On the couch

DVD Review

Night at the museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Directed by: Shawn Levy
Starring: Ben Stiller, Amy
Adams, Hank Azaria, Owen Wilson

Take a good look around the room. Are there any kids in the room? If the answer is no or you are not, yourself, a kid, then really you have no reason to be watching Battle of the Smithsonian.
The follow-up to the surprisingly successful Night at the Museum, Battle of the Smithsonian follows the adventures of Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), once a night watchman in a museum where all the exhibits come to life thanks to a magical Egyptian tablet, who has, since the events of the first film, hung up his flashlight and become a monumentally successful, but not entirely happy, inventor.
Larry gets dragged back into his life of talking waxworks, abusive monkeys and T-Rexs when he discovers that the magic museum he worked for is shipping all its old exhibits off to the the Smithsonian, sans tablet. No tablet, no life. See the problem?
So off Larry goes to the biggest repository of miscellaneous stuff in continental America to save his pals.
Like I said, It’s a kids’ movie. But, for what it is, it’s a good kids movie. Robin Williams, Hank Azaria, Owen Wilson and Amy Adams are amongst a huge cast of proven comic actors that make with the chuckles. And a fine, if unspectacular, job they do too.
Setting itself amongst the historical tourist attractions of Washington and the limitless junk in the Smithsonian also gives the FX departments plenty of opportunity to show off and some of the set pieces, including a chase through a number of famous paintings and a fight involving Abe Lincoln’s statue and a giant squid, are particularly entertaining.
A nice way to waste an afternoon.

Public Enemies
Directed by: Michael Mann
Starring: Johnny Depp,
Marion Cotillard, Christian Bale

Thrills! Spills! Excitement! Action! Adventure!
If you’re looking for any of those things then Public Enemies may leave you severely disappointed.
Based on the life and final days of Depression-era American folk hero, killer and bank robber, John Dillinger and the first ever “War on Crime” that he provoked, Public Enemies is an unfortunate example of a decent movie being far less than the sum of its not inconsiderable parts.
With a drool-inspiring cast headed up by Johnny Depp as Dillinger and Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent tasked with leading the manhunt against him and his gang; director Michael Mann takes his distinctive camera style back to the 1930s and tells his bitter angry tale with considerable mastery and style.
The problem is that, despite the cast, a well-crafted script and Mann’s technical excellence, the resulting film is slow, ponderous and boring as hell.
A kind of Robin Hood figure who was a little wooly when it came to the whole “give back to the poor” part of that particular job’s description, Dillinger became the target of a FBI manhunt after he broke some of his gang out of prison to get back to their business of robbing banks.
Depp plays him unsympathetically but still imbues him with enough humanity to make the character worth watching. Similarly, Christian Bale’s portrayal of Purvis as the ultimate (almost robotic) G-man is less interested in being liked and more in being serious. It’s a brave move by both actors but does little to add fun, sparkle or even a point of interest to the flick.
Which is a pity because the potential for another Heat was tantalisingly close.