Night at the Museum: Battle of the One-Liners

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Opened May 22, 2009
PG: mild action and brief language

Hank Azaria totally steals this movie. He is brilliant, hilarious, gets it right EVERY TIME funny!! He plays Kahmunrah, the movie's main baddie and nemesis to Ben Stiller this go around. He also voices The Thinker and Abe Lincoln (I would NEVER have guessed that! Thanks www.imdb.com!) The best is when he proclaims Archie Bunker's throne the most comfortable he's ever sat upon! Awesome!!

Ben Stiller is deadpan, dry, straight-laced - the usual. He seems almost bored in this movie and I'm not sure what's going on with him here. I'm not a huge Stiller fan, though I do usually enjoy his movies. He just didn't seem to be in it in this one, though.

There's too little Robin Williams and Ricky Gervais. A little too much Owen Wilson. And exactly the right amount of Amy Adams! Can I just say that she has quickly become one of my absolute favorite actresses (especially after her performance in Sunshine Cleaning.)

My kids loved this movie. It kept the younger ones totally engaged (not a single trip to the bathroom, that's like the equivalent of 5 stars!!) Sean didn't even eat his candy, he was so engrossed!! The theater was packed with nary an empty seat. Ages ranging from grandparents to babes in arms. And everyone gave it a round of applause during the end credits. Very enjoyable.

I did hear a few say they didn't like it quite as much as the first one (and my stepdad fell asleep during the second half, but he's in his late '60s now and prone to dozing off during football games too.) I think the concept with the first one was more novel and this is basically just round two. Slightly different location, slightly different cast of characters, much larger scale - but really just the same movie: guy tries to keep museum figures that come to life at night from killing each other. This one didn't stretch much beyond that.

My overall review: it's a great movie for the whole family. However, if your movie dollars are tight, then I'd save them for Disney/Pixar's UP, their first foray into digital 3D. It opens next Friday and promises to be AMAZING!!