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 Larry
Daley is finally a success. He’s come a long way from struggling to
provide for his young son by working as a night watchman in New York’s
Museum of Natural History, to rolling in dough as a Ron Popeil-style
inventions entrepreneur. The trade-off is Larry is now so busy, he
hasn’t got time to have a sit-down dinner with his boy, or stay in touch
with the ones who inspired him to go for his big dreams in the first
place. While Larry was a museum guard, he discovered a mystical
Egyptian tablet that brought all the exhibits inside to life.
Everything from the skeleton of the T-Rex and looming Easter Island
figure, the wax figures of Theodore Roosevelt, Pocahontas and Attila the
Hun and the miniatures in the Wild West and Ancient Rome displays got up
and walked around the galleries the minute the sun went down. Larry
became their friend and protector, but as his new career took over more
of his time, his petrified friends faded into the background. When
Larry finally does come to visit, it is only in time to discover the
exhibits are about to be shifted out of the Museum of Natural History,
to be stocked away and archived in Washington D.C.’s sprawling
Smithsonian Museum. Larry sets off to rescue his friends and save the
mystical tablet once more, but not before he discovers the tablet works
equally well in D.C. as it did in NYC.
One of
Larry’s first allies in his battle to keep the tablet from an evil
Egyptian pharaoh is Amelia Earhart, the iconic aviatrix full of the
pluck and can-do spirit that made her famous. While the duo is pursued
around the museum’s many galleries, they discover the ability to pop in
and out of famous artwork; at one point trading full-colour Washington
D.C. 2009 for black and white 1945 Times Square via Eisenstaedt’s famous
victory kiss photo. They dodge giant squids and pterodactyls, try
brainstorming with Rodin’s Thinker, twirl with Degas’ fourteen-year-old
dancer and glean wisdom from Abe Lincoln himself. The mixture of
history, art and pop culture is pretty ingenious and works wonderfully
to keep the grown-ups as enchanted as the little ones. As an art fiend,
I was tickled to watch Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog bouncing around the
galleries, a Roy Lichtenstein Benday Dot heroine bravely wiping away a
tear, and the counterman from Hopper’s Nighthawks serving his late night
guests. The Tuskegee Airmen have a tête-à-tête with the feisty Miss
Earhart before assisting her and Larry’s escape from the Air and Space
Museum on the Wright brothers’ flyer. Exposing all the brilliance the
Smithsonian has to offer is sure to pique kids’ interest in those
subjects shown here, as well as raise visitor numbers for the
Smithsonian.
Ben
Stiller does a nice reprise of his role as Larry, and the returning cast
from the first film includes Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt, Owen
Wilson as Jed the cowboy and Steve Coogan as Octavius the centurion.
The sequel’s cast is even better this time around, leading with a
standout performance by Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart. In her curly,
cropped bob and fabulously tailored jodhpurs, Adams captures the
aviatrix’s flapperish spunk, which, despite some slightly dated lingo,
fits nicely in these modern times. Earhart’s joie de vivre is
contagious and soon even distracted workaholic Larry questions why he’s
gotten so far out of touch and lost his “moxie.” Adams is so charming
as the flight pioneer that I hope some wise studio gets it in their head
to do an Earhart biopic starring the bright-eyed actress, stat. As for
the other Museum newbies, Hank Azaria steals his scenes as the lisping
pharaoh Kahmunrah, and Larry impresses rival guard Jonah Hill with some
night watchman ninjitsu. Bill Hader puts in a fizzy performance as a
vainglorious and awfully dumb General Custer, who still hasn’t got the
whole surprise attack thing down. Even the voice acting is pretty
sweet, including Eugene Levy as a series of bobble-head Albert Einstein
toys that brilliantly deduce the key to using the Egyptian tablet.
Larry and Amelia are serenaded by a trio of Italian putti, who look and
sound an awful lot like the Jonas Brothers (- I really hope they
record More Than a Woman for the soundtrack.). In my favourite
moment from the film, two other famous “bad guy” Smithsonian tenants
attempt to join Kahmunrah’s gang, and I won’t spoil it too much other
than to say that a guy who’s usually in a big fluffy yellow suit
provides the voice for one, and surprisingly, James Earl Jones does not
provide the voice of the other. The only sour notes are Christopher
Guest’s redoubtable talents being pretty much frittered away as Ivan the
Terrible, and Owen Wilson’s and Steve Coogan’s freestyle riffing
sounding ill-timed and awkwardly unfunny. As if to make up for those
flat moments, we are given a hilarious 300-esque battle for the tiny
twosome that changes the entire face (sole?) of the war inside
the museum.
Far
more engaging and better-paced than its predecessor, director Shawn Levy
finds the formula to enchant both kids and their parents. This time,
taking place in the world’s largest repository of history, art and pop
culture, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian ups the ante on
all sides to deliver a delightfully fun family film.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
May 22nd,
2009
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