Night of the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is a textbook example of a by the numbers comedy sequel: less story, less-interesting characters, even less logic, and more gag lines and physical humor,
As in Night at the Museum, Ben Stiller plays a very ordinary man dealing with historical characters who come to life at night in the Smithsonian Institution as a result of . . . but you don’t really care about that, do you? The important thing is that it’s funny, it’s a little sentimental, it’s nice, and it’s a reasonably enjoyable way to while away a couple of hours.
Aficionados of classic Hollywood movies will enjoy Hank Azaria’s portrayal of the main villain, the ancient Egyptian Kamunrah–Azaria employs a lisp as an allusion to Boris Karloff and his character in The Mummy (1932).
And there are a couple of interesting things about Battle of the Smithsonian. One, for some unknown reason the writers decided to concentrate on a couple of Americans most famous for their failures: Gen. George Armstrong and aviatrix Amelia Earhart. Custer, of course, led his troops into disaster at the Battle of Little Bighorn, and Earhart was a pioneering aviatrix who almost certainly died during one of her long-distance plane flights.
Rehabilitation of these reputations is the order of the day. The writers are careful to inform us that Earhart was the first female to fly an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean solo, and they even have the protagonist (Stiller) give an impromptu pep talk to Custer (although the writers leave the audience ignorant of Custer’s positive accomplishments).
I don’t know what the purpose of this was, unlike the writers’ deification of Abraham Lincoln and a similarly reverent reference to President Obama. I suspect the rehabilitations are just the writers’ sentimental way of making sure the audience is sympathetic to two flamboyant characters from American history they wanted to use.
The motive for the laudatory references to Lincoln and Obama are just typical Hollywood socialism, of course.
There is one special and immensely appealing element in the film, however: Amy Adams as Earhart. Adams plays the lady flier as a typical tough but appealingly feminine 1920s-30s American female. Earhart’s snappy good cheer, ability to laugh in the face of danger, and "can-do" attitude remind us of what makes the United States such a great nation, and her calm courage in the face of death near the end of the film is rather inspiring and, given what we know about Earhart, probably true to the character.
That’s a piece of history vividly depicted, and it’s a truly redemptive element in a largely frivolous film.
–S. T. Karnick
By the way, there’s one classic line in Smithsonian, which I just have to recount: when Adams as Amelia Earhart says, “Criminy–we’re jimmyjacked!”
How like Ben Stiller to allow his costars to get the best lines! Very wise.
Thanks for the very enticing description of Junebug, R. J. It’s always exciting to hear about a possibly worthy film one hasn’t seen yet.
You might actually find it very rich from a pop culture stand point. I thought it was pretty endearing the way it contrasted the over-intellectualism of the metropolitan art scene with the heart of normal folks in small, southern towns. Maybe a little too patronizing like the southerners are “noble savages”, but it does kind of tweak the nose of the cultured, too. For instance, Embeth Davitz’s character spends the movie trying to procure rights to show the paintings of an artist that everyone in his hometown shuns because he’s crazy and racist.
Additionally, it refrains from complicating things the way Hollywood movies love to complicate things. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but you’ll find the absence conspicuous.
It treats the characters like real people, and Amy Adams is just so endearing. I was glad she got an Oscar nod for that peformance.
I haven’t seen Junebug, but I guess now I’ll have to. The following quote from IMDB really impressed me: “Ashley: God loves you just the way you are. But He loves you too much to let you stay that way.”
I’ve loved her since Drop Dead Gorgeous. Go Muskies! But I’m from the south so her saying “they did not” in Junebug probably had an inordinate impact.