Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian | Rotten Tomatoes

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

PG

Released May 22, 2009

1h 45m

Kids & Family

Comedy

Fantasy

Adventure

List

44%

Tomatometer

169 Reviews

47%

Audience Score

250,000+ Ratings

Once the night guard at the Museum of Natural History, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is now a successful purveyor of infomercial products. Soon after learning that his museum friends have been shipped to the Smithsonian Institution, Larry receives a distress call from Jedediah, who warns him that four of history's greatest villains have come to life and are planning to take over the Smithsonian first, then the world. Larry joins forces with friends old and new to stop the quartet's nefarious plans.

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Critics Consensus

Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian is busy enough to keep the kids interested but the slapstick goes overboard and the special effects (however well executed) throw the production into mania.

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Hank Sartin

Time Out

Rated: 2/5

Nov 18, 2011

Full Review

Joshua Rothkopf

Time Out

Rated: 2/5

Nov 17, 2011

Full Review

David Denby

New Yorker

The result is pretty much a free-form traffic jam in which everyone fights everyone else.

Jun 1, 2009

Full Review

Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

Though brimming with computer special effects and celebrity cameos, the movie’s marvels are hardly impressive, given that they’ve recycled everything from the first and just added a couple of new features for good measure.

Rated: 1/4

Dec 15, 2023

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

A really, really stupid comedy.

Rated: 4/10

Nov 29, 2020

Full Review

Richard Propes

TheIndependentCritic.com

Robin Williams, as well, explodes every single time he's onscreen in a performance with even more spark and humor than in the original.

Rated: 2.0/4.0

Sep 18, 2020

Full Review

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Blu B

Just complete nonsense and terrible all around. Subpar acting weighed down by flat/dumb humor including Darht Vader and Oscar appearing. A generic forgettable soundtrack with stupid cupid statue pop song numbers. The editing isn't good and everything else about it is terrible. It truly feels like crazy stuff just happens as they to free Wilson. The villian is so stupid as well. Suspension of dibelief is one thing, but this is just ridiculous. I love how in NYC no one is out late when a biplane lands, no one is out at the Washington Mall at all at night. The movie can be summed up in the final scene when a giant marble Lincoln battles a giant squid with ancient soldiers fighting egyptian guys with Earhardt flying around. Scenes drag terribly also because of the dumb flat humor and there is quite a bit of poinless reference humor as well because this was 2009 and that was a thing. Stiller's character has basically no motive and feels like he's sleepwalking through this half the time. It's basically a worse version of the first one that does nothing better. Skip This.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

04/24/24

Full Review

Idan Charles L

Like the first one, It's not a great movie but it has some charm

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/27/24

Full Review

Daniel Q

I dont like that because its on disney plus at least its still awesome for hulu

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/27/24

Full Review

BRENDEN J

Night at the Museum 2 was a really fun sequel.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/11/24

Full Review

Winter B

you need to be the target audience aka kids and as a kid this was a banger movie

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

12/24/23

Full Review

Starwing_The_Universe_Traveler

I absolutely love this movie, and it's one of my favorites from when I was a kid! My dad and I are both avid enjoyers of this franchise, and I'd highly recommend it (that is, if you like Ben Stiller)🫶✨

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/13/23

Full Review

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Shawn Levy

Director

Ben Stiller

Larry Daley

Robin Williams

Teddy Roosevelt

Amy Adams

Amelia Earhart

Owen Wilson

Jedediah

Hank Azaria

Kahmunrah

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Synopsis

Once the night guard at the Museum of Natural History, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is now a successful purveyor of infomercial products. Soon after learning that his museum friends have been shipped to the Smithsonian Institution, Larry receives a distress call from Jedediah, who warns him that four of history's greatest villains have come to life and are planning to take over the Smithsonian first, then the world. Larry joins forces with friends old and new to stop the quartet's nefarious plans.

Director: Shawn Levy
Producer: Shawn Levy, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan
Screenwriter: Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: 1492 Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, 21 Laps Entertainment
Rating: PG (Mild Action|Brief Language)
Genre: Kids & Family, Comedy, Fantasy, Adventure
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 22, 2009, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 19, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA): $177.2M
Runtime: 1h 45m

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