Release Date: May 22, 2009
Rating: PG (for mild action and brief language)
Genre: Family/Comedy
Run Time: 105 min.
Director: Shawn Levy
Actors: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Robin Williams, Christopher Guest, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Bill Hader, Jonah Hill, Eugene Levy, Jake Cherry, Patrick Gallagher
Historically speaking, museums just aren’t that cool when you’re a kid. Sure, when they’re part of the requisite school field trip, any excuse for getting out of class for a day is fun. But that’s hardly a ringing endorsement for the museum itself. After all, when compared to say, another game of Wii Super Mario Galaxy, a bunch of old stuff with an intriguing backstory isn’t really all that attention-grabbing.
But in 2006’s surprise hit Night at the Museum, Ben Stiller, along with a motley crew of relics that inexplicably came to life after hours, helped seriously up the museum’s street cred. Mixing bite-sized pieces of history in with goofy humor and over-the-top storytelling, it was the cinematic equivalent of pureeing vegetables into a batch of fudgy brownies—basically, a win-win scenario for kids, their parents and Hollywood (the flick grossed more than $250 million in North America alone).
Now that nearly three years have passed since the adventure at the Museum of Natural History, is it possible that the proverbial lighting can strike twice in the same place? I mean, we’ve already seen a gi-normous T-Rex play fetch. The demanding Easter Island Head finally got its bubble gum, and miniature cowboy Jedediah Smith (Owen Wilson) and miniature Octavius (Steve Coogan) finally put aside their differences and have became best buds. Is there anything else really worth exploring?
Well, lighting can strike twice if you switch locations and seriously revamp the storyline, which is exactly what the filmmakers smartly did this time around. Turns out that Larry Daley (Stiller) has traded in his humble job as a museum night watchman for life as a corporate big-wig. The once-failed inventor finally hits it big with the glow-in-the-dark flashlight and other gimmicky gadgets. Spending the majority of his time making deals and appearing in infomercials alongside George Foreman, there’s a pervasive joylessness about his life, despite making the big bucks. Even with a huge partnership with Wal-Mart waiting in the wings, Larry misses those nights at the museum, and his son Nicky (Jake Cherry) misses his dad’s attention.
His old museum pals like Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) and Attila the Hun (Patrick Gallagher), not to mention the museum’s snarky curator (Ricky Gervais) have certainly noticed his changing priorities, too, because they haven’t seen him in ages. But when it’s revealed that the time-honored waxworks will be replaced by new holographic displays (gotta move with the times, right?) and then permanently moved to storage at the Smithsonian, Jedediah hopes that Larry will come to their rescue yet again.
