Night at the Musuem 2

The sequel to the hilarious and adventure-packed Night at the Museum shifts us to a different location this round; from the American Museum of Natural History to the world famous and huge Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C, the capital of United States.

The comeback of Ben Stiller reprising his role as Larry Daley, the musuem night guard in the first installation and the former cast, this sequel is no less of a charmer to its prequel as well.
The expansion of the cast and characters in the musuem promises much more laughs as the drama enfolds in a musuem which is ten times larger than the original musuem in the first part.


In this installation, we see Larry Daley who is no longer the night guard at the musuem but as the founder of Daley Devices; and he was busy with the promotion of his latest Glow-in-the-Dark flashlight.
Due to his busy schedule, he had missed his trips to the musuem to visit his old friends and finally, when he made it there, he was disappointed to find that it was the last day before the musuem is officially closed for renovation and all the exhibits are packed and sent to the Federal Archives in Washington D.C, to the huge Smithsonian Instituion.

He lingered until dusk; where all the packed statues break out of their boxes and come to live (thanks to the sacred tablet) and venting their anger and disappointment at him. He tried, to no avail, to persuade them and realized with guilt how he had abandoned them in his pursue for money.
Ted Roosevelt (Robin Williams) revealed to him that the tablet will stay back in this musuem; which means that all of them will no longer come to live when they are sent there.

Larry was sad, and promises that he will try to figure out a way and was left with a puzzle when Ted froze before finishing his sentence on the key to happiness.

Watching forlornly at the departing exhibits, he went back to work and his daily life.
He was called to action one night by Jedediah (Owen Wilson) who informed him that the Dexter, the monkey had stolen the magical tablet and they have met the evil Pharaoh brother of Ahkmenrah; Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) who is the older among them and he was attacking them, demanding for the tablet for his possession.



Larry had no choice, but to make a trip to Washington to begin his mission to save his friends.
With his knowledgeable son, Nick's (Jake Cherry) navigation and guidance, he made it to the musuem and galleries, trying desperately trying to locate the Federal Archives which was housed in the enormous building of the Smithsonian Institution.
As he passed by most of the places, he shudders to imagine what would happen if they were to come to live by the help of the tablet.

He soon found them; frozen in a confrontational battle with each other and snatching the tablet from Dexter the monkey who was locked inside the container, he was shocked and panicked when the tablet start to emit the magical lights and all starts to come back to live.
He was held in interrogation by the evil Kahmunrah who told him that he needs the tablet to restore his army from the dead and begins his conquering of the world.

Larry finally escaped with the help of General George Armstrong Custer (Bill Hauer) and Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams).

This is then the embarkment of their adventure as they are hunted on a wild goose chase by Kahmunrah's allies, comprising of Al Capone, evil emperor Ivan the Terrible, and Napoleon Bonaparte, the famous historic French General who couldn't stand being referred to his height.

General George Custer was captured and thrown into the container with the other locked exhibits where he continuously devises his plans to escape and to face the battle with Kahmunrah's men when they manage to break out of their prison.

In a twist of events inside the black and white paintings, Larry loses his phone inside while talking to his son, Nick when he was being pursued by Kahmunrah's men.
He then fled the painting and cleverly rotates it to face the wall to prevent those men from escaping.
We then see the interesting balloon-dog, paintings and enormous octopus coming to live and also, the lovely cupid sculptures who just keep belting modern love songs one after another at Larry and Amelia.

They were both captured shortly after, and had the tablet snatched away from him.
However, when Kahmunrah fixes the tablet to the tomb, it didn't open as he would have expected. He orders Larry and Amelia to find the secret code to the tablet while he holds little Jedediah captive in an hourglass. Unknown to him, Octavius has fled to look for help along the way too.

Larry and Amelia had no choice, but to race against time to find the code and save Jedediah. They consulted The Thinker, who just wasn't of much help when he kept trying to impress a beautiful statue of a woman.
They rush to Albert Einstein's bobbleheads who told him the answer to the riddle, and that the new combination of the tablet is pi.
They also bumped into Abraham Lincoln's giant statue on their way back, and took a run in the flight and aircraft musuem where Amelia seems to be at home.
They flew back and passes the combination to Kahmunrah who was so delighted that he punched in the combination immediately and released his army of terrifying bird-men from the underworld.
When they were outnumbered (the other exhibits from the container were also released), they had the help of Abraham Lincoln who stormed into the musuem and scared all the bird men and Kahmunrah back into the underworld where Larry locked them in.

Jedediah and Octavius had a great time collaborating again as they threw their spearrs and forks at the feet of the men above them too.
Meanwhile, Amelia, at Larry's request, flies all back to the American Musuem of Natural History and Larry assures them all that he will ensure that they remain in their home.

He and Amelia shared a romantic goodbye kiss; sending off the sparks which had been ignited sometime during the beginning of the movie


Larry soon figured out that the key to happiness is doing something that he likes and he sold his Daley's Devices and donated the money to the musuem to transform it into a Audio-Animatronics (from Wikipedia) and the musuem now opens late, where all the exhibits come to life.
Larry is rehired at the musuem as the night guard and he came across a modern young woman who looks like Amelia.

The curtains are down and during the credits, the man from the black and white photo where Larry ran into earlier, happens to have picked up his phone and he was trying to figure out what is the device when his mom called him for dinner, referring to him as "Joey Motorola"

A fun-packed and educational film which brought most of the historical figures and interesting people back to life.
If you think Part 1 was crazy, Part 2 was definitely more than that, as the Smithsonian promises much more with the following characters:
Evil Pharaoh Kahmunrah - Hank Azaria
Ivan the Terrible (ruler of Russia) - Christopher Guest
Al Capone (American Gangster) -Jon Bernthal
Napoleon Bonaparte (famous French ruler/General) - Alain Chabat
General George Armstrong Custer (American naval commander) - Bill Hauer
Amelia Earhart (The first woman awarded the flying cross and the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean) - Amy Adams (of Enchanted fame)
The Thinker
Abraham Lincoln (one of US's finest presidents)
Albert Einstein
(Able) Monkeys - launched into space
Joey Motorola
Darth Vader
Oscar the Grouch of Sesame Street fame
In fact, the lovely cherubs were actually voices of the Jonas brothers!

What more to wait for, if this is not the biggie, as Larry said it..

It is one huge battle to fight, the Battle is on when the lights go OFF!