博物馆奇妙夜2英文影评要这个电影的影评,完了还要说明一下为什么科幻电影和小说这么受美国人欢迎.-0-很急阿.--最少要三百字呢.00还要分析一下这个电影的剧情什么的阿.--就是写影评.

Question

博物馆奇妙夜2 英文影评
要这个电影的影评,完了还要说明一下为什么科幻电影和小说这么受美国人欢迎.-0-很急阿.- -
最少要三百字呢.0 0 还要分析一下这个电影的剧情什么的阿.- -就是写影评.

Answer 1

Night at the Museum 2 is plugging an odd gap for family entertainment in the early summer film schedule. Outside the excellent-but-weird Coraline (still on release) and not forgetting The Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Experience (out next week – my eyes already hurt) there’s no major release targeted at children until Ice Age 3 opens on July 1.
This puts a reviewer in a bind. I can only recommend Ben Stiller’s comedy sequel in the way I might a burnt sausage when there’s nothing else to eat: it’s not terribly appetising, but it’ll have to do. After all, the notion of waxwork exhibits coming to life and waging war on each other isn’t such a bad recipe for undemanding, sugar-rush escapism, and there’s certainly enough boisterous action to keep the kids happy. Also in the plus column, we get some frisky business with a puce-coloured Leviathan squid (surprisingly friendly, when you get to know it) and a pair of Capuchin monkeys who trade subtitled insults and enjoy happy-slapping Stiller. No problems there.
The movie is only a let-down when you compare its nimbler predecessor – hardly an immortal classic, but an unpretentious romp which made much better use of Stiller’s seething incredulity. In case you’ve forgotten, he played Larry Daley, a newly-recruited security guard at New York’s Museum of Natural History. Late at night, everything came to life, and watching this furious, disappointed man get chased by a re-animated T-Rex skeleton was giddy fun, not just thanks to the state-of-the-art computer effects.
It’s somehow less fun, during this film’s needlessly elaborate set-up, watching Larry pine for his previous job (he’s now a super-successful entrepreneur) and follow his waxy old friends to the Smithsonian Institution, where they are to be stashed in an underground vault and may never see the light of day again. Robin Williams’s sad-faced Teddy Roosevelt explains the situation: without the crucial Egyptian tablet that gives them life, it’s curtains. Down in the basement, a lisping Pharaoh (Hank Azaria) has his own claim on this impressively tacky gold-embossed artifact and announces a routine evil takeover. His batty accent – one of the film’s more striking bits of eccentricity – is pitched somewhere between Quentin Crisp goes bananas and a Spanish gigolo doing a Jeremy Irons impression.
Via a contretemps with a jobsworth security guard, played in the film’s one genuinely hilarious cameo by Superbad’s Jonah Hill, Larry must come to the rescue, which means ducking and diving beneath every effect and costumed baddie at director Shawn Levy’s disposal. There’s time for an engaging, comparatively highbrow sequence in a chamber of living paintings and sculptures, which has Jeff Koon’s red balloon dog prancing about, a writhing Pollock, and a Roy Lichtenstein winking at us. The idea isn’t that original – I last remember seeing it in Joe Dante’s Looney Tunes: Back in Action– but it pays off with a full-scale trip inside Robert Doisneau’s most famous photograph. We get a neat black-and-white recreation of Paris boulevard life in 1950, with those eternal kissers briefly pulled apart by Stiller and pals: a nice touch.
Still, as this hectic, mechanical, more-is-less enterprise wore on, I began to feel very sorry for Owen Wilson, reprising his role as a thimble-sized Lilliputian cowboy called Jedediah. He spends the first half of the movie trapped in a storage crate, and the second half stuck in the bottom of a gradually filling hourglass enduring Azaria’s taunts. He has absolutely no chance to act or react amusingly, and neither, really, does Stiller, dutifully tethered to the chaos this time when he was better off being randomly terrorised by minuscule Indians. As for Amy Adams, joining the gang as feisty Transatlantic pilot Amelia Earhart, she remains a welcome presence in any film, and looks absolutely smashing in her tight trousers, so it’s a pity the screenwriters make her comic gifts, too, count for so little.
Having to deliver the word 'ace' at the end of every line was never going to make this her most inspired gig, but then she, Stiller, Wilson, and anyone who wants a glimmer of actual style from their family entertainment, deserve quite a lot better than this.
2
What’s there to say about the the sequel to the first Night at the Museum? It’s a bit of fluff, something to take the kids to where you might be mildly entertained without having to worry about anything offensive where your kids are involved.
The story picks up a few years after the first film, with Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) now a successful businessman. He has a knack for infomercial-type inventions and is doing very well – financially anyway. He still visits the museum from time to time to visit with his night-animated buddies, but not as often as he used to. It turns out that most of the museum pieces are being replaced by newfangled holographic projection versions, with the current ones being shipped off to storage at the Smithsonian, to be crated forever.
He attempts to intervene but it’s a case of too little, too late – but of course the day is not lost. One thing leads to another and Egyptian prince Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) is awakened with thoughts of world domination on his mind. In the process we once again meet Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt, Owen Wilson as Jebediah Smith the pint sized cowboy, along with new characters General Custer (played well by Bill Hader) and Amelia Earhart (played by the forever cute and perky Amy Adams).
This film seemed to be more about the performances than the actual story, and there was an interesting conglomeration of characters here. The oddest of the bunch had to be Hank Azaria as the Egyptian prince… he was quite the odd combination here – being just a bit older than him and with the fact he’s always been known as a comedic character actor, I was struck by how he buffed out for the role. What made it weirder was the fact that for some reason the voice they chose for his character was a bad Boris Karloff impersonation with a lisp thrown in for good measure.
Funny? Maybe. Weird? Most definitely.
Beyond that Amy Adams was perky to the point of annoyance (for me, anyway) but the old style skin-tight pants she wore kind of made up for that (what can I say?). I enjoyed Bill Hader’s performance as Custer and brief cameos by Ricky Gervais and Jonah Hill were both quite funny. However as usual (for me) Ben Stiller just seemed… odd. He has a flavor of humor that while I don’t hate it, I just don’t get it and it doesn’t work for me.
Thankfully it’s a fairly short film, clocking in well under two hours. It’s not awful, but nowhere near great – kind of take it or leave it film. But if you’re a parent with some little ones and you’re hungry for movies to take the family to without worrying about anything offensive, it’s a good one to go see. For anyone else, you’ll need to be a Ben Stiller fan – otherwise it’s a definite rental.
3
I wasn’t a huge fan of the first “Night At The Museum” movie. Despite a solid all star cast I personally found it to be rather bland. Not a “bad” movie, but neither was it “good”. However, one can’t deny the sheer success of the film at it grossed over $250 million at the box office in North America alone and was the second highest grossing film of 2006 behind only Pirates of the Caribbean 2. With money like that, the question of “should” we make a sequel becomes replaced with “dear heavens how quickly can we make a sequel”?
So out comes Night At The Museum 2. Was it any good. Well… actually… it really wasn’t bad at all.
THE BASIC IDEA
The synopsis for Night At The Museum 2 looks something like this: “Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is now head of Daley Devices, a company he founded to manufacture his inventions. These inventions, including the Glow-in-the-Dark Flashlight, were created from his experiences as a former night guard. He finds that the American Museum of Natural History is closed for upgrades and renovations, and the museum pieces are moving to the Federal Archives at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. On the last night, Larry meets the museum pieces such as Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), Rexy the Tyrannosaurus Skeleton, and Dexter the Monkey and finds out that several exhibits, including Teddy, Rexy, the Easter Island Head, and Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek) are not moving to The Smithsonian Institution – the other exhibits will no longer be animated. The next night, Larry gets a call from Jedediah (Owen Wilson), saying that Dexter stole the tablet, and that Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), Ahkmenrah’s older brother, is attacking them. Larry takes a plane to Washington and visits the National Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Castle to find the Federal Archives with the help of his son Nick (Jake Cherry).”
THE GOOD
I am a huge fan of Hank Azaria. I think the man has some of the best comedic timing in the business today and consistently shines in even mediocre movies. Movies like “America’s Sweethearts”, “Run Fatboy Run”, “Mystery Men” and even in a smaller role in “Dodgeball” give him perfect platforms to really shine, and his role in Night At The Museum 2 is no exception. Playing the main villain, Kahmunrah, Azaria also ends up being the funniest part of the film and consistently the most entertaining element as well. Every moment he’s on screen in this movie you’re smiling. Shame they didn’t have him on screen for more of it… it would have been a better movie.
The visual effects are just fantastic. This movie need to look great if it hopes to pull off that sense of awe and wonder off seeing these exhibits coming to life, and on that level the film succeeds tremendously.
Amy Adams is adorable. At first I have to admit that I found her character (Amelia Earhart) rather annoying with the way she talked and carried herself… but after a few minutes she really starts to grow on you.
The best thing that can be said about the second Night at the Museum (which bears the unnecessarily long full title of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian) is that 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. And, like most movies that fit into that category, the filmmakers have been careful not to change the formula. Keep potential viewers in their comfort zone. The hope is that those who enjoyed the first installment will appreciate the sequel. Well, I didn't like the first one. So what about the bigger budgeted, more hyped sequel? Well, I didn't hate it. I didn't feel passionately enough about it for such a loaded description. I tolerated it and occasionally wished I was watching Star Trek on the faux IMAX screen instead.
I'd love to be able to write a scintillating, penetrating review of Night at the Museum 2, but the truth is that I don't have much to day about the film. Why? Because there's nothing there. Nothing except special effects. The plot is laughable. There are no characters to speak of. The human actors are merely on hand to gawk at what the producers could buy for $150 million. Often, bad films will inspire me to spend 800 words ripping a movie to shreds. Good movies will often move me to write with unexpected eloquence. Night at the Museum 2 made me wish I'd stayed home and taken a nap.
Seeing the film in IMAX helps because all those special effects are bigger. (Sadly, because I saw this in a "new IMAX" venue, they weren't as big as they might have been.) But it also magnifies the production's numerous shortcomings. Why even bother with actors when computer-generated simulacrums would have been just as effective? It doesn't say a lot about a movie when the best scene is one featuring cameos by Oscar the Grouch and Darth Vader. (Vader doesn't get to speak; apparently James Earl Jones didn’t need the paycheck.)
So what's the story? This time, the magical tablet that brings museum exhibits to life ends up at the Smithsonian. Realizing what can happen, security guard-turned-inventor Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) travels from New York to D.C. to prevent disaster. He's a little too late. The megalomaniacal Pharaoh Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) is putting the finishing touches on his plans to take over the world, and he has recruited Napoleon (Alain Chabat), a black-and-white Al Capone (Jon Bernthal), and a surprisingly spineless and tapped-out Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest). Of course, Larry has allies as well, including the miniature Jedediah (Owen Wilson), who spends most of the movie trapped in an hour glass; Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams), who becomes Larry's love interest; the Lincoln Memorial's giant Honest Abe (voice of Hank Azaria); and Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams). The goal seems to be to defeat Kahmunrah before dawn arrives and freezes him and his minions - after that happens, what fun would it be to take him down?
Ben Stiller put forth some effort in the first Night at the Museum; here he's just going through the motions, like almost everyone else. (That includes Jonah Hill, who makes an appearance in what may represent the movie's most excruciatingly annoying two minutes.) The exception is Amy Adams, who believes she's in a better movie than the one she actually is participating in. Watching her bubbly performance, we can occasionally imagine the same thing. Then she finishes her lines or the camera focuses on someone else and reality floods back in. I don't fault her for appearing in this movie. Hopefully, the nice paycheck will enable her to continue to make the kinds of smaller, quirky films that represent her specialty.
I suppose kids will enjoy Night at the Museum 2; it's pitched at those with approximately a first-grade education, and they will likely appreciate its limited roster of laudable qualities. Adults have the choice of either admiring the scenery or taking a nap. There's not much else worth doing. Certainly, paying attention to the story is an exercise in futility, but you're welcome to try...
6
The first ‘Night at the Museum’ was a fiasco, so the thought of a sequel was pretty horrendous. But here it is, and it’s better than predicted, though hardly fault-free: the ‘Toy Story’-esque plot could be written on the femur of dormouse and some scenes still lean towards inanity. But, in the main, this is a funnier and more coherent slice of kids’ entertainment. The first instalment saw Ben Stiller’s museum nightwatchman grapple with an assemblage of natural history exhibits that mysteriously sprang to life. Despite his new career as a flash entrepreneur, Larry (Stiller) has never forgotten his band of eclectic pals. So when he hears that New York’s Museum of Natural History has shipped its dated exhibits to the Smithsonian Institute’s underground storage facility, he feels compelled to do something about it.
He sneaks his way into the Institute and enlists Amy Adams’s Amelia Earhart to help him hatch a rescue plan. But he hasn’t figured on Hank Azaria’s lisping Pharaoh… Stiller is still vaguely likeable in the lead but the rest of the original cast (Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan and Ricky Gervais) remain unconvincing. Thank heavens, then, for newcomers Adams, Azaria and Bill Hader. Adams nails her period part with old-fashioned gusto and Hader is uproarious as a camp General Custer. But it’s Azaria’s immature Pharaoh who remains most memorable; his pantomime scenes are reminiscent of vintage Python. Figure in some quality production values, and you have a follow-up in far finer fettle.