Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (Selenium Apocalypse)

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (May 22, 2009)

Starring Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Hank Azaria, Owen Wilson, Ricky Gervais and Robin Williams

Directed by Shawn Levy

In Hollywood, when a movie cashes in at the box office, you can bet the family farm that a sequel could be soon to follow. When a family/kids movie cashes in, not only can you bet the family farm but, you can also mow down your most profitable crops and build a baseball diamond if you think a sequel wasn't being fast tracked even before the first weekends box office was tallied. And if you thought Night at the Museum was any different, you're probably playing catch with Ray Liotta right about now.

For those who may have just slipped out of a coma, the first Night at the Museum starred Ben Stiller as Larry Daley, an unemployed down on his luck dad who takes a job as a night security guard at the Museum of Natural History. Then, unannounced to anyone including Larry, once the doors are locked everything in the museum comes springing to life thanks to a magical Egyptian tablet. From Teddy Roosevelt to Sacajawea, from Stonehenge to the skeletal remains of a T-Rex. And wackiness and tension and adventure and laughs, of course, ensue. In the sequel Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Stiller once again plays Larry Daley - now a hugely successful Billy Mays/inventor type who is long past his security guard days, but still misses his friends at the museum and visits from time to time.

The film starts with Larry visiting the Museum only to find out that everything is going computerized and all of his friends are being packed away for storage in (you guessed it) the Smithsonian. Only Roosevelt (Robin Williams) and T-Rex are to stay behind as well as the Egyptian tablet, which means that the party is officially over the rest of the gang including Owen Wilson's minature cowboy Jebediah Smith, who respectfully still refers to Larry as Gigantor. But when a slap-happy monkey steals the Egyptian tablet from the museum the night they are shipped out, Stiller gets a cryptic, frightened call from Jeb. And that call comes from the bowels of the Smithsonian, tipping us all wise to the madcap mayhem that will soon be forthcoming.

And from this point on, this sequel goes completely ape shit. Larry breaks into the lower storage levels of the Smithsonian to help his friends only to meet Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), Egyptian brother of the God that started all this mess in the first film. Kahmunrah steals the tablet and enlists the efforts of such notorious historical baddies as Napoleon, Al Capone and Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest) to help him rise his Egyptian army from the dead. And of course it's up to Larry, Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) and the rest of the gang to stop him. Sprinkle in a little General Custer (Bill Hader) and folks, you've got yourself a summer movie.

First and foremost, let me say this. I really enjoyed the first film. I thought it had the right mix of funny and tender and action and funny. I thought that the use of history and all of its personel was really well done and there was enough of a story where it wasn't just "Look at all this crazy shit that just came to life!". In my opinion, Night at the Museum was a well tailored family film that could literally, hold the attention of all ages. Night at the Museum 2, while having its cinematic heart in the right place, is missing everything that made the first film a success.

Too much action, not enough of really anything else. Way too many jokes fell completely flat and way too much was going on - way too much. And to me with the story spred across all of the Smithsonian, I had mucho trouble suspending complete disbelief for this film. Maybe because it involved breaking into a highly secure museum like the Smithsonian? Moving on.

And most of the actors were simply wasted, like Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais and Christopher Guest. I mean, you have fucking Christopher Guest as Ivan the Terrible and you can't even give him one joke? Really? Seriously? And Ricky Gervais and Robin Williams really just show up to keep the ole' cast together and have very little screen time. And Ben Stiller really kinda dialed in this performance and then direct deposited it right into his checking account and Hank Azaria tries his damnest to make Kahmunrah funny, but is not given enough to work with and he falls flat most of the time as well.

The cameos are great and funny by Jonah Hill, George Forman, Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch, even though seeing Jonah Hill in a kids movie just seemed very wrong - he was still good. But the real big bright shining star of the film is Amy Adams. She's friggin' awesome as Amelia Earhart and plays her as a mix of His Girl Friday and, well ironically Amelia Earhart. Whenever her presence is on the screen, she lights it up. She really owned this role AND I had no idea she could fill out a pair of aviator pants oh so fucking nicely. And another surprise was Bill Hader as Custer, who must have improved a lot of his lines because he actually made me laugh out loud several times and usually stole what scene he was in.

So after all is said and done - what do we have? Wasted actors, suspension of disbelief a little too much, too much going on, too little story and not enough funny? That's about it. Overall, Night at the Museum 2 was not awful, but being how good the first film was, it was a disappointment. But luckily, guess what? It's a kids movie. And the kids will still love it.