This is one museum that wont bore you to death! (Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian (DVD))

Member Name: Great_reviewer07

Product:	Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian (DVD)
Date:	30/05/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great special effects, very funny & extremely entertaining

Disadvantages: Ricky Gervais is back !

Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is back in Night At The Museum 2, also known as Night At The Museum Battle Of The Smithsonian. It's been a couple of years since Larry was last working at the museum as a night guard. He has now set up his own company which he calls Daley Devices, a company in which Larry invents things such as his state of the art, glow in the dark torch! When he goes to visit everybody at the museum he discovers that all his friends aren't wanted and are being shipped off to another museum.

Late that night Larry receives a phone call from Jed (Owen Wilson) informing Larry that they need his help. Larry tracks down which museum they've been shipped to and with the help of his son he manages to get passed security and into the basement where all his friends are being held in a box. Of course things aren't going to that simple for good old Larry though, in his way is the evil Pharaoh Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) who also comes to life in the night. He wants the tablet which is the device that makes all the characters come alive at night, things get even more tense when Kahmunrah kidnaps Jed and traps him in an egg timer, leaving Larry exactly one hour to track down the tablet, find out the code and deliver it to Kahmunrah or Jed and all his friends die...

I saw the original Night At The Museum about a year ago on Sky Movies and although I enjoyed it, it didn't really leave a lasting impression on me and I've never had the inclination to see it again therefore when this film came out it wasn't on the top of my list of films I wanted to see. However during the half time when I was stuck babysitting I thought I might as well take my 6 year old cousin to see this at the cinema because he absolutely adores the first film.

My expectations weren't too high for this film, considering the myth surrounding sequels being that they're never generally as good as their predecessor. Some of course are an exception to this rule as I quite accidentally and to my surprise discovered upon watching Night At The Museum 2.

Considering the premise of the first film being the revelation that the creatures come alive at night, this was nice and fresh to begin with as it was all brand new and exciting but while heading off to watch this film I was sceptical about how they could better it. After all we already know about the creatures coming to life so it would be nothing new. The first film was simply based around this idea so with the second film they had to come up with some sort of plot to accompany the museum creatures.

Although the plot isn't great it manages to pull through by utilising an amazing array of magnificent special effects, imaginative action sequences and introducing us to some hilarious new characters which really keep the film alive and kicking from start to finish.

When the film kicks off I had a misconception that my scepticism was exactly on target but after no longer than five minutes the film really hits it's stride, the pace quickens and luckily doesn't slow at all and considering the film runs for 105 minutes it's quite an achievement.

Within about half an hour from the start time I could already tell that this was a much better movie than the first film, don't get me wrong I did enjoy the first film but I felt that it was far from faultless and I think this film managed to seal over all the little cracks from the first film and the end result is a thoroughly enjoyable film that will have adults and children of all ages in stitches from start to finish.

In this paragraph I was planning on naming a few of the funny parts from the movie but thinking about them now I don't really have enough time to type them all up! One that sticks in my mind a lot was quite near the beginning where Larry comes up against a fellow night guard who tries to act tough. His name even becomes comedic. The man in question is played by Jonah Hill who, although appears in the film for just a matter of minutes really managed to leave a lasting impression on me that very nearly repairs the damage he inflicted on me with the awful Superbad! There were so many funny gags in the film and although a lot of them were predictable and silly they still managed to make you laugh simply because of the situation, this is a film that doesn't take itself seriously at all which is funny it itself and then of course there's an all star cast which manage to deliver all the gags with brilliant comic timing and make the film what it is.

As aforementioned the acting is superb and in a film of this genre that clearly likes to push the boundaries of common sense and comprehensibility it's generally presumed that the acting doesn't have to be up to much because it's the story and the special effects that really take centre stage. This film is different though, you can tell that 100% has been put into every single area of the film and I was extremely impressed with all aspects as well as being impressed with the film as a whole.

I've always been a huge fan of Ben Stiller, I think he's fantastic in these sorts of comedy films and manages to make an audience laugh with little to no effort whatsoever. I seem to confuse him with Adam Sandler a lot of the time and I think it's because they both have such great comic timing, Ben Stiller being preferable on my part because he seems to do more mature comedy. Amy Adams was one of the new characters in this film and filled a big part of the film as Amelia Earhart, the missing pilot from the 1930's. I think her character provided a much needed female lead what with the majority of the film, if not all the film being overrun by men. I have to say that the stand out character for me, I'm sure a lot of you will probably disagree with me but it was Hank Azaria playing Kahmunrah. I've always been a fan of his ever since I first saw him in friends and I think he's very funny in all the films I've seen him in. I was excited when I heard that he was going to be in the film as he seems to come across as charming and funny but in a loveable geeky kind of way which is very endearing. I think his character actually made the film what it was for me, I found him to be the funniest thing in the movie and if you've seen the film then you'll know what I mean. I must say that the type of character he plays is the kind of character that you'll either love or you'll hate and luckily I loved him and so did most of the people I was in the cinema with as he generated quite a lot of laughs throughout the film. I think he was absolutely brilliant at playing the baddie and the accent that he adopts is simply hilarious. Owen Wilson reprises his role again as Jed which was nice to see as I'm a big fan of Owen Wilson, he also had some funny lines and had more of a prominent role in this film as opposed to what he did in the first.

The special features were absolutely sublime and they really make the film that much more enjoyable, I'm not sure if this film is available to watch in 3D at the cinemas but if it is I would recommend seeing it in 3D because I imagine it would look fantastic. I think this film managed to surpass what the first film achieved in the SFX aspect. The way that the characters climb in & out of pictures is great to watch and something that I found especially amusing was the inclusion of gangster Al Capone played by Jon Bernthal, they really put a lot of imagination and effort into this because for the duration of the film he had the black and white effect which would have been present in his generation. From start to finish the film manages to capture your imagination and genuinely impress you with how imaginative everything is.

Whether you're a fan of the first film or not I would say that this film is a must-see, I simply can't fault it. It surpasses the first film in everyway possible and had both children and adults laughing aloud all the way through. It's an extremely entertaining movie and as you can probably tell from this review I was genuinely impressed with how much I found myself enjoying it and I would happily watch this again. It's simply great fun for all ages and I strongly suggest you give it a chance.

The film is currently still doing it's rounds at the cinema therefore is not available on DVD however if you input your email address into play.com they'll notify you when it's available to pre-order. However if you haven't seen the first film or simply want to refresh your memory before watching the second then you can buy it from play.com for £2.99 which I'd highly recommend.

Summary: A very entertaining film for both children and adults.