Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 32 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Comedy
Written by:
Robert Ben Garant
Thomas Lennon
Directed by: Shawn Levy
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 22, 2009
DVD: December 1, 2009
Running Time: 105 minutes, Color
Origin: USA | Canada
Summary
RATING: PG for mild action and brief language
Starring Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Christopher Guest, Alain Chabat, Robin Williams, and Jonah Hill
Night has fallen upon the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The guides have gone home, the lights are out, the school kids are tucked in their beds...yet something incredible is stirring as former night guard Larry Daley finds himself lured into his biggest, most imagination-boggling adventure yet in which history truly comes alive. In this second installment of the Night at the Museum saga, Larry faces a battle so epic it could only unfold in the corridors of the world’s largest museum. Now, Larry must try to save his formerly inanimate friends from what could be their last stand amid the wonders of the Smithsonian, all of which, from the famous paintings on the walls to the rocket ships in the halls, suddenly have a mind of their own. (20th Century Fox)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Big Fat Liar Cheaper by the Dozen Just Married The Pink Panther
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Night at the Museum Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Battle of the Smithsonian has plenty of life. But it's Adams who gives it zing.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Nothing elegant about Adams here, but she's terrific -- a sparkling screen presence. Her Earhart hoists this big-budget sequel above the routine.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Takes a great idea -- what if the inhabitants of a museum came to life at night? -- and milks it for every drop of fun it's worth.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michelle Orange
Though it's a little slow to start and some of the humor clunks, the film features a wholesome charm, some truly dazzling effects (the Lincoln Memorial alone is worth it), and enough mild, parent-nip in-jokes to keep all but the stone-hearted happy.
Read Full Review >Empire Helen O'Hara
It’s funnier this time, but still veers noticeably from kid-friendly slapstick to adult-friendly banter.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
Some of that frenetic running around has been replaced by inspired effects sequences and amusing riffs by the talented cast, especially new arrivals Hank Azaria and Amy Adams.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is what my mother would have called a kakabarly--a large, foaming broth into which she emptied the forlorn and highly miscellaneous contents of her icebox.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Your 12-and-unders will dig it, and it might even serve as a sort of movie-Bookmobile and get them to read a little history, or at least a little Wikipedia. But otherwise it's utterly dispensable.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kate Taylor
Unfortunately, once these creatures do come to life for a second outing, the promise soon evaporates and the clever comedy, built largely on crisscrossing anachronisms and various sly cultural references, is not enough to sustain a romp that is all rather predictable.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Amy Binacolli
Some of the results are delightfully loopy. Some are cornball.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
The problem with NATM:BOTS is that Stiller, Adams, and company seem to be pretending that they're having fun, too.
Read Full Review >Variety Lael Loewenstein
Where the original had a vaguely tenable narrative hook (deadbeat dad finds redemption through nocturnal heroics), the new pic seems purely a vehicle for lavish visuals and cheap gags.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
It's harmless. And pointless. And dumb. This is a perfect example of a motion picture that exists exclusively because its predecessor made a lot of money.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Resembles an enthusiastic but undisciplined child running amok through an exhibit.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Perry Seibert
Without Azaria's comedic gifts, the movie would be close to unendurable.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Being touted as the first film ever shot in the Smithsonian complex. With any luck, it will also be the last. This is not the best use of our landmarks.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey
It's not so much a movie as a series of running antiquity gags, good for a comedy club, not so much for the multiplex.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Bloated with visual effects, this sequel to the 2006 hit starts off slowly, reintroducing the original characters.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The money shots of the living tableau are padded with jokes that feel embalmed before the actors get them out of their mouths.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
It's bigger, noisier, shinier, and dumber, and it has no earthly reason to exist.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Oh, did I dislike this film. It made me squirm. Its premise is lame, its plot relentlessly predictable, its characters with personalities that would distinguish picture books.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Even Ben Stiller looks bored out of his mind in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, and he got paid several million dollars to star in it.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
It’s a busier and less coherent film, too, with a baffling master plot and a crowded pileup of special effects in search of something to do.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Seems to go on for several days and nights, though in fact it lasts just 105 minutes. I checked my watch. A lot.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Rick Kisonak
Even by Hollywood sequel standards, this is lazily conceived, cynically recycled stuff.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.9 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Manuel R. gave it a5:
Disappointing, at the very start you can notice it doesn't has anything to do with the first one, You have at the end of de 1st a Stiller that loves his work and realizes that he has found what he was meant to do in life, and also he seems very happy about it. At the star of this one you realize the whole message of the 1st movie was a lie, Larry left his beloved wax friends for what he was supposed to had forgotten and not over.valued at the end of 1st... Very crappy film. Anyways it entertains, has awesome effects and jokes, hilarious at some pint. But then they abused of the Psy-Theraphy he had with Atila at the 1st, but in this one, he does it again n again n again, with every character he founds.
[Anonymous] gave it an8:
I really liked the first movie, but I felt this one had a serious lack of central plot. The Earhart character was brilliant, as were several of the new comers, but I didn't feel the same connection I felt with the first movie(dead beat dad trying to redeem himself in his son's eyes) If you've seen the first movie, you owe it to yourself to watch this one, as one definite saving grace is there's what I felt was a better closure for the museum characters than in the first film. Go see this film, but don't expect it to be better than the first.
Jonny 99 gave it a5:
NatM: BotS is sort of a hodge-podge of CGI, historical references and comic vignettes stewed together and set to a screaming soundtrack and overwhelming Foley editing. Basically the result is exactly what you expect if you had a massive budget budget and no overriding storytelling goal. There are a few good bits and everything that's been said about Amy Adams is true. Wait for it on cable.
mark p gave it a2:
my children and i really enjoyed the first "museum" movie but this one is not worth the price of a ticket. It does have a few funny parts in it but the story is stupid and the movie is a sleeper. I would not even recommend renting this. Just a big waste of a nice Saturday.
Shabalaba D gave it a10:
I loved the special effects and the comedy was very funny. I am 15 and i enjoyed it very much.
Kirk C gave it a3:
The movie was no way nearly as good as the first one, this seems to generally be the case for sequels. Special effects where really good. The movie had some funny scenes. The movies special effects carry it all the way to the end. I wouldn't see it again.
Paul M gave it a7:
Did nobody notice the editing problem? Custer started off out in the warehouse. Then, he was locked inside the crate with the money and the tablet BEFORE the sun went down. Then, he was rescuing Larry Daley with the motor cycle and side car. Then, he was locked inside the crate again.
