This was a fun movie to see on a weekday afternoon. Nothing spectaculr about it. The story is simple. The characters are ridiculous. The comedy is clean and the pacing is quick. So I have little to complain about, but also little to rave about. It is as I expected it would be. I liked the first movie. It was surprisingly good to me. I thought it was funny and unique. I enjoyed it. This new one was pleasant enough, but it was just the same idea redone with some extra characters.
The plot is easy enough. Ben Stiller's character, Larry Daley is no longer a night guard at the museum, but a successful inventor and owner of his own company. But, as you probably guessed, he is not happy. He longs for the old days of wandering the halls of the museum at night with his friends, the exhibits from the museum. From here the movie wastes no time in getting to the thick of the story.
Larry finds out the museum is being upgraded and all the exhibits are being shipped to the Smithsonian Archives. He wants to save them, but doesn't know what to do. When they are about to be shipped that tricky monkey from the first movie steals the tablet that makes them all come to life. So when they get to the Smithsonian all the exhibits come to life, including Kamunrah the brother of Akmenrah (that Egyptian from the first movie).
Kamunrah is bent on world domination so he tries to steal the tablet from Larry's friends. So Jedediah (Owen Wilson) calls up their old pal Gigantor for help. The chaos ensues. There are funny parts. Larry's encounter with Brandon (pronounced Brunden) had me cracking up. Part of it is in the trailer, but most of it isn't. The other stuff is pretty standard. Some of the charcters are dumb (The Thinker and Gen. Custer) others are cute (Able the Space Chimp and the Singing Cheribum) others are sassy (Amelia Earhart). At times it gets a little too sentimental (Jed telling Gigantor, "I didn't call you because we needed you. I did it because you needed us!"), but hey it's family entertainment.
There's a lot going on in this sequel and it comes at you fast. Before I could even tell, they had started into the story. I guess with summer sequels you don't need exposition. It's fun, it's harmless, it's nothing special.
Rating: One Wax Teddy Roosevelt
