Night At The Museum 2

We watched this with Troy, Dona, Kelsey and Lane on Friday night. I liked it about as much as the first one... maybe a bit more or a bit less.

The plot ties to the first one by trying to rescue the come-to-life-at-night exhibits from the archives of the famous Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C. after they're booted from the national history museum by a board intent on replacing them with holograms and other technological genius. When the magic Egyptian tablet that's the source of the nightlife is brought along, the country's largest museum gets in on the animated fun.

There is some romance involved which helps keep my interest, but what grabs me the most is all the silliness. An ancient pharaoh with a comical lisp rallies a group of history's nemeses to work for him - Napoleon with his "short guy" complex, a young Al Capone, and Ivan the Terrible. Ben Stiller's night guard character, while trying to slip downstairs past security into the archives, has a dandy run-in with a twentysomething roly-poly guard who seems like his true calling should be making doughnuts instead of toting weaponry. Later on, Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch lobby for a spot in the pharaoh's evil inner circle and are mocked out of the room (much to Darth's frustration, he can't talk and his famous invisible choke hold doesn't work). And in the end, all the heroes win.

I see that the first movie has come to cable. Wait for this one too, and give yourself a chance to see it.