Night at the Museum: Battle of the SmithsonianSynopsis: Security guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) infiltrates the Smithsonian Institute in order to rescue Jedediah and Octavius, who have been shipped to the museum by mistake.
I enjoyed the first film of this series and one of the main reasons was that I went into it thinking it's probably just a silly kid's movie that I might get a few kicks out of, only to find out that it was a silly kid's movie that I got a lot of kicks out of as it had a lot of humor that seemed to be a bit more "grown-up". So... I went into this one expecting the same and got what I expected from the first one. Get it? No? Well I'm saying that this one was a lot more fun for the kids than for the adults. It just seemed most of the humor was sillier and more slapstick. Cute, fun and watchable, but not quite on par with the original.
I'll be the first to admit that monkeys slapping Ben Stiller will always make me laugh. Every single time. But it just didn't seem to go much deeper than that. It was pretty chaotic but really lacked a decent plot outside of lots of chasing and fighting. And most of the things that seemed really clever in the first one were done exactly the same and just didn't feel as clever the 2nd time around, almost stale.
The ensemble cast is good, but oddly used. Owen Wilson needed more screen time, Hank Azaria had a funny lisp and not much else going for him, Robin Williams is barely there and Amy Adams could have done a lot more than look really, really good in a tight pair of aviator pants (or whatever they were). The 2 guys who I think could have really stolen the show, Bill Hader and Christopher Guest, had very minuscule roles. It just seems like a lot more could have been done with the talent, because when I saw who all was in it I was prepared to "roll on the floor laughing" as the kids say. Sadly, there was no rolling, only chuckling while sitting in my seat.
Oh, it's fun and cute and that's about it I guess. Total missed potential in my book.
6/10
