Ben Stiller is not neurotic

I saw Night at the Museum yesterday. At first I thought this might be based on From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, but it's actually based on this other picture book. I went in ready to be dissapointed, but I was sorta surprised. It was prety fun- no masterpiece, but it was definitely fun to see all the museum exhibits come to life. The CG was really good- the animals looked super realistic. And it was nice to see Ben Stiller in a role where he's not completely neurotic, (i.e. Along Came Polly, Royal Tenenbaums, etc). The movie seemed liked it was clearly written for him, and he was a lot of fun to watch. Paul Rudd is in it briefly, and he's hilarious even though he might only be present for five minutes or so. Ricky Gervais is funny as well, although all his scenes seem somehow abbreviated and he plays a sort of one-joke character. Even Robin Williams was fun, although he did have one sappy monologue that came close to ruining the whole movie for me. And it was neat to see Dick Van Dyke on screen again, (Mary Poppins might be one of my favorite kids movies ever). I'll be covering the premiere next weekend, so hopefully we'll get a chance to talk to some of the cast.

I'll be covering the We Are Marshall press day tomorrow, and practically the whole cast will be there. I'll be talking to Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, Ian McShane, Anthony Mackie, Kate Mara (who is sooo cute, but I already mentioned that a few posts ago...), and the director, McG. I don't get this whole "McG" thing. It just sounds sort of pretentious, but according to an interview with Joel Cunningham:

That's just been my name since I was a kid. My real name is Joseph McGinty Nichol, but there was an Uncle Joe in my family, and a Grandpa Joe, and rather than Joe they called me McG, short for McGinty, since the day I was born. People don't even know my name is Joe, because in school and everything it was always McG. I figured it wouldn't be very accurate to all of a sudden go by Joseph, since it's not my name. It is my name, but no one calls me that.

So I guess it's legit... I was going to ask him about it tomorrow, but I guess it's sort of silly now. Anyone out there having burning questions they want to ask McG or any of the others? Let me know... and I'll let you know how the press day goes tomorrow.