Much of the charm of Night at the Museum I was the everyman quality of the Ben Stiller character; Larry Daly. A dreamer with a good heart, but empty pockets. When he gives up on his dream of being an inventor he takes a job as a night watchman at the NYC museum. The protagonist is clearly set and made identifiable to the audience and although there are "misunderstandings" between him and the museums pieces that come to life, they are after all only brought to life for a few hours every night by a magic amulet. The antagonists are real people (his fellow museum guards) who once again try to make him fail and he has to face his failures to succeed in saving the day. Classic !
The sequel has none of that. As the museum pieces (without the fossil tyrannosaurus and Teddy Roosevelt; perhaps for financial reasons of the Production company) are being removed from display and sent to permanent storage in the vaults of the Smithsonian in Washington,DC.. Stiller's Character Larry Daly, now a successful inventor of late night infomercial products, decides to see if he can intercede. Failing he returns to work only to get a frantic telephone call from tiny Jedediah Smith (Owen Wilson returning) that Kahmunrah (the wonderful Hank Azaria) is trying to steal the amulet and take over the world (which doesn't seem very threatening since he will again become inanimate at dawn). Daly decides to go to Washington and see if he can help.
With the help of his son (who really plays no part in the story) via cellphone he makes his way into the Smithsonian (after a semi-funny exchange with its security guard), but soon looses a clear signal and is on his own. Visually, the rest of the movie is pretty cool and there is a walking balloon dog, some pictures that come to life blah blah blah, and Amelia Earhart(who is missing the real Ms. Earhart's gap-tooth smile and has perfect Hollywood teeth) played by Amy Adams. For a moment or two they try to create some romantic friction between Larry and Amelia, but even the writers must have seen this as ridiculous and abandon the idea and bring the actress back at the end as a look alike to try and salvage the plot point.
Azaria is wonderful in what is a very one dimensional character, but the play between Stiller and him is lost in what is just bad script. His captains (a black and white Al Capone, Napoleon and a poorly used Christopher Guest who is unrecognizable as Ivan the Terrible) have little or nothing to do.
The worst part is SNL's Bill Hader as Custer which could have been a funny character, but the actor doesn't seem to find the role and the part just slows down the action and gets in the way of jokes. Sacajawea is back and just stands around doing nothing and Robin William's part is just a glorified walk on with no jokes, or none that are funny.
As I said visually this film is alive and there are many sight gags that will grab children's attention and tickle some adult funny bones too. I love the squirrel, the monkey's and the bobbing head Einstein dolls. There are flying jets, a giant Lincoln (voiced by Azaria also)and perhaps the semblance of a plot, as short sighted as it is, that pulls the story together. Stiller's Daly saves the day, has Earhart fly everyone back to NYC (in less than an hour in a 1920's one prop airplane-yeah right!), sells his company and donates the money to the Museum of Natural History in NYC which now will have later hours so that the museum pieces can walk and talk with the real, living people. I give it a 6 for the enjoyment the children will get from it, even though the story is just silly even for fantasy.
As with so many tent pole productions it relies on the previous movie, but rushed to production with a poor script that was really not thought out that well, but where would one go with the story from the end of the last film... Into our pockets to try and pull out a few more dollars on what was most likely a used up idea after the last film, but I think I hear the faint call for Night at the Museum III The Louvre where Daly has a romance with the Mona Lisa and help Aphrodite find her arms.
The sequel has none of that. As the museum pieces (without the fossil tyrannosaurus and Teddy Roosevelt; perhaps for financial reasons of the Production company) are being removed from display and sent to permanent storage in the vaults of the Smithsonian in Washington,DC.. Stiller's Character Larry Daly, now a successful inventor of late night infomercial products, decides to see if he can intercede. Failing he returns to work only to get a frantic telephone call from tiny Jedediah Smith (Owen Wilson returning) that Kahmunrah (the wonderful Hank Azaria) is trying to steal the amulet and take over the world (which doesn't seem very threatening since he will again become inanimate at dawn). Daly decides to go to Washington and see if he can help.
With the help of his son (who really plays no part in the story) via cellphone he makes his way into the Smithsonian (after a semi-funny exchange with its security guard), but soon looses a clear signal and is on his own. Visually, the rest of the movie is pretty cool and there is a walking balloon dog, some pictures that come to life blah blah blah, and Amelia Earhart(who is missing the real Ms. Earhart's gap-tooth smile and has perfect Hollywood teeth) played by Amy Adams. For a moment or two they try to create some romantic friction between Larry and Amelia, but even the writers must have seen this as ridiculous and abandon the idea and bring the actress back at the end as a look alike to try and salvage the plot point.
Azaria is wonderful in what is a very one dimensional character, but the play between Stiller and him is lost in what is just bad script. His captains (a black and white Al Capone, Napoleon and a poorly used Christopher Guest who is unrecognizable as Ivan the Terrible) have little or nothing to do.
The worst part is SNL's Bill Hader as Custer which could have been a funny character, but the actor doesn't seem to find the role and the part just slows down the action and gets in the way of jokes. Sacajawea is back and just stands around doing nothing and Robin William's part is just a glorified walk on with no jokes, or none that are funny.
As I said visually this film is alive and there are many sight gags that will grab children's attention and tickle some adult funny bones too. I love the squirrel, the monkey's and the bobbing head Einstein dolls. There are flying jets, a giant Lincoln (voiced by Azaria also)and perhaps the semblance of a plot, as short sighted as it is, that pulls the story together. Stiller's Daly saves the day, has Earhart fly everyone back to NYC (in less than an hour in a 1920's one prop airplane-yeah right!), sells his company and donates the money to the Museum of Natural History in NYC which now will have later hours so that the museum pieces can walk and talk with the real, living people. I give it a 6 for the enjoyment the children will get from it, even though the story is just silly even for fantasy.
As with so many tent pole productions it relies on the previous movie, but rushed to production with a poor script that was really not thought out that well, but where would one go with the story from the end of the last film... Into our pockets to try and pull out a few more dollars on what was most likely a used up idea after the last film, but I think I hear the faint call for Night at the Museum III The Louvre where Daly has a romance with the Mona Lisa and help Aphrodite find her arms.