The Quad

Issue date: 5/25/09 Section: Entertainment

You know what the funny thing about comedic actors is?

Well, other then the obvious fact that that they make us laugh. And actually, it's really not even all that funny.

You know what the thing about comedic actors is?

They can get typecast very easily, meaning that they get stuck playing the same character over and over and over again.

Sure, it could happen to any kind of actor but it's most dangerous when comes to comedians.

Say for example Christian Bale gets typecast as a dramatic, brooding leading man. Quite the stretch, but remember that this is a purely hypothetical situation. In any case, that doesn't sound so bad right? There are countless scripts floating around Hollywood calling for just that, and what are the odds that eventually audiences get tired of watching big screen dramas?

The problem is that people can only watch and laugh at the same shtick for so long before it wears thin. So, with each film that a comedic actor makes where they play the same character, the closer they get to wearing out their welcome with the fans.

Some actors don't mind this, they simply take the big payday and accept the fact that no one lasts forever in Hollywood. Others try and fight it by doing roles that are such a complete about-face that they end up alienating their fans.

There is a third option, however. Something that few have been able to achieve. That is to literally become good at everything. To move seamlessly from part to part like a ninja-spy-actor hybrid.

One actor who has managed to achieve this hybrid status is Ben Stiller, star of "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian."

Stiller can do it all comedically speaking. He can play the goofy, over-the-top instigator ("Zoolander," "Dodgeball") just as well as he does the straight-faced reactor ("Night at the Museum" franchise).

In "Museum 2," Stiller is at his straight-guy best as Larry Daley, who has left his job as a night watchman to pursue a successful career as an inventor and TV pitchman. His crowning achievement when we first meet up with him in the film is a glow in the dark flashlight.

Larry occasionally stops by his old stomping grounds at the Museum of Natural History to visit his friends Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), Octavius (Steve Coogan), Jedidiah (Owen Wilson) and the rest of the exhibits who spring to life each night thanks to a mystical ancient Egyptian tablet.

It is during one of these visits that he learns that, due to declining revenues, most of the museum's exhibits are due to be mothballed in the archives of the Smithsonian Institute and replaced by new, state-of-the-art, holograms.

Continued...

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