Movie reviews

DIRECTOR: Shawn Levy

RATING: **

What can you say? This is that kind of film where Amelia Earhart briefly returns to life to fall gleefully in the arms of a glum night guard; Albert Einstein is a bobble-headed toy; the Thinker can’t go past his biceps; and Kah-mun-rah is a Pharaoh with a clipped English accent.

This is the kind of film where an over-the-top Hank Azaria plays that Pharaoh,an under-used Robin Williams appears for brief summons,and a boring Ben Stiller passes time in blue overalls shining around his torchlight.

And this is the kind of film where history is merely a tool for all these Hollywood histrionics,where things get routinely smashed around in one of the world’s most prestigious museums and which,to top it,isn’t even remotely funny.

You have to ask yourself: why did Night at the Museum 2 get made at all? It doesn’t tell you anything about the historical characters on parade,not even the standard inside jokes; it doesn’t know what to do with the assembled star cast,including the shiny-eyed Amy Adams (Earhart); and it doesn’t know how to tell a good joke.

The only reason one can think of is that Night at the Museum 1,based on a book for children by the same name,grossed some obscene amount at the box office.

Add some historical figures,keep the same vaguely-Egyptian-looking,shiny-gold-thingy “magical tablet” that brings things to life at night,and voila¿ go singing to the bank. Or,at least,that seems to have been the general idea. But history,even in a museum,hardly repeats itself. And thanks be for it!

shalini.langer@expressindia.com