Reviews by Hubie Goode: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Ben Stiller • Amy Adams • Robin Williams • Owen Wilson • Bill Hader • Hank Azaria • Christopher Guest • Dick Van Dyke • Clint Howard • Steve Coogan • Eugene Levy

Twentieth Century-Fox presents a film directed by Shaun Levy. Written by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. Running time: 105 minutes. Rated PG (for mild action and brief language).

Amy Adams. She’s Amelia Earheart in this movie. She does for this mess what the Fonze did for Happy Days. I want to see THAT movie. I want to see her as Amelia as she is here, because from the looks of this mess, it’s all there is to see.

I can’t say I have been to too many movies in my entire lifetime where a movie was rated #1 at the box office on opening weekend and yet I actually saw people get up and leave the theater after twenty minutes. Who can blame them? This is a big empty cup of fluff. Completely derivative of both itself and other sources. I got very tired of seeing this movie come crashing to a halt to suddenly have to sit through two characters do a Seinfeld bit, and they did this a whole handful of times ad nauseam. The movie also borrows from Monty Python and several of its’ imitators. I got tired of how many strung together gags there were which had very little to do with anything like a plot, although I suppose if you are planning on selling video games to youngsters, then this was perhaps the point. And what’s the deal with Robin Williams? Does anyone ever notice that when he doesn’t cry or do a dozen different funny voices in a movie, he seems to disappear and never wins those awards? And PLEASE, let’s forget making those groaner American Idol references! It’s not funny. It’s not cute. It’s just obvious and a waste of our money and time. Anything the kids can do for themselves in the school yard to make each other laugh is a tragic waste in a 150 million dollar movie. (Are you listening, Jim Carrey?)

Despite Amy Adams, I think this movie is, at best, a DVD rental. But maybe it’s not worth that either. Why is that, you ask? I think a sequel has to expand from it’s premise and do more with itself than just take what has come before and multiply it times two. You remember Rocky? I bet you do, but what you don’t remember is how Rocky II was really the same movie, just expanded out and with the opposite ending. It wasn’t until Rocky III that the franchise had something different to say, and that’s one of the reasons I remember it to this day over the sequel. Send Hollywood a message, don’t spend the money here. Go see Disney’s UP. You’ll thank me.

2/5 Stars (ugh!)