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History is larger than life—and twice as funny—in this monumental comedy sequel that’s “better than the original” (At the Movies)! Ben Stiller leads an all-star cast (including Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria and Robin Williams) as Larry Daley, a former night watchman at the Museum of Natural History, where the exhibits come to life after dark. But now Larry’s nocturnal friends are being retired to the archives of the Smithsonian Institution, luring him back… More >>
Go & get it here - i can recommend it:
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
The original was ok, kinda enjoyable. This is too much the same / suffers from sequel-sucko-noma. Can’t really even give it 2 stars. Just 1 then. Skip it, unless you are a kid or are just taking the kids out for a movie on Sat nite.
I can’t laugh watching this movie. The first one is better.
Sometimes seem like stupid jokes.
From the outset. I kept wondering how ordinary security guard schlub Ben Stiller could so easily become an infomercial king, hawking glow in the dark flashlights and earning gobs of money. Then I realized that the screenwriters couldn’t just have him start off as a security guard at the museum again because people don’t want to see the same thing twice when they pay money for a sequel. Nonetheless, the infomercial angle ends up being dropped like a hot potato and Stiller is back at the museum just like in the original. This time he learns that his pals at the Museum of Natural History are being shipped off to the basement archives at the Smithsonian. To make matters worse, they have to deal with some crazy Pharoah guy who needs to figure out a secret code that will unlock a door to ancient Egypt where all of his nasty minions are just waiting to get loose and wreak havoc upon an unsuspecting world.
There are moments in `Battle for the Smithsonian’ that feel like the script was dispensed with and the action was completely improvised. Take the scene with Stiller trying to break into the basement at the Smithsonian, opposed by the security guard played by Jonah Hill. The joke is that the security guard is a wuss and is easily dissuaded by the more persuasive Stiller. And this is the problem for every character in the film. They are all buffoons in one way or another and carry no moral weight.
The antagonist is played by Hank Azaria who has a one note part as a lisping Pharoah, Kahmunrah. He’s joined by three villains from history: Napoleon Bonaparte, Ivan the Terrible and a young Al Capone. The three allies of the Egyptian have virtually nothing to do throughout the film–Bonaparte at one point jumps on top of Stiller, Capone waves a machine gun and Ivan basically scowls.
Stiller’s allies fare no better. Owen Wilson plays a miniature cowboy trapped inside an hourglass by Kahmunrah. We’re supposed to laugh as he is gradually submerged by the sand inside the hourglass pouring down on top of him. Steve Coogan is Wilson’s buddy, playing another `miniature’, this time the famous Roman Emperor `Octavius’. The Emperor’s big moment is when he mistakes a squirrel for a giant creature and rides him back into the Smithsonian thinking he can take on Kahmunrah’s army of bad guys. No laughs there! Bill Hader plays General Custer with an inferiority complex: he bemoans the fact that he’ll always be remembered for his one bad moment at the Little Big Horn with all his other accomplishments ignored. While Custer is a complete clown, the Indian Princess Sacajawea berates him not for his hatred of Native Americans but rather for his incompetence as a soldier.
It takes a long time before Stiller’s love interest, feminist icon Amelia Earhardt, played by Amy Adams, does what she does best: i.e. fly a plane. But most of the time she’s nothing more than the feeble love interest in the film–chasing Stiller around, acting a bit spunky and providing moral support. Other wasted parts include Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt (in dual incarnations as Teddy on horseback and as a talking bust), a completely forgettable Attila the Hun and a bunch of grunting Neanderthals.
The plot is quite disappointing. After Kahmunrah finds out the `secret code’ from a Bobblehead Albert Einstein and unleashes the forces of evil, they all inexpicably run back into the portal after a giant Abraham Lincoln (roused from his sleep at the Lincoln Memorial) confronts them. Lincoln is reduced to an awkward giant, more like Lurch of the old Adams Family TV series than the great statesman of American history.
`Battle’ was written mainly for the special effects department to show their stuff. There are a few clever visual effects when famous paintings come to life (most notable is when Stiller and Adams jump into the famous scene on VJ Day with the sailor and the nurse making out in Times Square). Rodan’s `Thinker’ comes to life as a wise-talking Guido and there are three angel statues singing updated rap versions of r&b classics. All of this is nice to look at but it’s simply not very funny.
I have never been a big fan of Ben Stiller but here he outdoes himself in a role that relies mainly on slapstick humor. There is nothing clever or witty about Battle for the Smithsonian. It represents a further dumbing down of American comedy. And the producers here should heed the old admonition–what goes around, comes around! Hopefully Kahmunrah will be putting a new curse on them in the future–at the boxoffice, where it hurts!
A handful of clever historical references, a thundering action score from Alan Silvestri, and a remarkable cast (and an even more impressive list of cameos) can’t mask what Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian truly is - a really, really stupid comedy. Though it’s written by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon of Reno 911 fame, don’t expect such creatively crude humor, or for that matter, any laughs even remotely geared towards adults. It may inevitably make an obscene amount of the green stuff at the box office, but we’re hoping for a long break before part three.
Shortly after his phenomenal adventures in the Museum of Natural History, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is again called back into action to protect his re-animated exhibits from a brand new evil. When he receives a distress call from Jedediah Smith (Owen Wilson), Larry infiltrates the Smithsonian to discover Egyptian pharaoh Kahmunrah’s (Hank Azaria) plans to use the magical tablet to summon forth his army of the undead. With time quickly running out, the former museum night guard must rally together his old friends - and a few new ones, including Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) and General Custer (Bill Hader) - to stop the ancient menace.
Without knowledge of the first film, Battle of the Smithsonian might leave viewers slightly bewildered. Fortunately, the reasoning behind bringing notorious historical characters to life in a family-friendly bloodless battle of wills doesn’t need much explaining. What does need clarification is why a sequel was necessary. The entire show appears as little more than an excuse to pack tons of cameo roles into a pointless rehash. A centuries-old Egyptian pharaoh (with a lisp) wishes to unlock the gates to the underworld to unleash an army of the dead? It’s a despairingly tired scenario that fails to parody as much as it flounders in its own lack of creativity. Even as an excuse to toss jokes into a cartoonish world, it only half succeeds.
Since all of the humor falls flat, the dialogue is smothered with sarcasm, mocking the film’s own inadequacies as an attempt to recoup laughs lost to extremely juvenile hoopla. Unfortunately the entire approach of the film is cheesy. Just when it couldn’t possibly get any sillier, someone comes up with something positively ridiculous to do or say. It’s a good thing Capone never bothers to use his machinegun, spears and swords never strike their targets, and no real peril ever finds its way into the numerous melees. It’s like two very young kids arguing with one another for 105 minutes. The icing on the cake is a slap-fight between two capuchins and Stiller during the midst of the climactic final battle sequence - for no plot reason whatsoever, simply to make use of the payroll monkeys.
- The Massie Twins
Not a bad little comedy, better than expected. This was the perfect airplane movie - nothing to upset my fellow passengers, and made the trip go by quicker. And I’m just becoming such a huge fan of Amy Adams - she’s our new Rosalind Russell. They should remake ‘His Girl Friday’ just so she can star in it!