Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)

By CinemaSerf

Shawn Levy didn't waste any time cobbling together this sequel and though it's not terrible, it's all a bit silly. "Daley" (Ben Stiller) has made his fortune and "McPhee" (Ricky Gervais) is facing the worrying digitisation of his soon to be "interactive" museum. This is going to result in the relocation of some of the exhibits to the Smithsonian where the megalomanic Pharaoh "Kahmunrah" is poised to ally with Ivan the Terrible, Al Capone and Napoleon to form his own little axis of evil. Quickly, it falls to "Daley" and his assembled troop of recently transported, brave, exhibits to thwart this dastardly plan. To be fair, this film does move along well and has retained most of the cast from the first film - Robin Williams as the sagely Teddy Roosevelt and quite a dashing Rami Malek ("Ahkmenrah") as well as adding an enthusiastic performance from Amy Adams as the trail-blazing Amelia Earhart. It's all just a bit overly-theatrical for me, though - especially the really hammy Hank Azaria who just seems to be trying to do his best Robert Downey Jr impersonation of the menacing Pharaoh. It's really just anther vehicle for Ben Stiller to do what he does best, and if that's what you like then there is nothing to disappoint here - he does all that he needs to. For me, it's all just a little lazy with a denouement that offers little by way of jeopardy. It looks good, though, and again reminds us to go visit a museum some time.