burners I ever use at a time is 2!) and a thick cookbook open. I had to laugh because the pages of the cookbook are severely stained. Good thing there's about a thousand pages in this book (I'm telling you, that thing is thick!) so Miranda will probably never notice unless she makes that meal. I'm not really sure why Daniel decided to cook something so complicated on his first day as Mrs. Doubtfire. We see he ordered takeout when the kids visited him in his apartment for the first time so something tells me he doesn't cook very often! There's fish in one pan and it looks very burnt and unappetizing. Mrs. Doubtfire leans in very close to and starts to smell burnt rubber. Of course the large bosoms of the body suit have gotten too close to the hot burners and catch on fire! After putting them out with pan lids, she ends up getting take out from Valenti's which is advertised as "fine restaurant and gourmet take out food" in the phone book. Ha, remember phone books? Remember how bulky and heavy and annoying they were? Remember when we had to look up numbers in the phone BOOK instead of just Googling them or asking Siri/Alexa to make a call for us? How archaic! I was listening to a podcast review of this movie and one of the hosts, when talking about this scene with the phone book, said, "How did we even survive back then?" which cracked me up. 

Anyhoo, four meals are delivered to the Hillard household and cost a total of $135.27 (there was an additional twenty bucks added for the "extra rush"). I looked up to see what that would be the equivalent to in 2024 and it would cost nearly $300! Paying $135 would be bad enough, but can you imagine having to dig out $300 from your own pocket? There goes half of Mrs. Doubtfire's first weeks' pay! 

I've seen this movie many times and I'm still not sure exactly what their dinner was. There's a salad with raspberries and the main dish appears to be noodles (some of the noodles are green, so maybe they're made with pesto?) shrimp, some kind of sauce, and carrots. I gotta be honest...this meal...doesn't look that good. 

When Miranda comes home, she is delighted because the kids were upstairs doing their homework, the house is clean, and Mrs. Doubtfire is setting up the dinner in the dining room complete with lit candles. Seriously, if Daniel had put in half the effort as Mrs. Doubtfire, he might still be married to Miranda! Or at least she wouldn't mind sharing joint custody with him. As Mrs. Doubtfire leaves, Lydia runs outside to thank her and tell her that she hasn't seen her mom that happy in a long time. It's kind of ironic (and a bit messed up) that it's Miranda's ex-husband in disguise who is making her happy. 

It's Montage Time! We see the passage of time as Daniel spends time with his kids as Mrs. Doubtfire (it's kind of sad how he sees his kids more when he's a sixty-year-old English woman than he does as their own father) set to Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like a Lady." Okay, for the longest time I thought the song was called "Do It Like a Lady." During this montage we also see Daniel in his apartment watching Julia Child as he takes notes and expands his cooking chops. 

I have yet to mention another important character in this movie! Two years before he was James Bond, Pierce Brosnan played Stuart Denmeyer, a former flame of Miranda's. He is very handsome and very successful and he has recently decided to restore a mansion on Nob Hill (lol that should have been the title if there was a sequel to Notting Hill) and wants to make it into a $500 a night B&B and has specifically asked Miranda for her expertise in decorating the interior. We will find out later that they knew each other their junior year of college. My head cannon is that they dated in college, but then he moved back to his homeland of England (Pierce Brosnan is actually Irish, which I did not know!) and then she met Daniel and eventually married him. During Daniel's stint as Mrs. Doubtfire, Miranda and Stuart start seeing each other. Yes, it does seem a bit fast for her to start dating so soon after getting a divorce, but it's all for the purpose of the plot of the movie and it's not like Miranda and Stuart are engaged at the end of the movie (my other head canon is that they do eventually get married...I think Miranda deserves a happy ending with what she went through in this movie!).

Daniel is aware that Miranda is seeing Stuart because we see him as Mrs. Doubtfire looking out the window to see him bringing Miranda home. The first time he meets Stuart is also as Mrs. Doubtfire (because why would Miranda introduce her new beau to her ex?) when she comes to the house and Stuart is there, also meeting the kids for the first time. Stuart tells Mrs. Doubtfire that Miranda has been raving about her; she replies, "She's never mentioned you", heh. Stuart tells her that he was raised in London and asks what part of England she's from and she replies, "Here and there, all over really" and he tells her that her accent is "a little muddled." Luckily for Daniel, the fictional town of Elbourne, England is never brought up. 

Miranda chats with her, all giddy, telling her that Stuart is a friend and she doesn't know what's happening with their relationship, but she's clearing glowing over him and asks Mrs. Doubtfire if she thinks he's fabulous and her housekeeper replies, "Oh, kind of, if you like that rugged, handsome type." Miranda tells her that Stuart wants to go out for drinks and thinks that's harmless, but Mrs. Doubtfire disagrees and tells her employer that she thinks it's too soon and she needs "to give [her] divorce some time". I'm really not sure why Miranda is getting dating/relationship advice from her housekeeper, especially when she's only been working for her for only a couple of months by this point. Mrs. Doubtfire definitely crosses the line when she tells Miranda she needs "to let [her] sheets cool down before she brings someone else into the bed." If I were Miranda, I'd be telling Mrs. D. to mind her own damn business! Instead, Miranda just asks her how long after Mr. Doubtfire died she started to feel any desire for anyone else and Mrs. Doubtfire replies, "Never", because of course! She seems to shame Miranda for having any thoughts of being with another man which just seems so out of line that I'm surprised Miranda isn't more offended by this. Of course, (spoiler ahead, but we all know what happens) after she finds out that this was her ex the whole time ("the whole time?") this conversation will make a lot more sense since he's obviously jealous. 

So it's around this point in the movie when Lydia and Chris find out that Mrs. Doubtfire is actually their father. It happens when she uses the bathroom and Chris also has to go and he just barges in even though the door is closed. Well, does he ever get the surprise when he sees Mrs. Doubtfire urinating standing up! He freaks out and runs to Lydia's room. Mrs. Doubtfire comes in and tells them, "I'm not who you think I am." Chris replies, "No sh*t" and in his normal voice, their father says, "Watch your mouth, young man" and that's when they figure out it's their dad and he admits it's him. I'm not sure why he just didn't admit it was him right after Chris discovered Mrs. Doubtfire was not a woman. He tells them they can't tell their mom or Natalie. In the recent words of Chris, no sh*t! He does acknowledge that what he's doing is highly illegal because he mentions if their mother finds out, he'll "only be able to see [them] through a plate glass." 

Looking back, I'm not really sure why they had the two oldest kids discover their new nanny was actually their dad. I don't think they ever admit to their mom they knew it was their dad (at least it's not shown onscreen if they do) and nothing really comes of them knowing it's really him. It would have made more sense if them knowing it was their dad came back into the plot. Like, perhaps if they knew he would be going to their mom's birthday dinner with them as Mrs. Doubtfire and also had an important job interview as himself at the same restaurant at the same time, they could have helped him make up excuses (as Mrs. Doubtfire) to leave the table for long periods of time. 

We get another scene of Miranda having a heart to heart with Mrs. Doubtfire and they get on the subject of marriage which turns to Daniel and she pretty much asks her what happened with her marriage. Miranda tells her at first he was "romantic and passionate" and Mrs. Doubtfire interjects to tell her "he sounds like an absolute stud", haha. She apologizes for being rude in advance, then want to know "how he was on a scale of 1-10." Again, I would tell her to mind her own business, but Miranda just replies that he was "okay" (heh) and continues to say, "It was Daniel's spontaneity and his energy [she] fell in love with" and adds that he was funny and could always make her laugh, but after a few years, everything stopped being funny. She was working all the time while he was between jobs, she never got to see the kids, and the house was always a mess, and often cried herself to sleep. Poor Miranda! That sounds rough. Again, I still don't understand how these two ended up married! They really don't seem like a good match. She tells her she was turning into a horrible person and didn't want her kids growing up with a mother like that and adds she's a better person when she's not with Daniel. She sure is opening up a lot to this person she's just met! I wonder if Miranda has a therapist? It sounds like she might need one. 

Meanwhile, at his other job, the TV studio where he works as himself, we see him watching a boring host of a childrens' program talking about dinosaurs in a monotone voice. How did this guy even get this job and stay on the air for so long? Daniel even makes a crack that this guy was putting him to sleep when he was a kid, so he's been on the air for awhile! He meets Jonathan Lundy, the owner and general manager of the station. This will eventually lead into Daniel doing an impromptu show on an empty set and Lundy will catch him and loves his act and will invite him out to dinner to talk about him getting his own show.

Well, it turns out that Miranda is celebrating her birthday with Stuart and the kids and they will be going to Bridges, the same restaurant the interview will be set up at on the same day at the same time! San Fransisco is a huge city so I love that both these events are happening at the same place. Of course, this turns out to be a big inconvience for Daniel when Miranda asks Mrs. Doubtfire to join them for dinner. After finding out when the dinner is, she tells her she can't, but Miranda pleads with her to join them and adds, "I can't have my birthday without you." But why? Why is it so important she have her housekeeper join them? She does add that she's "part of the family now", but is she really? Daniel will see if he can reschedule the interview with Mr. Lundy, but he is booked solid. I don't know why he just doesn't make up an excuse and have Mrs. Doubtfire become sick or have to travel to England or something. 

At Bridges, he arrives with the family dressed as Mrs. Doubtfire and sees Mr. Lundy ahead of them. He hears him ask to sit in the non-smoking section (ah, yes, remember when restaurants were divided into smoking and non-smoking), so when the host asks Miranda where they would prefer to sit, Mrs. Doubtfire quickly insists they sit in the smoking section because she used to smoke and that the best way to keep from smoking "is to be around those who do smoke." If I were Miranda, I would give her a hard no, especially with three kids and one being so young! 

Under his Mrs. Doubtfire getup, Daniel is wearing a suit. That must have reeked with all that padding and fabric over it! He will get away from the table with his family (and Stuart, heh) four times. The first time is just to call the restaurant (the very same one he's already at) to ask them to give a message to Mr. Lundy that he will be late because of traffic. The other three times, Mrs. Doubtfire will make up an excuse to leave the table and goes into the restroom to change. While he's changing out of the Mrs. Doubtfire getup, they speed up the camera. They act like he's getting out of it really quick and I'm sure he's going as fast as he can, but it's gotta take some time to get out of this thing: there's the clothes, the bodysuit, the stockings and shoes, the jewelry, the wig, the mask, he's gotta wipe off the makeup. And I'm sure it's even more of a hassle to put all that stuff back on! I wonder how long the Hillard family and Stuart were waiting for Mrs. Doubtfire and how long Mr. Lundy was waiting for Daniel. I feel like a real life situation of this would not work as seamlessly as it does in the movie (well, at first it goes smoothly for him...).

The first time he meets with Mr. Lundy (and he was able to get away from his family by having Mrs. Doubtfire tell Miranda that she needed to take her medication orally (the look on Miranda's face!), he has quite a few drinks of Scotch with him, then looks over and sees his family looks bored because they're waiting for Mrs. Doubtfire to return before they order, so he makes an excuse to leave the table.

Because he's had so much to drink, when he returns as Mrs. Doubtfire, she falls out of the chair when she sits down. Pierce Brosnan looks like he's trying not to crack up. They all order and for some odd reason, Stuart orders the jambalaya, but tells the waiter not to make it to spicy because he's allergic to pepper. Since when can you order jambalaya that isn't spicy? That's the whole point of jambalaya: it's spicy! If you don't want spicy, order the white fish or something, I don't know! But don't order the freakin' jambalaya! 

Mrs. Doubtfire leaves the table again and this time when Daniel returns to the table with Mr. Lundy, he asks him why he's wearing lipstick and smells like perfume (he had doused himself earlier when getting re-dressed as Mrs. Doubtfire and apparently forgot to wipe off the lip stick). He says he ran into a waitress he used to date and they started making out, thus the lipstick and perfume. Mr. Lundy is a dirty old man and wants to know if the girl has a "lady friend" for him and Daniel says he'll go ask, giving him an excuse to leave. 

Just after he has changed into Mrs. Doubtfire, he hears the kitchen staff say the food for the table his family is sitting at is ready, so he puts a chef coat over Mrs. Doubtfire's dress, goes into the kitchen and sprinkles the jambalaya with cayenne pepper. Only in movies and TV shows does this happen where someone can walk into a kitchen of a restaurant and nobody will say anything. Instead of going to the family's table, he returns to Mr. Lundy's table still dressed as Mrs. Doubtfire (those Scotch's really did a number on him!) and Mr. Lundy gives him an odd look and asks, "Why in God's name are you dressed like a woman?" Daniel does some pretty quick thinking and introduces him to Euphegenia Doubtfire, the new host for the children's TV show. Luckily for him, Mr. Lundy seems to like Mrs. Doubtfire.

Meanwhile, at the other table, they decide to start eating their food without their housekeeper because Miranda doesn't want their dinner to get cold. Predictably, Stuart starts choking on the shrimp and Daniel sees this and runs across the restaurant and as he's giving him the Heimlich maneuver, the mask starts to slip off. A shrimp flies out of his mouth and lands on the table right next to little Natalie, probably scarring her for life (that girl will never have an appetite for shrimp!). I have to wonder what was the point of making Stuart allergic to cayenne pepper? It was him choking that was the problem, not an allergic reaction. Maybe they had him be allergic so Daniel would feel guilty about adding the pepper or they wanted Daniel to be the reason Stuart almost died so Daniel could see he was being way out of line? Who knows? 

By this time the mask is halfway off his face and it's obvious who Mrs. Doubtfire really is. Even Daniel knows the jig is up because he uses his normal voice to ask Stuart if he's all right. Miranda is just looking on in pure horror. I love it when she says, "The whole time you were -- the whole time?" Best line of the movie! She is so upset and the family leaves. They barely even got to eat their dinner! 

The next scene takes us straight to the courtroom where Daniel points out he has a residence suited for children (after becoming Mrs. Doubtfire his place became a lot cleaner!) and has held down a job (of course he's talking about working at the TV studio, not being Mrs. Doubtfire!). He admits he had some "questionable behavior", but says he's "addicted to his children" which may not be the best word to use in a situation like this! He gives this very heartfelt speech, but the judge says he thinks what he just saw was a "performance from a very gifted actor" and tells him he's giving full custody to Miranda. He bears more bad news, telling him he will now have supervised visits every Saturday and wants him to get psychologically evaluated and then they will reexamine the case in one year. 

Back at the Hillard home, Miranda is trying to find a new housekeeper/nanny, but no one seems as perfect as the fictitious Mrs. Doubtfire. They're all talking about how much they miss her as though she were a real person which Miranda points out she wasn't. While they're talking about her, they suddenly hear her voice coming from the other room and there on the TV is their father dressed as Mrs. Doubtfire, hosting a children's educational show. Looks like it didn't take any time at all for him to get that gig! 

In the end, Miranda talks with Daniel and he will now pick up the kids after school to take care of them until Miranda gets home from work. She got everything taken care of so it will just be them and he will be able to see them for more than one day a week. Perhaps this is what she should have done all along, but then again, if Daniel had never been Mrs. Doubtfire he wouldn't have needed an excuse to discipline his kids or make sure they eat healthy or clean the house. 

I have to wonder what would have happened if Daniel was never found out as Mrs. Doubtfire. If he had successfully passed his court case within the three months, I assume the kids would spend time with their father after school, much like the arrangement at the end of the movie, but maybe Miranda would still want Mrs. Doubtfire to clean the house for her. In that case, I'm guessing Daniel would come up with some excuse and have Mrs. Doubtfire tell her she's moving back to England. I do wonder if Lydia or Chris would ever tell their mom who Mrs. Doubtfire really was. Like, maybe ten or fifteen years from now, would they ever say, "Hey, Mom? Remember when we had that nanny for a few months about a decade ago right after you and Dad split up? Well, did you know that was actually Dad in that getup?" Hell, I wonder if they ever told her they knew it was their dad for awhile in the actual events of the movie. 

Wish Fulfillment

Aladdin
Directors: Ron Clements and John Musker
Voice Talent: Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman, Gilbert Gottfried
Released: November 25, 1992
Viewed in theaters: December ??, 1992

Oscar nominations:
Best Sound Effects Editing (lost to Dracula)
Best Score - Alan Menken (won)
Best Song - "A Friend Like Me" by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman
Best Song - "A Whole New World" by Alan Menken and Tim Rice (won)

This is one of the Disney Renaissance movies (the animated Disney movies from 1989-99) that came out during my youth, so of course I saw it in the theaters and have seen it several times on video. Now it's actually been a while since I last saw it, so while there were a few plot points I didn't remember (while I remembered Aladdin's first and third wishes, I forgot what his second wish was, but we'll get to that later), I remembered the storyline and was able to hum along with the songs. ("Come on down, stop on by, hop a carpet and fly to another Arabian Night." "A whole new world! A new fantastic point of view! No one to tell us no! Or where to go! Or say we're only dreaming!" "Riff rat! Street rat! Scoundrel! Take that! "Can you friends do this? Can your friends do that? Can you friends pull this out their little hat? "Prince Ali! Fabulous he, Ali Ababwa.") Okay, I'll stop. But with these Disney movies sometimes it's impossible not to sing! But seriously, the songs are so catchy in this movie. And it's no wonder since Alan Menken and Howard Ashman composed the music and they also did the music for Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid which also have amazing soundtracks. Tim Rice, who did the score for The Lion King (another amazing soundtrack), also worked on the score after Ashman died.

I just thought of something that has never occurred to me, strangely. When "A Whole New World" won the Oscar for Best Song, was it for the version in the movie that Brad Kane and Lea Salonga sing as Aladdin or Jasmine? Or is it for the pop version that was on the radio that Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle sing? I suppose they still have the same lyrics and the award is for that, but that thought just occurred to me. Now I'm going to wonder the same thing for "Beauty and the Beast", "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", and "Colors of the Wind" which also have pop companions to their film version. (But the Eton John version of "CYFTLT" and the version sung in the movie have different lyrics!) The pop version of "A Whole New World" is probably my favorite pop Disney song (and I say this as someone who loves Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson's pop version of "Beauty and the Beast" and Vanessa William's version of "Colors of the Wind"). I even remember where I was when I first heard it on the radio. I was in my sixth grade art class (which I hated because I am not artistic!) and our teacher let us listen to the radio as we worked on whatever we were creating that week. It was the first class of the day and this was probably in late November or early December so I have no doubt I was half asleep and probably freezing, but then this song came on and it just captivated me. I just love it so much and I'm pretty sure I've sung it at karaoke with a friend!

I just thought of something else. While I was looking up the Oscar nominations for this movie, I noticed two songs from The Bodyguard (which also came out the same year) were also nominated ("Run to You" and "I Have Nothing", which are fine, but I can take or leave). Oh my God, can you imagine if "I Will Always Love You" was eligible for a nomination? I'm 99.9% sure it would have won and while I do really like that song, it would have broken my heart if "A Whole New World" hadn't won!

Aladdin is probably best known for Robin Williams voicing the Genie. I don't know the ratio, but I'm guessing 92% of the movie is ad-libbed while the rest is from the script! I read that he did so much dialogue  that there's an extra sixteen hours of audio of him as the Genie! Can you imagine being an animator for the Genie? Everytime he did an impression (and there are quite a few), he would shape-shift into Jack Nicholson or Arnold Schwarzenegger or Arsenio Hall or Rodney Dangerfield and those are only the ones I can name off my head right now! Obviously the Genie is a time-traveler. How else would he know who those people are? Not to mention the fact that he talks into a microphone when he pretends to be hosting a game show with Aladdin as a contestant and he treats the magic carpet like an airplane when they fly out of the Cave of Wonders. How else would he know about those modern items? One of the funniest scenes with the Genie that made me laugh is when he's singing "Prince Ali" during the parade scene and pretends to be a female host like it's the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and says, "Fabulous, Harry, I love the feathers" after the parade-goers sing about Prince Ali's peacocks. I don't know why, but that just made me laugh. I also thought it was funny when he asks Aladdin if he can call him "Al" or "Din" or my personal favorite, "Laddi".

Speaking of humorous voice work, Gilbert Gottfried is really funny as Iago the macaw who is Jafar's minion. Can you imagine having a parrot with that grating voice? Oh, God, I would set it free! But in this movie, it works. I like that when he and Jafar are around other people, he acts like he doesn't know more than a few words, but in reality he can have a conversation. He's actually a pretty smart bird because he can change his voice to impersonate other people and that comes in handy with their dastardly deeds. One of my favorite Iago moments is when they're packing to leave the palace and he finds a photo of him on Jafar's shoulder and says, "And how about this picture? I don't know; I think I'm making a weird face in it."

I read that Jafar was modeled after Maleficent and looking at him, it makes a lot of sense. They both have the same physique being tall and thin, they both carry a staff, and they both have a sidekick bird that sits on their shoulders. Jafar is so obviously evil (c'mon, anyone with a twisted beard is gonna be, well, twisted!), but yet he's the sultan's (Jasmine's father) "most trusted advisor". Jafar wants to obtain the genie lamp hidden in the Cave of Wonders but is told the only one that can enter is the Diamond in the Rough who he soon learns is the street rat Aladdin. He disguises himself as an old man, telling Aladdin that if he fetches him the lamp, he will be rewarded handsomely. At first I thought that Jafar had magically disguised himself, but no, it's just a costume. It's an amazing costume as he looks totally different with the long white beard and bald head and jacked-up teeth. He even uses Iago under his shirt to make it appear he's hunchbacked.

I need to stop for one second to point out something that's been bugging me about the new live-action Aladdin trailer (aside from the Genie, yeah, that doesn't look quite right.) When you see Jafar say, "Fetch me the lamp" to Aladdin, he's not disguised as the old man! What the eff? Maybe it will be explained in the movie.

The old man tells Aladdin to touch nothing but the lamp, however, when he and his "esteemed effendi", the capuchin monkey, Abu, are in the cave, Abu steps on the magic carpet and nothing happens. Wouldn't that be considered part of the treasures? Maybe because it was an accident and Abu wasn't intentionally touching the carpet to take it, the Cave of Wonders Gods swept it under the rug (yeah that was an intentionally lame pun!) Can I just say how much I love Abu. He is the cutest thing ever. He just may be the best Disney animal sidekick ever. (Although I really love Sebastian). Abu isn't perfect though, because he sees a huge red jewel he wants (seriously, wtf is a monkey going to do with that?) and grabs it right before Aladdin grabs the lamp and the cave starts to crumble and tells them, "You have touched the forbidden treasure. You will never again see the light of day." The magic carpet is able to save them and we get what is possibly the most exciting scene (or one of the most exciting) of a Disney animated movie where the carpet flies them out of the cave while they are dodging falling rocks and lava. It's a very fun scene and thrilling scene. The carpet gets caught under a rock and Aladdin and Abu are flung toward the entrance where Aladdin is hanging onto the precipice of the cliff. He asks the old man to help, but he tells him to give him the lamp first which really should have set off Aladdin's warning bells, but he gives the man the lamp and when he's about to strike Aladdin's hand with a sword, Abu bites Jafar's hand and both he and Aladdin are flung off the cliff. Luckily the carpet manages to free itself and save them before they hit the rocky ground.

Of course this is when we meet the all-knowing, time-traveling, wise-cracking, shape-shifting, jovial Genie (because Abu managed to swipe the lamp from Jafar) and he tells Aladdin the rules for wish-making, the first one being no wishing for more wishes. (Have you ever noticed that's always a given whenever a genie is in a movie or a TV episode? I've never seen Kazaam, but I bet that's the first thing Shaq tells the kid.) The other rules are he can't bring anyone back to life, he can't take a life and he can't make anyone fall in love. I mean, these are pretty solid rules. It makes you wonder what you would wish for if you came across a genie lamp. This is something I would have to take into serious consideration because you don't want to waste your wishes (like Jafar does later on, but we'll get to that later).

Aladdin tricks the Genie into escaping from the cave without using one of his wishes. When he tells Aladdin he used a wish, Aladdin tells him, "I never actually wished to get out of the cave." When Aladdin asks the Genie what HE would wish for, he tells him his his freedom, but someone has to wish it for him. Aladdin promises after he uses his first two wishes, he will grant the Genie's freedom for his last wish. While I remember this moment at the end of the film, I forgot it was brought up earlier. I guess I thought since Aladdin had become so close to the Genie, he set him free.

Before all this goes down, Aladdin comes across the beautiful Princess Jasmine who he meets in the marketplace. Jasmine has never been outside the palace walls (really?) and doesn't like any of the princes who are asking for her hand in marriage and tells her father she wants to marry for love. Sounds like she needs to find a lookalike and do a Princess Switch! Jasmine has a pet tiger named Raja which I thought was super cool when I was 12 and I love that she talks to him the same way I talk to my cat: "Raja was just playing with that over-dressed, self-absorbed Prince, weren't you Raja?" while cooing and rubbing his face. Hehe, and by "playing", Raja had bit him in the bum and torn off his pants so his boxer shorts were showing.

I find Jasmine interesting in that she's the only Disney princess where her movie isn't her story; she's the secondary character (and even then, the Genie may surpass her). She doesn't even get her own song; she shares it with Aladdin. I would say she's the Disney princess with the least amount of screentime, but there's no way she has less screentime than Aurora in Sleeping Beauty!

Jasmine decides she's going to sneak out to the marketplace and "disguises" herself by throwing a brown cloak around her. Girl, please, you're not fooling anyone. With her heavily made-up eyes and HUGE gold earrings, it's clear she's not a commoner. While at the marketplace ("Sugar dates? Sugar date and pistachios!"), she gives an apple to a kid while not paying for it and the merchant is about to cut her hand off (it's barbaric, but it's home!) before Aladdin intervenes. They escape and Aladdin learns she's the Princess and he realizes there's no way he could ever be with her.

Fast-forward back to his first wish with the Genie, and, since he can't make Jasmine fall in love with him, he wishes to be a prince so he at least has a chance, and, voila! Prince Ali Abwaba is born. And poor Abu is turned into an elephant. Meanwhile, Jafar is plotting to become the next Sultan and Iago tells him that he should marry Jasmine, then, when he gets rid of her and her father, he will be the new Sultan. Jafar hypnotizes the Sultan with his scary snake staff (this is how he gets him to do things) to make him agree that Jafar should marry his daughter. (Eww, Jafar is easily twice as old as Jasmine, if not older).

Prince Ali comes to town with his shiny parade and catchy song. (I loved how even Iago is bouncing up and down to the beat). Jasmine is having none of it and sees Prince Ali as just another moronic suitor. When her father, Jafar, and Aladdin are arguing over who should marry her, she tells them all, "I am not a prize to be won!" You go, girl! I did laugh every time Jafar referred to Aladdin as "Prince Abubu."

Aladdin as Prince Ali apologizes to Jasmine and she recognizes him as the boy she met in the marketplace, but he denies that's him when she asks him. She thinks he has a sweet ride with his flying carpet and this is when we get the "A Whole New World" ("Unbelievable sights! Indescribable feeling!") scene and they go soaring, tumbling, freewheeling through an endless diamond sky. At one point they carpet does a 360 and they don't even fall off! I don't know how that's even physically possible. However, the carpet will do it again and this time they fall off and the carpet catches them. I laughed when they fly through a flock of birds and one of them looks at them in surprise. ("Every turn a surprise!") This magic carpet was really booking it as they visited Greece, Egypt, and China. (Hope they said hello to Mulan as she and Jasmine share a singing voice in Lea Salonga!)

Jasmine catches Aladdin in a lie when she brings up Abu and he pretty much admits he was the boy she met in the marketplace. He continues to lie to her by telling her that he "dresses up as a commoner so he can escape the pressures of palace life." He dismisses the Genie's advice earlier when he told Aladdin that he should tell her the truth. He really should have taken that advice because it's probably not smart to lie to a girl who has a TIGER for a pet! After they return to the palace and smooch (is this the first time the romantic couple in a Disney movie kiss in the middle of the movie instead of the end?), Aladdin is captured by Jafar and thrown in the sea and becomes unconscious. He is saved by the Genie, using his second wish even though he couldn't speak. Does it still count even though he never said "I wish?" We already saw earlier the Genie is able to save his master without wishes being used. Though he did tell Aladdin he would get no more freebies, so I guess he was cashing in one wish for the price of two. This means that Aladdin is down to one wish, the one he's supposed to use to set the Genie free. However, being the chump he is, Aladdin tells the Genie he can't wish him free because he needs him to help keep up the charade of being a prince and is too much of a putz to tell Jasmine the truth.

I laughed so hard when Jasmine twirls around and tells her father, "I just had the most wonderful time!" It reminded me of the scene in Elf when Buddy comes into his dad's office after his date with Jovie and he says, "I'm in love and I don't care who knows it!" 

Iago tricks Aladdin by pretending he's Jasmine calling for him and when he leaves, Iago steals the lamp and Jafar summons the Genie, making him the new master, much to the Genie's dismay. I guess the Genie just hangs out in his lamp when he's not doing anything. Jafar is terrible at making wishes. He first wishes to become Sultan, and not more than five minutes later, he wishes to become a powerful sorcerer.  ("If you won't bow before a sultan, then you will cower before a sorcerer!") Way to waste your first wish, Jafar! He exiles Aladdin and Abu to the cold, snowy mountains where poor Abu is shivering, and yet, Aladdin, only wearing pants and a vest, doesn't seem to be cold. They are able to return to Agrabah with the help of the flying carpet where Jafar is treating Jasmine and her father cruelly. He wants his third wish to be for Jasmine to fall in love with him, but lucky for her, the Genie can't abide that rule. When Jafar is aware that Aladdin has snuck back and is trying to get back the lamp, his pun game is on point as he uses his new found powers of sorcery. Here are all the puns he uses:

"Your time is up!" - when he traps Jasmine in a large hourglass.

"Don't toy with me!" - when he turns Abu into a toy monkey.

"Things are unraveling fast now!" - when he destroys the magic carpet.

"Get the point?" - when swords fall before Aladdin.

"I'm just getting warmed up!" - when he starts a fire.

Oh, Jafar. You and your puns! He continues to make terrible wishes when Aladdin convinces him he's still not as powerful at the Genie and the only way to make him the most powerful being on earth is to become a genie. Jafar, you f**king idiot. Smart move on Aladdin's part, though. So Jafar wishes to become a genie and he's all giddy and high on a power trip. I laughed when Aladdin grabs the lamp and says, "Not so fast, Jafar, aren't you forgetting something?" and Jafar replies, "Huh?" before realizing what's about to happen. The way he says "Huh?" is so funny. I did feel a little bad for Iago who tries to fly away, but is grabbed by Genie Jafar before being trapped in the lamp, then thrown into the mountains. Being trapped alive in a lamp (or anywhere, really) has to be worse than death and I almost feel bad for him. I never saw The Return of Jafar, but I'm assuming he returns and I heard (spoiler alert!) that he dies, so at least he doesn't have to be kept alive for all of eternity. Look at the Genie: he was in there for 10,000 years! My God! How he was so jubilant is anyone's guess. I guess I'd be happy too if I were freed from someplace I'd been spending the last 10,000 years!

The Sultan changes the rules so his daughter doesn't have to marry a prince (oh, yeah, Aladdin finally tells her the truth) so she and Aladdin can marry. As promised, Aladdin uses his last wish to set the Genie free and it's a very sweet scene. "Genie, you're free."

Forgive Me

The Fisher King
Director: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Robin Williams, Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer
Released: September 27, 1991

Oscar nominations:
Best Actor - Robin Williams (lost to Anthony Hopkins for The Silence of the Lambs)
Best Supporting Actress - Mercedes Ruehl (won)
Best Original Screenplay - Richard LaGravenese (lost to Callie Khouri for Thelma and Louise)
Best Art Direction/Set Direction (lost to Bugsy)

Best Original Score - George Fenton (lost to Alan Menken for Beauty and the Beast)

The only thing I knew about this movie before watching it was that it starred Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams and was directed by Terry Gilliam. Knowing that, I knew I was in for an unusual movie since the (few) Terry Gilliam movies I've seen tend to be on the eccentric side. The Fisher King was no exception; it was a very odd movie. It's not quite all set in fantasy, but it's not all set in reality, either. The movie starts fairly normally. Jeff Bridges plays Jack Lucas, a radio personality who was clearly modeled after Howard Stern. He is very crude and arrogant and tells it like it is, with his catchphrase being "Forgive me!" Inadvertently, he is responsible for the murder of seven people at an upscale restaurant in Manhattan when he tells a recurring caller that he will never be good enough to be seen with the yuppies who frequent it. When he sees this on the news, he knows it is the same guy who he told this to because they play the transcript of the conversation he had with him on the radio. This sends Jack into a spiral of depression and things haven't gotten any better three years later when the movie takes a time leap.

He has since quit his job at the radio station (I thought maybe he was fired, but I think he just quit as he does get an offer later in the movie to go back to work) and now works at a video rental store called Video Spot! (complete with the exclamation point) with his girlfriend, Ann (Mercedes Ruehl). Ah, remember the video rental places such as Blockbuster and Hollywood Video? I still go to a local "video" rental place, but it's all DVDs....I remember when these places only had the video tapes like they do in this movie. The world was a very dark and dour time before DVDs and instant streaming were invented. Jack, still depressed and on the bottle a little too much, decides to end it one night when he goes to kill himself by jumping into the river after a drunken binge, but is stopped by two thugs who think he's homeless and aren't happy he's in their territory, so they throw gasoline on him. This is when Jack meets Parry (Robin Williams), a true homeless man who, along with his other homeless friends, attack the two young thugs (and also treat them to an impromptu Broadway show by singing, "I like New York in June, how about you?") It is a very odd scene to say the least. Parry manages to scare the two thugs away and Jack sleeps off his drunken state in the basement of an old building where Parry crashes. It is clear that Parry is mentally unstable and Jack just wants to get out of these. On the way out, the landlord tells him that Parry isn't allowed to have visitors and lets him stay in the basement out of the goodness of his heart because of the tragedy. Jack queries about that and learns that Parry lost his wife in the restaurant where the massacre happened three years ago. He immediately feels guilty and wonders, why, out of all the people in New York, he had to meet a man whose wife he had inadvertently killed.

When Jack returns home, his girlfriends asks where he was all night, thinking he was cheating on her. He tells her pretty much the whole truth, saying he was attacked, but leaves out the part where he was about to commit suicide before he was attacked. Ann tells him that if he's not happy with her, he doesn't have to douse himself with gasoline and beat himself up just to get away from her.

Parry is on a mission to find the Holy Grail, which he believes to be housed in a castle-like residence and wants Jack to help him get it. Feeling guilty and responsible for Parry's life, Jack decides to help him. He also learns that Parry used to be a college professor named Henry Sagan and after his wife was murdered right in front of him (of which we see the flashback of and it is an especially brutal scene), he went into a catatonic state. When he woke up, he became the alter ego of Parry and became obsessed with finding the Holy Grail and with the story of the Fisher King. Jack decides not to only help Parry with this, but with also helping Parry get the attention of a woman he's smitten with (Amanda Plummer). Parry knows everything about her because he follows her every day (which is a little creepy). There's one particularly funny scene that made me laugh out loud when the woman is eating at a Chinese restaurant and Parry takes Jack right up to the window where a couple are dining next to inside and keep looking at the two grown men right by the window looking in and Jack yells at them, "Yes, we're looking through the window!" There's also a scene, which I'm sure has to be the most famous from the movie, where Parry is following her in Grand Central Station and then everybody starts waltzing and the train station becomes a grand ballroom. Jack learns that her name is Lydia and finds out where she works and calls her with the disguise that she's won a free membership at the Video Spot! store. He pretends to have Parry working there so he can meet her when she comes in.

The four main characters end up having dinner at a Chinese restaurant (since Parry knows Lydia likes Chinese food) and this is my favorite scene in the movie. It's a bit of a montage where we see Lydia, who is a complete klutz, drop her food, nearly knock over everyone's food and just has about near disasters as the others are trying to keep her from causing any more damage. Ann confides in Jack that Parry and Lydia are perfect for each other and she is right because Lydia is quite quirky herself, an oddball like Parry. They are both so socially awkward, that they really are perfect for each other.

Parry slips back into his catatonic state after he walks past the restaurant where his wife was murdered and has a horrible flashback. Jack thinks the only thing that will snap him out of this will be to retrieve the Holy Grail that Parry has been obsessed over.

It is a very odd, quirky movie, but of all the (few) Terry Gilliam movies I've seen, I would say it's my favorite movie of his, but like I said, I haven't seen that many movies he's directed because the movies he makes aren't really my taste. Since Mercedes Ruehl won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this, I wanted to watch this for my ten movie reviews of 1991. Speaking of which, we're almost to the end! So far, I've reviewed:
1. Hook
2. Boyz n the Hood
3. My Girl
4. Backdraft
5. Father of the Bride
6. Sleeping with the Enemy
7. City Slickers
8. Point Break
9. The Fisher King

I have only one left and I think we all know what movie that's going to be! There were a lot of '91 movies I could have chosen, so I will just have to review those movies later; just because I did a special dedication to that year doesn't mean that all movies from 1991 are off the (review) table forever!

'Hook' Me Up

Five years ago I reviewed ten teen movies that came out when I was a teen. (I reviewed them in April and May of 2011 so you can check them out in the archives if you so desire). I decided it was about that time to review ten more movies with a theme and this time, I thought, why not go with ten movies all from the same year? For a lot of cinemaphiles, I know that 1994, 1999 and 2007 are huge movie years. (Just between you and me, while there are certainly movies from 2007 that I like, I never saw it as a huge movie year). I almost thought of reviewing ten movies from '99, but decided not to since it already gets a lot of attention (perhaps another time though?) I wanted to do a year that has a lot of great movies, but also never really gets talked about that much as a great movie year.

The year I chose was 1991. Yes, good old nineteen hundred and ninety one. While I do remember seeing movies in the theater prior to this year, this was the first year I remember seeing quite a few movies in the theater. A lot of these choices do have some nostalgia factor towards my childhood (like the one I'm reviewing below). There are a few I will review that I didn't see in the theater because I was way too young, but did eventually see them later and really liked them. There are even a few that I will be seeing for the very first time (like a certain Oscar winning movie!) Just click on the "1991" tag after you read this review and check out some of the other AMAZING movies from 1991 that I've already reviewed such as Terminator 2, Thelma and Louise, Beauty and the Beast, Fried Green Tomatoes, JFK, and The Prince of Tides. (Well, maybe that last one isn't so amazing, they can't all be great movies. But even that movie has a certain 1991-ness to it, for a lack of a better word).

So let's hop into the DeLorean and go back to 1991 for the next ten reviews! Our first stop is...

Hook
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Maggie Smith, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, Charlie Korsmo
Released: December 11, 1991

Oscar nominations:

Best Art Direction - Set Direction (lost to Bugsy)
Best Costume Design (lost to Bugsy)
Best Sound Effects Editing (lost to Terminator 2)
Best Makeup (lost to Terminator 2)
Best Song - "When You're Alone" by John Williams and Leslie Bricusse (lost to "Beauty and the Beast" by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman)

While I remember seeing this movie in the theater, I really don't remember what I thought of it. I don't have any recollection of loving it, but I also don't remember hating it. I'm sure I thought it was long because I was surprised to find out when I watched it on Netflix last week that  it was two hours and twenty one minutes. That seems a bit long for a movie aimed at kids. Not that it's just for kids, but I guess it's a family movie. I definitely feel like there are places you could trim 21 minutes so you just have a nice, even two hour movie.

There have been a ton (probably over a ton) of Peter Pan adaptations for film and TV. To be honest, I think Hook is the only one I've seen...I don't think I've even seen the actual Disney animated Peter Pan movie that's from 1953. Well, I probably have seen it but don't remember since I was probably a kid when I last saw it. And I did see that season of Once Upon a Time when they did a storyline about Peter Pan. And I also saw Finding Neverland, but wasn't that more about the author? Well, the point I'm trying to make is that I'm not really a Peter Pan fan. However, I do like the concept of Hook which is what if Peter Pan grew up? In this world, Peter Pan is Peter Banning (Robin Williams) and he is married to Wendy's granddaughter. He's a lawyer (I guess that's why he had to change the last name or otherwise nobody would take him seriously!) and has two kids, Jack and Maggie. The catch is that Peter doesn't remember who he really is. His daughter's school puts on a production of Peter Pan and that doesn't ring any bells for him. He doesn't go around bragging to his kids how he used to live in Neverland with the Lost Boys, pirates, and mermaids. (If he did, they'd probably think he was insane!) Instead he has become someone who is so wrapped up in his work and doesn't have time to go to his kids events. He promised his son he would attend his baseball game, but wasn't able to because of work.

"Peter, you've become a pirate!" 

He and his family fly to London to attend an event honoring Grandma Wendy (Maggie Smith) for her charity work with orphanages. Wendy is 95 and while watching this, I was thinking, wow, Maggie Smith looks like she was in her 80s when she filmed this...but I knew that was impossible because this movie was filmed 25 years ago and that would mean she would be well over 100 and I know she is not that old! (A quick look at Wiki told me she's currently 81). She was actually 56 when she filmed Hook and was made up to look older. I had no idea who Maggie Smith was until she played Professor McGonagall, so I'm sure I believed that a 95 year old woman was playing that part when I saw it as a kid! Wendy remembers who he is and is aghast when he yells at his kids for bothering him when he's on the phone. I have to side with him on this one; there's nothing more annoying than when you're trying to talk on the phone and the people in the same room as you can't give you the respect you need!

When Jack and Maggie are kidnapped by Hook (Dustin Hoffman) while Peter and his wife are at the event with Wendy, Wendy has to remind Peter of who he is by showing him the book his story is  based on. Of course, he doesn't believe her. Later that night we see a small glowing object that we all know is Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts) flutter in, trying to get his attention, but annoyed and thinking it's a really big firefly, Peter takes a rolled up newspaper and starts swatting her. Luckily (and for some odd reason), Tinkerbell has the strength of the Hulk and grabs the newspaper and starts swatting at him! For a movie that is a quarter of a century old, the effects of fairy Julia Roberts in contrast with life-size Robin Williams still hold up. There's some pretty clever gags such as she makes her home in a doll house. The one thing I found weird about Tinkbell is that they altered her voice. At least, I think they altered her voice. It sounds very squeaky. There's no way that was Julia's real voice! They must have wanted it to sound more like it was coming from a fairy. With her super-human strength, Tinkerbell flies to Neverland, carrying a passed out Peter Pan in a blanket.

The set of Neverland looks like it would be really fun to play on, like if it was a big playground, but it looks like it would be a pain in the ass if you were working on this movie. There's a lot of extras (which include many kids who are NOT good actors!) and there's just so much stuff going on all the time. Hook wants to have a duel with Peter in order for him to get his kids back and when Peter takes out what Hook thinks is a weapon, it's actually his checkbook and he asks Hook how much he wants for their return. Tinkerbell tells Hook that Peter needs three days of training in order to regain his memory and then they can have their real duel and Hook agrees to these terms.

Tinkerbell takes them to the Lost Boys who are all making fun of him because he's old and out of shape. They really don't have the right to call him out on the latter because one of the Lost Boys is downright fat and needs exercise way more than Peter! However, Peter slowly starts to remember who he is (and he can fly!). Now when someone wants to fly, all they have to do is think of one happy thought and they will soon be soaring in the air. To no one's surprise, Peter's happy thought is his children. Duh. Who didn't see that one coming? However, Hook has gotten to Jack (Charlie Korsmo) first and is trying to make him into a mini-Hook. Also, if you think Jack looks familiar, he would later go on to star in Can't Hardly Wait (part of my ten teen movies that came out when I was a teen - look at that, full circle!)  as the nerdy teen who wants to take revenge on a bullying jock at a party, but instead ends up getting drunk and singing a Guns 'n Roses song.

By this time, you're getting a little tired and thinking, Okay, it's time to wrap up. Peter has gotten back his children and now all he has to do is defeat Hook....but we get two psyche outs where we think he's going to, but doesn't, because he doesn't want to kill someone in front of his children, I guess? IDK. But on the third attempt (ugh!), it's SuperWoman aka Tinkerbell who kills the pirate by dropping a huge statue of a crocodile on him. Peter is able to fly him and his children home. Thank God...I was sick of being in Neverland! They are reunited with Grandma Wendy and the wife/mother and everyone is happy. I think Peter even quits his job, but I can't remember for sure, but it seems like something he would do.

Oh, here's a fun film fact: this film was Gwyneth Paltrow's debut. She has a ten second role as young Wendy. She still looks exactly the same. However, I doubt she will grow up to be as cool as Maggie Smith (she didn't!). Have you ever visited Gwynnie's site, Goop.com? I was snooping over there for poops and laughs and it just made me roll my eyes! Apparently she thinks women (I say women because pretty much everything on there is geared towards females) who follow her are all rich....and maybe they are. You can buy stuff on her site, but it's so expensive! She sells these "dusts" that range from $55-$65. There's "moon dust", "brain dust", "spirit dust", "sex dust".... what is this stuff? I mean, nobody actually buys this crap and believes it works, right? RIGHT?!??! There's a recipe for a "morning smoothie" and it begins with reasonable ingredients like almond butter and and almond milk, but then it says you need one of those "dusts"...who the eff is going to pay for a $60 smoothie??? Not to mention some of the other ingredients include things called "ashwagandha" (which is $17) and "cordyceps" (which is $35). Not to mention all the other ingredients. I bet this smoothie comes out to almost $1000! So ridiculous. Go away, Gwynnie the Pooh! Nobody needs you or your stupid, expensive smoothies and "dusts!"

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Hook has its fun moments, but is way too bloated (like that fat kid!) I really can't compare it to other Peter Pan movies because I haven't seen any of them. I suppose it's better than the one that came out recently because I heard that one is just plain awful. However, I'm not sure how it compares to the one with Jason Isaacs.

Nights at the Museums

Night at the Museum
Director: Shawn Levy
Cast: Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Carla Gugino, Ricky Gervais, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, Kim Raver, Paul Rudd
Released: December 22, 2006
Viewed in theaters: December 23, 2006

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Director: Shawn Levy
Cast: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Hank Azaria, Robin Williams, Christopher Guest, Ricky Gervais, Bill Hader
Released: May 22, 2009
Viewed in theaters: June 1, 2009

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
Director: Shawn Levy
Cast: Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ben Kingsley, Ricky Gervais, Rebel Wilson
Released: December 19, 2014

Two years before the first movie being released, I had been to New York City with my mom where we had visited the American Museum of Natural History which had quickly shot to #1 as my favorite museum of all time ever. (What was #1 prior to that? To be honest, I had never given it any thought.) So when I heard about this movie where all the exhibits come to life at night, I thought it sounded like a cool concept and was curious to see it. While I enjoyed it, I was a bit nit-picky. Obviously, if you have been to the AMNH, then you know it was not filmed there! (Which I get.) But they could at least tried to make it as similar to the real one! True, it's been awhile since I've been there, but I do remember that the dinosaur on display in the main lobby was not a T-rex like it was in the movie, but in fact two dinosaurs: a mother barosaurus and her baby. I suppose a T-rex is more frightening and exciting for a movie audience, but there were more dinosaur bones upstairs that they never had come to life! Although I don't think the AMNH has a T-rex because if they did, it probably would be featured in the lobby as the first thing you see! I kept waiting for the movie to show this HUGE grizzly bear that I remember seeing in the North America section (you know, the same section where you would find Lewis and Clark with Sacagawea!). I would be way more scared of that than the three lions that are in the movie....but there was no bears, grizzly or otherwise. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), a divorced father of a son, gets a job as a night guard at the museum when times are rough for him and he just needs anything that will give him a paycheck. He replaces three nigh guards who are retiring (played by Dick Van Dyke, Bill Cobbs, and Mickey Rooney). They give Larry a list of instructions which he will soon find out will come in handy. Even though this movie is called NIGHT at the Museum, there are actually three nights that are shown. The other two movies only have one night.

The first night, naturally, is the introduction of the characters who come to life. A bored Larry ends up falling asleep at the front desk (sidenote: how come they only have one night guard now when they used to have three? Maybe they are trying to cut costs?) and when he wakes up he is baffled to see that the bones of the T-rex are gone and thinks Cecil (Dick Van Dyke) and the others have played a trick on him and that they have made the dinosaur bones vanish in a David Copperfield type illusion. But no, the skeletal dinosaur has come to life and starts chasing Larry who hides under his desk and grabs the instruction and reads them for the first time. The first one tells him to "throw the bone", which he does and the T-rex hurries after it like a dog, wagging its bony tail. While I definitely would be freaked out if dinosaur fossils came to life, I really wouldn't be worried about the dinosaur eating me as there is no digestive tract!

Larry soon realizes that everything in the museum has come to life. There's Attila the Hun; the aforementioned Sacagawea; cavemen; an Easter Island Moai; a large menagerie which probably has the most iconic character, Dexter the capuchin monkey, is part of. Dexter torments Larry by stealing his keys, peeing on him, biting his nose, slapping him, and he will continue to be a pain in Larry's ass for the next two movies. Teddy Roosevelt (played by Robin Williams) acts as Larry's guide and offers to help him the first night. He is a wax statue on a horse in the lobby. He brings up something later in the movie that I had been wondering: these are not the actual people that are being shown at the museum. As Teddy tells Larry, he is not the real Roosevelt, but a wax figure made in a factory somewhere. However, he acts like a leader and emulates many of the traits the real Roosevelt had as so many of the other figures with their real life counterparts. (That would be a little creepy if the museum had the corpse of Teddy Roosevelt on display!)

Two other characters who will prominently be featured in the next two movies are a miniature version of a cowboy named Jedediah (played by Owen Wilson) and his rival in the display next to him, a Roman general named Octavius (played by Steve Coogan). In all three movies there will be a running gag where the two of

them will be in some sort of dire situation and the camera will pull back to show a very calm scene. It's funny at first, but the camera pans back too many time that it stops being funny. In the first movie, they are getting blasted by air from a tire, but when the camera pulls pack we just see a car sitting there.

After the first night, Larry wants to quit and tells the curator (played by Ricky Gervais) he won't be coming back. But after seeing how proud his son is of him, he decides to stick with it. This time he goes in more prepared, or thinks he is anyway. He has read some history books so he knows a few things that might help him with dealing with the live exhibits. He has secured his keys to his belt and fakes Dexter our with a pair of plastic keys. He gives a lighter to the cavemen so they will stop bugging him and they are amazed by how easy it is to start a fire. However, one of them gets out of the building to start a fire in the trash and ends up turning to dust when the sun comes up. Is the caveman also a vampire? No, that is what happens to the exhibits if they are not in the building back in their poses when the sun comes up.

The third (and most adventurous night as he will soon find out), Larry brings Nicky so he can see the displays come to life. Nothing happens and I thought that they were purposely not coming to life because they only let the night guards see them, but it is soon discovered they are not able to come to life because Cecil has the tablet. Oh, I forgot to mention the reason why everything in the museum comes to life: so there's this Ancient Egyptian tablet and it brings everything to life. Yeah. I don't get it either. That's got to be worth a lot of money! I had totally forgotten this storyline where Cecil and the other two guards were the bad guys and wanted the tablet because apparently besides giving life to wax figures, it helps old men have more energy (there's a really bad joke I could insert here, but I won't go there) and they want it so they can stay healthy and spry. At one point Cecil does a backflip. It's just totally random and out of left field. Everything comes to life when Larry gets the tablet back and the exhibits help Larry and Nicky stop the three old men. It gets quite ridiculous because at one point Nicky is riding the T-rex through Central Park.

The only way to stop them is to awake the mummy (I think he was a real mummy and not a prop one because in the third movie we will find out he is an actual person who was awaken from the dead? I think?) It's an amusing scene because Larry and his son are really scared and when he unwraps the bandages you think it's going to be some deformed corpse, but it turns out to be a good-looking young guy, an Egyptian prince named Akhmenrah.

I thought there was going to be a romantic sub-plot between Larry and Rebecca (Carla Gugino) who works at the museum and is writing a dissertation on Sacagawea, but they just have one "coffee date" when she offers to tell him some information on the Native American when he asks her. There is a romance between Teddy and Sacagawea, but it mostly consists of gazing into eyes and hand holding. Rounding out the cast is Paul Rudd who plays Larry's ex-wife's new smarmy boyfriend.

Larry has an idea for bringing the museum to "life" at night (which everyone thinks are either actors portraying the notable figures or, in the case of the animals and dinosaur, animatronics) because in a weird plot point, the museum had been having low attendance which made me LOL, because, please....I really doubt the freaking best museum in the world ever has that problem! When I was there, you had to wait in a long line to pay for your ticket (totally worth it, though). Wait...this might have been in the second movie where this happens....shoot, I don't remember!

Before leaving this movie and the American Natural History Museum (because even though there are thousand of exhibits you could base on several movies, the other two movies take place at different museums), I had to share a cute story from when I visited that museum. While my mom was waiting in line, buying the tickets, I was sitting on this circular bench and there were people all around me (I'm telling you: there is no problem with low attendance!) and I overhear a conversation between a mother and her son, probably no older than six. She tells him he has the choice of either visiting the new frog exhibit or going to Central Park. The kid was quiet for awhile, pondering this decision and finally declared he wanted to see the frogs. I silently praised his choice. After all, the frogs were only temporary.

Battle of the Smithsonian is my favorite in the trilogy and that is mostly thanks to Amy Adams who is the MVP of these movies (even though she is only in the second movie). As you can tell from its title, it takes place at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., another museum to which I have been. This time, Larry has only been working at the museum part-time because he has another job selling something he invented...I can't even remember what it was. He was an inventor in the first movie too and had invented the Snapper where you snap to turn off lights, but since the Clapper was already a thing (and way easier to clap than snap!), the Snapper did not sell. His new invention is a big hit and he has become successful. He finds out the museum is being renovated and they are shipping several of the artifacts to the Smithsonian. This pretty much includes every character from the first movie except for Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams is only in the beginning and end and has a small scene in the middle), the T-rex bones, all the lions, and the Egyptian prince who comes with the tablet, except that Dexter has stolen the tablet to bring it with them. So you guessed it....everything at the Smithsonian will be coming to life!

Because there are so many new characters, a lot of the exhibits from the first movie take a back seat. The only ones who have a pivotal role are Jedediah and Octavius, our mini friends. We have the antagonist, a corrupted pharaoh named Kahmunrah played by Hank Azaria (also the older brother of Akhmenrah who he is obviously jealous of). He wants the tablet because it will open a portal that will help him take over the world. Or something like that. He enlists the help of three bad guys from history: Ivan the Terrible (played by Christopher Guest) who insists his real name is Ivan the Awesome; Napoleon Bonaparte (played by Alain Chabat) who is very sensitive and snippy whenever someone mentions his height; and Al Capone (played by Jon Bernthal) who is only shown in black and white which I thought was a cool touch. In a funny scene where he's trying to recruit even more famous baddies, we see him talking to characters off screen saying how much an honor it is to meet them and the camera pans to reveal Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch.  Kahmunrah has kidnapped Jededian and put him in a sand timer and tells Larry if he doesn't deliver him the code to open the portal in that alloted time, then his "little friend will die."

Helping Larry along the way is Amelia Earhart. (Not the real Amelia, of course, but a wax figure). This is where Amy Adams comes in and she is so delightful in this. She has a very 1940s, rat-a-tat-tat way of speaking and does it very effortlessly and I know that cannot be easy! She rattles out such lines as "You haven't been able to take your cheaters off my chassies since we met!" and "I think we've been jimmy-jacked!"

Instead of just famous figures made of wax and animals coming to life, this movie takes a new twist on things. Paintings come to life, sculptures come to life, the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln memorial comes to life, the bobble-headed Albert Einstein toys come to life. (I feel like there are no rules to this magical tablet...pretty much any inanimate object can come to life!) Since there are so many new characters to meet, it's no wonder many of the ones from the first movie are all but cameos. There is a bust of Teddy Roosevelt that Larry and Amelia get advice from. He is, of course, voiced by Robin Williams and when he learns that there is a full-bodied Teddy Roosevelt at the Natural History Museum he gets very jealous.

My favorite scene is when they go the the Air and Space Museum and Amelia is just enthralled. We did see Larry walking through here before the sun set and they didn't do the best job of setting this scene up. While we see all the historic aircrafts, we didn't see any of the famous aviators that are now being shown. Unless they were like Amelia and woke up in the storage basement and then came to the Air and Space Museum? But don't you have to be a certain distance from the tablet to do that? See, these rules of the tablet are so sketchy. I guess it really doesn't matter. They're about to do a launch and Larry has to abort all of them. Yeah....that would be bad news!

In the end he and his friends defeat the evil pharaoh and he brings everyone back to New York with the help of Amelia and her small plane (which managed to fit everyone in there...it reminded me of a clown car when they all just come tumbling out one after the other). She flies back to the Smithsonian...hopefully she made it back before she turned to wax so she wouldn't crash the plane!

Okay, remember how I couldn't remember if Larry had the idea to bring the museum to life after hours in the first or second movie? It was this one. I remember now because he notices a woman there who looks like Amelia Earhart (played by Amy Adams without wearing the wig or aviation outfit) and he asks her if she's related to her. For a second I thought it was Amelia Earhart and she had disguised herself but that was so far-fetched...even for this movie!

The third movie takes place at the British Museum in London. Larry has to travel there with Akhmenrah (the Egyptian prince if you recall) and his tablet because something is happening to the tablet where it is starting not to work anymore so Larry has to go see Akhmenrah's parents (the father is played by Ben Kinglsey) who are exhibits at the British Museum. It's kind of sad that Akhmenrah was separated from his parents. So the only actual "real" people in this movie, in terms of exhibits, are the mummies. Everyone else is just made of wax. There's a whole back story at the beginning of the movie that explains the tablet and how it was found when a very young Cecil (you remember him...he was played by Dick Van Dyke from the first movie) was in Egypt with his archeologist father and they unearthed a tomb that held the tablet.

This movie does not really bring anything new in terms of things we hadn't seen from the first two movies. Obviously, since it is set in an entirely different museum we do see new characters and exhibits come to life, most notable Sir Lancelot who is trying to find Guinevere. There is a silly scene where he runs up on stage in the middle of a stage production of "Camelot" and pulls his sword on Hugh Jackman. Um....okay, if that happened in real life, security would be on that guy's ass in five seconds. But he and Jackman just start arguing over who Lancelot is.

Ben Stiller also plays a caveman whose main goal is to annoy Larry. He was created for the museum in honor of Larry and his features were used so the caveman looks exactly like him and so he thinks Larry is his dad and follows him around all the time.

There's a scene where Larry is having a heart-to-heart with Dexter (the capuchin monkey) after Dexter almost died when it looked like the tablet was doomed, but Larry managed to fix it in the nick of time. I thought Dexter was going to slap Larry or bite him on the nose, but he kisses him on the lips which was really cute.

Anyway, I enjoyed these movies. They're just mindless fun. I kind of get a Jumanji vibe from them.