Night At The Museum 2 Movie Review

So here's the joke: The Jonas Brother, Owen Wilson, Amy Adams and Jonah Hill all walk into a room with about 500 other actors of comedy and non-comedy alike bursting with enough creative energy to power a small city and the punch line is...? Night At The Museum 2! And the expression you are now pulling is the same one you will you have when you see this film, the ever present look of expecting the funny, waiting for the funny, anticipating the funny but it never coming.

Ex-museum guard Larry (Stiller) is now a successful inventor, but misses his friends among the exhibits at the Museum Of Natural History. When they’re shipped to the Smithsonian, he must follow before all hell breaks loose, which of course it does. The plot's not all too dissimilar from the original but does however benefit from having a tangible villain in the form of evil Egyptian pharaoh Kamunrah (Hank Azaria), which puts it a step above its predecessor, but you won't be paying your money for the story in this case, the jokes are the main attraction and you may feel slightly disappointed.

Looking at face value, this should be one of the funniest films ever made considering the pedigree. The sheer amount of comedy actors all in the cooking pot is astonishing. Add Zoolander to Drillbit Taylor with a dash of Mrs.Doubtfire, Andy Millman, Tom Saxondale and it certainly you should make for a delicious comedic soufflé but instead of the tasty treat you all see in the shop window, what’s left is just a plain ordinary ham sandwich with a little bit of filling.

However, there is filling to be had here *cough* entertainment to be had here. The jokes come quick and in their groups, there's some actually quite good historical gags like taking pops at Napoleon and if The Pink Panther 2 proved anything, the French accent is till funny. The Heat/Grazia oriented among you may also enjoy cameo spotting in the film as there are a huge amount of blink and you'll miss another comedic star moments and repeated viewing would defiantly be warranted to see them all.

Although the kicker comes in the variety of the jokes and the pedigree of them, the all important seasoning on the ham sandwich of a prior metaphor and in the end it doesn't supply what you came to see. Sure, you will most defiantly chuckle throughout but the sheer amount of fart jokes and slapstick humour gets a little noticeable, it keep schizophrenically switching between supplying the Basil brush humour for the kids and then expecting them to know them know about General Custer.

All in all, if you have a particular soft spot for your celebrities, can't get enough of the natural history channel or simply love an old fashioned burp, there will be something there for you and you will be hard pressed to find something you don't enjoy in the film. However the kicker comes in the form of it's pedigree, if you're looking for the next Dodgeball or Anchorman then I you will come away feeling cheated but it all comes down to whether you personally would pay for your run of the mill ham sandwich. I personally, would not