Night at the Museum 2

Night Guard meets Blue Steel - Image

A room filled with sugared up children isn’t the most conducive environment for watching a film. Then again, when the film is Night at the Museum 2, you realise you’re sitting with the target audience: kids and their weary parents hoping for at least 90 minutes of relative peace. And against that barometer, the film is quite the success.

Indeed Night at the Museum: The Battle of the Smithsonian is fun, popcorn entertainment for kids, parents and film fans alike. It’s certainly bigger and bolder than the first film; helped by the already established conceit, it launches straight into the action.

The sequel sees night guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) having left the museum to follow his success as an inventor, while the museum’s animated attractions are being relegated to storage, replaced by talking holograms. With the archives located in the vast vaults of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, the New York natives seem gone for good. That is until all hell breaks loose and it’s Larry to the rescue.

The premise provides a simple structure for the ensuing historical hijinks. And there are an awful lot of hijinks to be had! The poster should give you some idea of all the historical figures vying for your attention in this film. One can only presume, however, that aforementioned sugared up kids have nary an idea who these people are, particularly given they are Australian children. Would they know who Amelia Earhart, Al Capone, Ivan the Terrible or General Custer were? Probably not. What about Napoleon, Teddy Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln? Perhaps.

The skill of this film is its ability to work on both levels. Whether you know the characters or not, there’s still a lot to laugh about. The kids seemed to love all the slapstick humour - including the bobble-head Einsteins - while the adults tittered over the more subtle site gags such as the throw-away line (literally) about Dorothy’s ruby shoes or the Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch cameo.

The actors certainly seem to revel in their ‘historical’ characters (the generous amount of artistic license is evident). Hank Azaria as the evil Egyptian Kahmunrah is positively over the top, yet somehow gets away with it. His effete lisp is reminiscent of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Julien from the Madagascar movies, while Azaria also gets the laughs voicing The Thinker and a rather hip Abe Lincoln. Amy Adams brings her bright-eyed gumption to the role of Amelia Earhart and manages to steal quite a few scenes from the rather restrained Stiller.

However the casting coup has to be the Apatow crew. Bill Hader, Jonah Hill (in a particularly funny scene), Jay Baruchel and Craig Robinson all bring lend their comedic cred to the movie, compounding the returning talent in Owen Wilson, Steve Coogen, Robin Williams and Ricky Gervais. And when you’ve also got a cameo from the Jonas Brothers as crooning cherubs, just imagine the wrap party!

Night at the Museum 2 is the first production to film inside the Smithsonian, so they definitely go for broke. And while bigger isn’t always better, here director Shawn Levy has succeeded in building upon the strengths of the first film to create an exciting and engaging comedy that might just endear you to a bit of history.

Published on Trespass

Australian Release Date: 21 May 2009