Reno Reviews NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN

ENGLISH - (PG13) - 21 May 2009 - Comedy/Family/Adventure
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Running time: about 105 mins.
Director: Shawn Levy
Producers: Shawn Levy, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan
Writers: Thomas Lennon (Screenplay); Robert Ben Garant (Story), Milan Trenc (Book)
Casts: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Christopher Guest, Robin Williams
Plot: Ben Stiller returns to the role of the unfortunate night watchman, Larry Daley who continues to encounter the living and breathing museum exhibits. This adventure takes the action to Washington D.C., where things at the Smithsonian aren't quite as quiet as one might think.

THE VERDICT:

Reno Ooi says:

WARNING FOR SPOILER! Honestly, I pretty enjoyed this movie and regretted that I never watched the prequesl of "Night at the Museum 2".

I enjoyed the movie because the concept and the story of the movie was fresh to me. I was like a kid in cinema when watching it and can't wait for the night to come so that everything in the museum came to alive. Although at first I didn't know a thing about the tablet, which was quite important in the story, but I can guess what's it for later as the story goes by. So, you don't really need to watch the prequel in order to understand it. You can guess and understand those things through conversation if you pay attention what those characters are talking about. 20 minutes after the story starts, you can begin to forget to mind about your lack of knowing in the prequel, and start enjoy it.

However, I must admit that most idea in the movie are not fresh for those who watched the prequel before. Museum exhibition coming to live and making jokes about history subject...and also Ben Stiller's kind of humour. Anyway, 3 years is a long time and some reviewing (not refreshing) of the same kind of funny stuff is not really a bad thing after all. You may think that this sequel cannot succeed the prequel. But, why don't treat both as one continuation of a story? They are the same all. Try don't to compare them and there are still a lots of fun to discover.

For first time viewer of Night at the Museum like me, I'm kinda regret that I didn't watch the prequel. If I watched the prequel, I think I can appreciate the relationship (friendship?) between Larry and those exhibits more. The effort of Larry showed in the movie -- how he tried to help his exhibit friends -- is a continuation of the relationship he built with those exhibits in the prequel. If I had the chance to watch the prequel, I'll watch it -- hope you can get this feeling as well after watching this sequel.

The humour in the movie does work almost all the time. Ben Stiller is indeed a good comedy actor and so are other characters in the movie. The conversations are full of sarcasm, and you don't need being a good history student or an American to understand it. Forget about other things else, (as Bernard said, leave your brain at home) you can laugh throughout the movie and it's the reason why you spend money on a comedy, right?

Besides, you can also learn historical stuff from the movie as well, e.g.Napoleon hated people talking about his height etc. Those history trivia are interesting to know and the way the movie protray it, I would say very good. The movie did the same thing as other museums in the world are built -- to make people love history. Well, although I'm not very sure about accuracy of some stuff inside, but just watching historical people from all around the world gathered and fight in this modern world is undeniably interesting. Pharoah + Napoleon + Ivan + American Mafia vs. Cowboys + Romans + modern American -- that's fun to watch those people from different background and time fight and express themselves in different cultural ways.

In a word, it is a movie you can watch alone to cheer you up when you are down, or you can watch together with friends and family. Either way, you pay money and you get the laughter you want. "Night at the Museum 2" is a movie that worth to watch and you won't regret it.