Another Night, Another Fight

Then whilst the wait continued I swallowed my pride and sat in a screening of Night at the Museum 2 for two odd hours, hating the first one with a passion, I was surprised when I chuckled consistently for a long time of the film, and enjoyed some nice moments. It's a good film, for the most part. Some humour is poor, and the singing angel things were odd, I was thinking WTF are these things, and why do they have such a lot of screen time, but alas, the writers are still the same, thankfully Stiller is better, more on target as a successful businessman trying to help his friends, not just a night guard this time, and Hank Azaria's villain is brilliant, as is his two voice parts, The Thinker and Abraham Lincoln.

The cast is fantastic, and deserves a thorough run through, including cameos.

Amy Adams - Always great even in bad films, here innocent and fun, and full of vinegar, very much a 20's kind of gal, and great fun.
Owen Wilson - Not much in the way of comedy, but he's acceptable.
Robin Williams - 3 scenes the poor guy gets, and by the final scene I wished he was in it more.
Christopher Guest - Doesn't have much to do, but the man is a legend.
Steve Coogan - Funny, besides some bad CGI and unnecessary kiddy style gags, a 300 Spoof is spot on.
Ricky Gervais - 2 Scenes, but alright, nothing spectacular in the way of comedy.
Bill Hader - Nothing exceptionally funny, but the man is awesome anyway.
Jay Baruchel - Awesome actor, small part, good Tropic Thunder reference.
Mindy Kaling - Small part, funny, awesome gal.
Clint Howard - Referencing his part in Apollo 13, nice gag.
George Foreman - No need for the cameo at the start, but it's funny enough.
Eugene Levy - Hysterical man, but suffers from being stupid Einstein bobble heads, not very funny, and they say "Pi, well, 3.14159 265 to be exact" Which is wrong, to be exact would be a good couple dozen places more wouldn't it, and that's not good education for the kids.
Craig Robinson and Keith Powell (30 Rock's Twofer) - Not much, but nice little role as African American pilots helping Stiller and Adams.
Ed Helms - Andy from The Office, small role, nothing funny, but nice cameo.
Jonah Hill - Too blue for kids, as the Superbad commentary proved, he has a nice moment with Stiller, but nothing much.

There area few heavy issues with the film however, Owen Wilson's character is put into a sand timer and Azaria says Stiller has an hour before he is killed, but it's established in the first one they aren't human, they are living versions of the material, so Owen doesn't need to breath now does he.

Also near the end Amelia flies Stiller and co to New York with the tablet, so the Smithsonian won't be moving, even though a Squid was put in the water and told to go back later, after they left, and Amelia flies off perfectly after the tablet is taken into the Museum... Ummm, how?

Still, despite some awful CGI, bad gags, and a need for Fred Armisen to be Napoleon instead, he'd be far superior, plus some issues with continuity and plotholes, and the Pi thing being odd for Einstein to fail at exacting, it's a superior sequel, funny for the most part, interesting and actually has a villain.
8/10