Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Cast: Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, Ricky Gervais, Amy Adams, Robin Williams.
Dir: Shawn Levy
Rating: 3.5/5

Released back in 2006 Night at the Museum was a massive commercial hit grossing over $574 at the global box office. But with a well tied up story and happy ending the last thing that anyone was expecting was a sequel.

Movie one followed a bunch of old museum exhibits that came to life at night and Battle of the Smithsonian does run along the same life just one a grander scale.

Set two years later Larry Daley is a successful inventor and has left his night guard job at the Museum of Natural History

But when the museum  closes for a refit, and some of the exhibits wrapped up and shipped off to the legendary Smithsonian Institute in Washington, home of Al Capone's mug shot, Fonzie's jacket from Happy Days and a few million other priceless items, Larry sets off in hot pursuit.

After making his way past a particularly officious security guard, Larry is reunited with his old nocturnal buddies - Jedediah (Owen Wilson), Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) and Octavius (Steve Coogan).

He meets some new ones too, including a deliciously flirtatious Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams), General Custer (Bill Hader) and Kah Mun Rah (Hank Azaria).

It's business as usual for the hapless Larry as he tries (and fails) to keep his unruly exhibits under control.

As sequels go they tend to worse as they go along but Night at he Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian really does buck that trend.

Ok so the movie is never going to win an Oscar, but then that's not what it's designed for, however is fast paced, funny family fun, something that is seriously lacking at the cinema at the moment, and it’s great to see Stiller and go back on top form.

Director Shawn Levy has brought together a great cast including Hank Azaria who is a great villain, something the first movie really lacked, as well as delivering the great one liners that he is so famous for.

Amy Adams is also great as she takes on the role of Amelia Earhart and it's good to see her mix her parts, going from the Oscar nominated Doubt to the light-heartedness of Night at the Museum, and as the only strong female character she holds herself well amongst the big named funnymen.

Throw in Owen Wilson. Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais and Robin Williams, the later two drastically underused which is a major shame, then, as you can imagine, the movie is a major laugh.

Ok the film is predominately aimed at children but there is plenty for the adults to enjoy the banter between characters is great with plenty to make you laugh mix this in with some flawless CGI then a good night will be had by all at the cinema.

However it's the number of characters that is the real problem with General Custer, Al Capone, Napoleon Bonaparte and Ivan the Terrible all fighting it out for screen time it's a shame that these great icons of history are not used to their full potential.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is a great romp through the past that doesn't take itself too seriously, don't be surprised if a third movie is given the green light.

She takes on the character

Night of the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is out now

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw


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