Night at the Museum 2 Battle of the Smithsonian

Could we please stop messing with the ancient Egyptian grimoires please!

Reviewed by: Alicia Glass
Published on: March 15, 2022

Reviewed by Alicia Glass

Review Rating: 8

Larry Daly, former night museum guard turned pitchman, returns to save his magical museum friends when they and the mystic tablet are retired and sent to the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C.!

Don’t bother buying candy at the concession stands, this movie will give you your dose of sweet for the entire night. After watching it, I seriously had to go watch some very dark anime in order to get a balance. However, Night at the Museum 2 really is a wonderful movie, full of magic and delight and reminding us all to allow ourselves to have some fun once in awhile. Nevermind that, these days, finding a job where you have fun all the time and still get paid for it is a virtual impossibility.  The film even makes such a dull-sounding thing like going to a museum, totally cooool.

Ben Stiller is back as Larry Daly, although by this time he’s a pitchman of his own company, Daly Devices, and hasn’t visited his friends in the old museum in some time. But when Larry goes to save his friends from Kahmunrah, Ahkmenrah’s relative who of course wants to rule the world and knows how to use the tablet for other things, he demonstrates clearly that in his tenure as night guard, he’s learned quite a bit. Like how to break into the biggest museum in the U.S., for starters. Amy Adams bangs the role of Amelia Earhart, the plucky woman pilot who craves adventure and helps Larry rediscover his moxie. And a whole new cast of characters from the Smithsonian, including such memorables like General George Armstrong Custer “Yeee-HAH!”, Napoleon Bonaparte, Ivan the Terrible (“The actual translation of my name ist ‘Ivan the Awesome’.”), Al Capone in black and white, and even old Honest Abraham Lincon! Joining them is the regulars from the first movie, Octavius the Roman and Jedediah the Cowboy, Sacajawea and Teddy Roosevelt, and even Dexter. A lot of the movies these days don’t bother getting the entire original cast from a first movie, to cast in the sequel, I’m very glad this film did. And of course, the very ending to this movie, which wraps up everything in a nice neat package, is super cute and happy!

A wacky and wonderful romp of a sequel for the whole family to enjoy!