Night at the Museum 2

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Night at the Museum film, and I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel, even though for all intents and purposes they are the same movie, right down to the fact that neither make any sense at all. But that's ok, since I'd rather watch a fun movie that makes no sense than a perfectly logical, intelligent script that bores me to tears. The first film was about what happens when the exhibits come to life at New York City's Museum of Natural History, while this film is about what happens when the exhibits come to life at Washington's Smithsonian.

But don't worry! All of the exhibits, characters, and statues from the first film are here too, through some nonsensical plot where they are sent to the basement of the Smithsonian for storage, along with the magical Egyptian talisman that brings them all to life at night. The talisman gets stolen by some evil Pharaoh played by Hank Azaria, so Ben Stillar has to fly to D.C. in order to save the... actually, you know what? Who cares about all that. Did you like the first movie where stuff came alive in that one museum? Well, you're gonna like this one, since even more stuff comes alive in an even bigger museum.

To be sure, this is a kid's film with lots of big set pieces centered around a central premise where stuff in museums come alive. I keep using that description to describe the plot, since that's all that really happens, but that's all I want to happen anyway. When I watch this movie, I just want to get through the plot filler and exposition until we get to the stuff coming alive. In fact, even when I go to a real museum, I want to get past all of that learning stuff until I get to the point where the stuff comes alive. Too bad that never happens, so I have to settle for these movies, which I hope Stiller keeps cranking out because they're hilarious and exciting.

Even forgetting the fun plot where you get to see dinosaurs, paintings, statues, and monkeys come to life, these films are worth watching just for the amazing casts they've assembled. Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Hank Azaria, Ricky Gervais, Christopher Guest, and Bill Hader all provide big laughs as their various over the cop characters, abetted along the way by cameos from various other comic actors from the Office, 30 Rock, Reno 911, and those Judd Apatow movies. There wasn't nearly enough of Robin Williams this time around, but his few scenes were pretty great. And at least we got a lot of Amy Adams, who was kind of annoying as Amelia Earhart, but at least she was adorable and dressed in spandex pants. For the ladies, Hank Azaria's guns were on display throughout.

Anyway, that's Night at the Museum 2. A pretty fun if not all together exceptional film that provides lots of laughs and shows tons of stuff at museums coming to life. Check it out.