Night at the Museum – Battle of the Smithsonian

Night at the Museum ? Battle of the Smithsonian
Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Hank Azaria
Directed by Shawn Levy
Fox Home Entertainment 2009
105 minutes

You do not really have to have seen Night at the Museum to enjoy the second instalment, Battle for the Smithsonian. Then again, if you have not, you probably will not be interested in this comedy. You might be missing something. Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian is a fun comedy DVD starring Ben Stiller and a pretty solid bunch of supporting actors.

Ben Stiller plays divorced dad Larry Daley. Larry used to be a security guard at the Museum of Natural History. The museum features a special Egyptian tablet that makes the exhibits come to life at night. Battle for the Smithsonian picks up the story months later. Larry is not a successful TV pitchman and rarely visits his friends at the museum. One day he learns the exhibits are being moved to the Smithsonian for storage. This means they will no longer come to life again. When Larry gets a call for help, he decides to rescue them, if he can find them.

Hank Azaria hams it up as an evil Pharaoh who wants the tablet for his own. Unfortunately, his evil pharaoh is more a Monty Python sketch reject.

The fun in this comedy is the various historical figures brought to life. Battle for the Smithsonian features George Custer (Bill Hader), Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams), and the couple from American Gothic.

This is really a gag based comedy and there are some excellent ones here. Paintings come to life including Nighthawks, the kiss picture from VJ Day, and various Pop Art work The cameos by Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch are very funny. There is no point mentioning many of the artwork presented in this movie is not really at the Smithsonian.

If you know your history a bit, you will appreciate some of the one liners like “You won’t get lost following Amelia Aearhart.”

Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian is good fun.

The Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian single disc DVD has one hour of special feature laughs from favourite stars including commentary by cast and crew, featurettes, six deleted scenes with an alternate ending, and a gag reel.

Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Special Features: Disc One  Gag Reel – 12 Deleted Scenes Including Alternate Ending – Curators of Comedy: Behind The Scenes With Ben Stiller – Museum Scavenger Hunt Game – Cherub Bootcamp – Phinding Pharaoh With Hank Azaria – Monkey Mischief Featurettes – Historical Confessions: Famous Last Words – Secret Doors and Scientists – Cavemen Conversations: Survival of the Wittiest – Museum Magic: Entering The World Of The Photograph – Director 201 With Shawn Levy – Gangster Levy – Audio Commentaries With Filmmakers – FOX Movie Channel Presents Featurette. Disc Two- Digital Copy of Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Disc Three – Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian widescreen feature film (2.40:1 aspect ratio)

Limited Edition “Monkey Mischief” Double DVD Special Features:

Disc One – Gag Reel – Curators of Comedy: Behind the Scenes with Ben Stiller – Cherub Bootcamp – Six Deleted Scenes, Including Alternate Ending – Phinding Pharaoh With Hank Azaria – Audio Commentaries with Filmmakers

Disc Two – Monkey Mischief Bonus Disc – Show Me The Monkey featurette- Monkey Business – Primate Prima Donnas- The Secret Life of a Monkey Movie Star: Life Off Camera – Games: Monkey Slap Game and Abel and Dexter’s Flights Of Fancy

Single Disc DVD Special Features: Special features include everything on “Disc One” of “Monkey Mischief Edition” above.

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