Questionably Content

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

Directed by: Shawn Levy

Starring: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Hank Azaria

Other Actors of Note: Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Robin Williams, Christopher Guest, Ricky Gervais, Bill Hader, Jay Burachel, Clint Howard, Eugene Levy, Ed Helms, and Jonah Hill

Plot: When the Museum of Natural History is closed for upgrades and renovations, the museum pieces are moved into federal storage at the famous Washington Museums. The centerpiece of the film will be bringing to life the Smithsonian Institution, which houses the world's largest museum complex with more than 136 million items in its collections, ranging from the plane Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) flew on her non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic and Al Capone's (Jon Bernthal) rap sheet and mug shot to Dorothy's ruby slippers, Fonzie's jacket from Happy Days, the still from M*A*S*H and Archie Bunker's lounge chair from All in the Family. With a forwarded resume, Larry (Ben Stiller) becomes another caretaker at the Smithsonian, where Kahmunrah, an evil Pharaoh will come to life with the reestablishing of a tablet as a magical force in the museum bringing the old exhibits (Such as Theodore Roosevelt and Dexter) and new exhibits (like General Custer and Al Capone) back to life, and in conflict with each other. Larry enlists the help of Amelia Earheart, who he develops a romantic interest in, and together they try to put everything back in order. Taken from www.imdb.com.

When it comes to mainstream sequels, the idea is to take everything that worked in the first movie and supplement it with things that are bigger and, theoretically, better. However this plan rarely works.

I am quite unashamed to admit that I really enjoyed the first "Night at the Museum" it was a fun little movie with a sense of adventure that didn't try to be too serious but also didn't patronize its intended audience. Ben Stiller and Robin Williams (as well as Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan) were funny and managed to not feel forced. No to mention the message about meuseums was understated and, I thought, well put. Not to mention they managed to capitalize on Mickey Rooney's insanity. For those who claimed that it was juveneille or stupid, I would like to remind you that it was meant to entertain fucking 8-year-olds you elitest assholes! If you feel the need to complain about this movie then you obviously don't remember "The Pagemaster", "Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest", or any of the other godawful kids movies from the 90s.

However, as much as I liked the original movie, this sequel represents everything that goes wrong when studios try the "go big or go home" approach.

So, we rejoin Larry Daley as a succesful businessman who has quit his job as a night guard but still drops by the museum every once in a while. But of course he's become horribly overwhelmed with bring rich and famous and just doesn't have time to talk to museum exhibits anymore. Well now most of the exhibits are being removed and taken to the Smithsonian in the national archives, the monkey ends up stealing the tablet of Akmunrah and his brother Khamunrah is awakened in the National Archives and vows to awaken his army of the dead to take over the world using the tablet. Larry goes to Washington DC to try and save the day.


As much as everyone hated Ben Stiller in the first movie I thought he gave a good performance that may have fallen short of some of his truly great roles (Mr. Furious in "Mystery Men", Tugg Speedman in "Tropic Thunder", Gary Focker in "Meet the Parents") was certainly still one of his more entertaining and funny characters. Stiller still remains one of the good points but without a good cast of characters to have chemistry with he's kind of weak here on his own. There's a good moment early on between him and another security guard played by Jonah Hill that is far too short and sadly not lived up to during the rest of the movie.

So Carla Gugino pissed off with no explanation, so in her place we have Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart. Sweet Jesus, if the real Amelia Earhart was this goddamn annoying then it was no accident that she dissappeared without a trace, it was divine intervention. Adams is one of the most obnoxious characters I've seen in quite some time, which makes the romance between Larry and Amelia seem even more forced than it was already. At very least she wears tight aviator's pants and the cameraman seems obsessed with giving us shots of her ass.

Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan are one of the few good things that returns from the first movie (the t-rex, Easter Island Statue, and Robin Williams only make small appearances at the beginning and end of the movie) but they don't get much of a chance to shine until the big fight at the end that involves a wonderful pisstake of "300."

Hank Azaria plays 3 roles, a very over-the-top (in a bad way) Abraham Lincoln, a thinker statue that sounds like JFK for no reason, and the villain of the film: Kahmunrah. Azaria does a Boris Karloff impression but it sounds more like a Stewie Griffin impersonation done by Jeremy Irons. Hank Azaria is a funny actor but this just another one of his big-budget flops. Then again when you have to fill the shoes of Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, and Bill Cobb you're going to lose.

Bill Hader does a rather humorous General Custer, constantly obsessing over his hair and coming up with horrible war strategies. Unfortunately he only appears in 2 or 3 scenes while we have to put up with Amy Adams for the whole fucking movie.


The plot of this movie is pretty much non-existent. Larry goes to DC to save his favorite museum exhibits. He then gets trapped trying to stop Kahmunrah when he could just turn the middle piece sideways to turn everyone inanimate. You might be saying, "But Baytor, this is a children's film." But I remember catching plot inconsistencies like that when I was a kid so I don't accept that.

This is also added to the fact that there doesn't seem to a single night guard on duty in the whole Smithsonian and all the museums and the Washington monument are right next door to one another. There also appear to be no security cameras to catch Larry causing millions of dollars worth of damage.

Aside from this it's an hour and a half 0f throw away jokes with a few good ones intersperced every now and then all around the thread of a big advertisement for the Smithsonian. Naturally everything is fixed by the time the movie is over. None of the original charm is there from the first movie and only the vaguest hint of the humor remains.


This movie is a perfect case for why going for broke on the sequel is a very very bad idea.

I give "Night of the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" a 2 out of 5. Skip it.