Published: 18th May 2022

Memorable movies featuring museums

To mark International Museums Day, we have strolled the corridors of film history to bring you some marvellous movies featuring museums. Immerse yourself in these film artefacts across a gallery of age ratings, before settling in for a night of spotting some of the museums that appear on screen.

Harvie And The Magic Museum

Museum: Magic Museum

very mild threat, slapstick, language, rude humour

Harvie And The Magic Museum is a fantasy animation in which a young boy inherits the powers of a puppet master.

Threat

Scenes include a large puppet looming over the heroes, lightning flashes, and a museum rising into the sky. The villain also threatens to drop people off the museum's roof, but nobody is harmed.

Violence

There are scenes of comic slapstick, including a sequence in which a puppet kicks another puppet between the legs, and another knocks the head off his puppet opponent.

Language

Infrequent very mild bad language includes a use of 'jerk'.

In one sequence, a dog urinates onto a pot plant which withers under his stream.

Hugo

Museum: Musee d’Orsay

contains mild scenes of danger

Hugo is a film about an orphaned boy who lives between the walls of a Parisian train station, maintaining its clocks and ensuring they run on time.

Threat

Mild threat includes a scene in which a boy has a nightmare, imagining he has been run over by a train. He also imagines the train crashing through the station where he lives, causing mayhem and destruction before thinking he has turned into a robot.

There are themes of bereavement and loss as a boy comes to terms with the tragic accidental death of his father.

Paddington

Museum: Natural History Museum

dangerous behaviour, mild threat, innuendo, infrequent mild bad language

Paddington is a family adventure about a talking bear from Peru who travels to London looking for a new home.

Imitable Behaviour

There are infrequent scenes of dangerous behaviour, including Paddington hiding from a villain inside a refrigerator and riding on a skateboard while holding on to a bus, as well as a brief scene of a boy strapping fireworks to his shoes.

Threat

There are occasional sequences of mild threat when Paddington is chased by the villain who threatens to kill and stuff him, as well as a brief sequence in which Paddington lies unconscious on a table while a taxidermist prepares their tools nearby. There is also a short scene in a jungle when Paddington and his family run for shelter during an earthquake with trees falling around them.

Sex

There is some mild innuendo, including a comic sequence in which a man disguised as a woman is flirted with by another man.

Language

There is a single mumbled use of 'bloody'.

Night At The Museum 2

Museum: National Air and Space Museum

contains mild comic violence and scary moments

Night At The Museum 2 is a comic fantasy adventure in which a man finds himself facing a reanimated ancient Egyptian warrior and his cohorts when they and other museum exhibits come to life.

violence

A man is thrown into a glass cabinet so that the glass shatters on impact. The hero kicks an opponent's face.

threat

Creatures, with giant birds' heads atop human bodies, emerge from a door to the Underworld to a threatening musical score. A large dinosaur skeleton roars to camera in close-up and scares three boys who scream.

There is a sex reference to 'second base', and some mild language ('bummer' and 'God').

When In Rome

Museum: Guggenheim

contains mild language and comic gore in a magic trick

When In Rome is a romantic comedy about a young woman who takes some coins out of a fountain in Rome only to discover that their former owners are all now madly in love with her.

language

Mild bad language includes 'crap', 'butt' and 'douche'.

disturbing images

A comic scene involves a magician trying to prove his love for the protagonist by showing her his heart. He reaches inside his shirt and produces a bloodied heart, although he has clearly not removed his heart.

Mild sex references and innuendo include references to a 'booty call', 'hot ladies', and a woman being asked: 'Have any men come on to you?'. In one sequence, the protagonist discovers a giant nude mural of herself painted on a wall, including breast nudity.

Occasional slapstick moments include a startled woman spraying breath freshener into a man's face.

Eternals

Museum: Natural History Museum​​​​​​​

moderate fantasy violence, horror, sex, rude gesture

Eternals is a US fantasy action adventure in which a race of immortal beings must save Earth from the rising power of Deviant humanoids.

violence

Scenes of moderate fantasy violence include heroes using special powers and weaponry in clashes with morphing humanoid monsters. Brief bloody detail sometimes accompanies the impact of slashing blades and other fantastical weaponry. Other violence includes impactful blows to extremities, explosions and some bloodless battle violence.

threat and horror

There are scenes, some sustained, in which monsters menace humans and attack immortals. Some sequences depict monsters using long tentacles to cling on to certain characters, piercing them in the back and the neck, draining them of their powers. Other scenes of threat include earthquakes and erupting volcanoes.

sex

There is a brief scene of sex in which a man lies on top of a woman, depicted in a sensual, yet visually discreet, manner.

language

There is use of a middle finger gesture. There is also mild bad language (‘shit’, ‘ass’), accompanied by other milder terms (‘God’, ‘hell’ and ‘Jeez’).

National Gallery

Museum: National Gallery

infrequent strong language

National Gallery is a documentary looking 'behind the scenes' at London's National Gallery.


Language

There are three uses of strong language ('f**k') during a sequence in which a member of the public voices his disapproval of environmental activists demonstrating outside the gallery building. There is also a use of very mild bad language ('hell').

Nudity

The film also contains images of nudity, battle violence and a figure being stabbed, all in the context of renowned classical paintings. There are some mild sex references and a comment about rape, also in the context of discussions about works of art.

Nudity is also seen as male and female models pose in life drawing classes.

To find out where you can stream, buy or rent these films, check out Find Any Film.