One of the best films i have seen

Excellent, a Must See

Absolutely Fantastic

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), the somewhat reluctant security guard assigned to keep a museum, filled with exhibits that come to life at night, secure returns for a sequel to the first film, in which he visits the Smithsonian museum to rescue some of his friends that have been shipped out to its archives due to the museum manager (Ricky Gervais)'s desire to replace them with modern, interactive exhibits in a bid to attract visitors. That mischievous monkey from the first film also steals the tablet that gives the exhibits life as his latest prank. Joining him for the sequel are some familiar faces. Hank Azaria of Simpsons fame makes an appearance as the over-the-top villain of the film, clearly taking a leaf out of Michael Palin's book by effectively replicating the latter's portrayal of Pontius Pilate in Life of Brian, what with the lisp and bizarre facial expressions et cetera. Due to this similarity the comedic quality of this character is limited - provided Monty Python's classic has not passed you by - but he still retains enough charisma to make him watchable. Amy Adams features as the adventurous Amelia Earhart, whom Larry Daley meets as he runs through the chaotic archives, and together they blunder around the Smithsonian, all the while being pursued by typically useless Ancient Egyptian security guards. This section of the film drags on a little but the tension builds as Daley is given a time limit to find a combination to open a door to Ancient Egypt in order to save his cowboy friend Jedediah (Owen Wilson). Einstein bobble-heads, a statue of Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon, Ivan the Terrible, Al Capone and others encounter them on their way, and eventually, in time to save Jedediah, Daley returns and wages a battle against the evil pharaoh and another bunch of useless Ancient Egyptians that have emerged from the portal the pharaoh opened up. The question of 'why did lisp pharaoh want to open the portal so badly if all it bore was yet more incompetent guards?' remains, but the producers add a deliberate action sequence to take your mind off it straight away. The outcome is predictable, but the heart of the film shows itself a few moments later as the exhibits are returned and it becomes obvious that Daley has developed certain feelings towards Amelia and is upset to see her return to a lifeless eternity in the archives of the Smithsonian. Daley leaves his job as CEO of his own company in order to return to the museum, where business is flourishing courtesy of the active nightlife of the exhibits becoming common knowledge (surely people noticed a living, breathing mammoth enter the museum at the end of the first film, and would therefore have spread the word already? No?), and there meets an Amelia Earhart lookalike, blatantly played by the same actress disguised by a pair of spectacles. Larry isn't fooled, though, and the film ends with him asking her whether they are related, receiving a disappointing answer. Then, we have another scene portraying the prosperous nature of the museum, and the film ends. This is a perfectly conclusive ending to the film, and the production company's decision to make it a trilogy seems unnecessary.From a critical point of view, the film has its flaws. The plot is nothing special, the villain is frustrating at times, it offers little more than the first film in terms of subject matter and the acting is far from outstanding, but none of these problems will affect the main target audience, children looking for a fun family movie to enjoy. In that respect it's good, the highlight comedy-wise being Larry's argument with Brunden (Brundon?), the overweight Smithsonian security guard played by Jonah Hill. For adults, there's little to enjoy about Night At The Museum 2, but if you're in need of a family movie to get the kids out of the way while you're doing important business, this could be your movie. If you're in that situation, rent this. If not, then there's better quality cinema out there. 6/10.

Well i must say, this is definitely another Ben Stiller type film, his characters are also the same.... He always seems with little or no confidence when he plays his roles, almost to the point to where it seems that forgets his lines. This movie is pretty decent though, the other characters really assist on the shortcomings of Stiller, the parts i have trouble believing is the end where they fly off from the national mall in D.C. to the empty streets of NYC.... i happen to know that there is usually a ton of security on the grounds of the National Mall of DC. the plane lands in NYC and sits there for a good few minutes before taking off again all the while there are no passing cars or any kind of traffic.... Also wasn't the sun going to rise shortly after Amelia Earhardt left back for DC. wouldn't her plane crash as the sun rose? or was the point that she would disappear? Overall i think it was a good film i just got a little nit picky near the end of it.....

The best way to describe the film "Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian" is to tell the truth. It's a bad film. It's under-written. It's over-reliant on CGI. It has a multitude of visual and pop-culture references that fall flat and felt dated even at the time of it's 2009 release. Characters are under-developed. But all that being said... it's still not a "Bad" movie in terms of entertainment value or acting. Somehow, despite feeling like it was rushed through production and released just to make a profit off of the popular first film, it's darned fun to watch.From the same creative team as the original (including director Shawn Levy and writers Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant), this sequel also includes the return of many core cast members, including Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan.Picking up a few years after the first film. Larry Daley (Stiller) has unfortunately quit his job as the night watchman at the Museum of Natural History in order to pursue his original dream of being an inventor. He now heads his own company, which has made a killing selling goofy product on infomercials. One day, returning to visit the museum at night, he learns that many of the exhibits are being replaced by modern, computerized, interactive holograms, and that the original exhibits are being transported to the Smithsonian archives. This saddens Larry.However, after being transported, it turns out that Dexter the monkey had stolen the magical Egyptian tablet that is able to animate the exhibits, causing everything to come alive in the Smithsonian museum, including the evil Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), brother of the first film's Akhmenrah. Kahmunrah plans on using the tablet to open a portal to the underworld to release an ancient army and conquer the world. Larry is forced to break into the Smithsonian and team up with a newly animated Amelia Earhard (Amy Adams) to stop them. He also begins to fall for Amelia, despite the fact that she's an animated mannequin.First off, I will explain what I felt didn't work in the film. The big problem I had was that the movie felt like it was too short and under-developed. Larry, our hero, doesn't grow over the film. This is simply another adventure he gets into. And the events of the film transpire in a single night, as opposed to the several in the original film, which made it feel oddly less epic and less compelling. It just seemed too abbreviated. Many jokes also fall flat, and the direction is less than inspired.However, the films saving grace are the actors, and they manage to elevate the film on the whole to greatly entertaining bounds, even though it's still a bit of a mess. Stiller and the returning cast do a fantastic job. They are very fun to watch. Azaria as the new villain is at times a little over-the-top, but sets up for a lot of great jokes.There is also a good sense of adventure, and new ideas are played with (including scenes where characters are now able to enter paintings and photographs, which sets up for some nice, goofy scenes), and the action is well-directed.But the saving grace of the film is definitely new cast member Amy Adams. I've been noticing her more and more lately, after turning in fine performances in films like "Sunshine Cleaning", "Enchanted", "The Fighter" and "The Muppets." And she's becoming one of my favorite actresses working today. Here, she is the shining star, making Amelia the heart of the movie. She's spunky, fun, gorgeous and will completely melt the heart of everyone, man, woman or child, who sees the film. She alone gave the film a few more points, and her romance with Larry is a lot of fun to watch.There are also some really great uses of CGI effects to broaden the scope, and the score by Alan Silvestri also helps a lot."Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian" is not the most well-written or well-directed film. But likable characters and great performances (notably Amy Adams fantastic role) elevate it to a slightly underwhelming but still very enjoyable 6 out of 10. I saw it on cable, and would say it's well worth renting.

The first film was far from spectacular, but it was tolerable and a bit of fun to watch. I came across the second movie when it was shown on television and its terrible. It has been done once and wasn't brilliant, the producers really shouldn't have bothered with number two. The whole film is filled with terrible far-fetched acting. Every line just tries to include a joke that is not even remotely funny and frankly, leaves me with a blank expression on my face the whole time. The whole movie is just "trying too hard". Too see some pretty famous faces in it, is a shame as it is a real downfall in their career. i'm surprised I actually ended up watching the whole movie, maybe I was hoping it would get better. Evidently not! It is saying something when you are watching this movie with kids and they even turn round to you and say "Is this meant to be funny?" 1/10