Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)

Security guard Larry Daley infiltrates the Smithsonian Institution in order to rescue Jedediah and Octavius, who have been shipped to the museum by mistake.

Director:

Shawn Levy

Writers:

Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon,

Stars:

Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson

2 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ben Stiller	...	Larry Daley
Amy Adams	...	Amelia Earhart
Owen Wilson	...	Jedediah
Hank Azaria	...	Kahmunrah / The Thinker - (voice) / Abe Lincoln - (voice)
Robin Williams	...	Teddy Roosevelt
Christopher Guest	...	Ivan the Terrible
Alain Chabat	...	Napoleon Bonaparte
Steve Coogan	...	Octavius
Ricky Gervais	...	Dr. McPhee
Bill Hader	...	George Armstrong Custer
Jon Bernthal	...	Al Capone
Patrick Gallagher	...	Attila the Hun
Jake Cherry	...	Nicky
Rami Malek	...	Ahkmenrah
Mizuo Peck	...	Sacajawea

Storyline

Security guard Larry Daley infiltrates the Smithsonian Institution in order to rescue Jedediah and Octavius, who have been shipped to the museum by mistake.

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Plot Keywords:

museum | security guard | sailor | imagination | tyrannosaurus | 

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Taglines:

When the lights go off the battle is on.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for mild action and brief language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [fr]

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 May 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Another Night

Filming Locations:

American Museum of Natural History - Central Park West and 79th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$150,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£4,160,496 (UK) (22 May 2009)

Gross:

$177,243,721 (USA) (30 October 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 21 Laps Entertainment, 1492 Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original combination for Ahkmenrah's Tablet is 12351235657923.

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Goofs

When Larry first arrives at the Air & Space Museum he sees the twin seat, twin canopy Air Force jet with both aircrew in the cockpits looking at him. Shortly after the aircraft is shown facing the other direction (no aircrew are in the jet) and one is walking on the ground below the aircraft. Not enough time passed for the aircrew to get out of the plane nor for Larry to change his visual perspective of the jet.

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Quotes

Kah Mun Rah: [From trailer]
[Confronting Vader]
Kah Mun Rah: Is that you breathing? Because I can't hear myself think! There's too much going on here; you're asthmatic, you're a robot. And why the cape? Are we going to the opera? I don't think so.

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Crazy Credits

There is an extra scene during the credits where Sailor Joey Motorola is seen reverse-engineering Larry Daley's cell-phone. He says to his mother (off camera) "I think I'm on to something!"

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Connections

Featured in Bad Movie Beatdown: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Part 2 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Life in Technicolor"
Written by Guy Berryman, Jon Buckland (as Jonathan Buckland), Will Champion (as William Champion), Chris Martin (as Christopher Martin), and Jon Hopkins
Performed by Coldplay
Courtesy of Capitol Records
Under license from EMI Film & Television Music

User Reviews

Poorly manufactured sequel that stays bearable with a few good characters

The first "Night at the Museum" worked despite conventions for a few reasons, but the main one was that it eased into its premise of museum exhibits coming to life and didn't take it for granted like "Night of the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian" does. I'm actually surprised the writers of the first film wrote this sequel, because Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant handle these characters like they're someone else's creation and they can butcher them all they want.

"Night at the Museum 2" sucks the magic out of the original and overdoses on characters as well as meandering sarcasm and awkward humor. Save some bright spots in character acting from a delightful and plucky Amy Adams and some bright spots from Hank Azaria and Christopher Guest, "Smithsonian" will disappoint most defenders of the first film -- except kids and anyone else who'll bite on an outrageous premise.

Ben Stiller stars again as Larry Daley, only our beloved night security guard has randomly become a mastermind of As Seen on TV products. That decision alone completely destroys the continuity between this film and the last, forcing Larry's story to be something totally different than the single dad trying to be a role model for his son. Now son is hacking into the Smithsonian Institute floor plans to direct his dad to the location of the tablet that brings things to life at night. See the Museum of Natural History is going digital and all the beloved characters of the first film are shipped to the national archives in DC, only that naughty monkey brought the tablet with him and so the Smithsonian has come to life.

Our source of conflict is the Pharaoh at the Smithsonian, Kahmunrah, played by Azaria doing his best Stewie Griffin impression, who wants the tablet to unleash his army, so he gets help from Napoleon, Ivan the Terrible (Guest) and young Al Capone. At least director Shawn Levy realized the asset they had in Azaria and had him voice a couple other key statues that come to life later on. Azaria's too good for this film, really, but he plays at its level instead of pushing it and even manages a few of the better laughs when he puts a major diss on Darth Vader.

Then there's Amy Adams, the lone diamond in a sea of forced comedy and excessive cameos. It might seem like loving Adams is the "it" thing, but she brings the imaginative spirit sorely lacking in the film as Amelia Earheart. Every time she speaks it literally feels like the film gets more believable because she's such a convincing spirit. She also gets to work her best Katherine Hepburn impression to boot.

But "Smithsonian" is more defined by its disappointments and synthetic sequel material. Lennon and Garant try and include too many characters between the old ones and the new ones and the film just feels chaotic. It's like a contest to see how many new ideas of different things they can bring to life from paintings and photos on the wall to historical monuments in DC.

Worst of all, it's completely rushed. Understood that we get the coming-to-life premise and we aren't going to be surprised by it, but they take all the fun out of it. Levy figures a shot a piece of the statues of Amelia and Bill Hader's Col. Custer are adequate foreshadow, but they're not. Daley just cons his way into the archives and the story rockets right into the Smithsonian with a few quick facts about what it is to provide context.

"Night at the Museum 2" does just about everything we used to be terrified of sequels doing in the '90s -- overdoing it and diverting from the core values that won some love for the original because that film wasn't just about things coming to life.

~Steven C

http://moviemusereviews.com