Stars: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, Hank Azaria, Christopher Guest, Alain Chabat, Ricky Gervais, Steve Coogan, Bill Hader, Robin Williams
Running time: 107 mins
Rating: ★★★

NIGHT At The Museum was the box office hit in which museum exhibits, from Attila the Hun to miniature cowboys, came to life once the public had gone home.

Only security guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) was privy to this night-time world of fun and adventure.

But times are changing in this entertaining, if formulaic sequel.

Drawn back to the Museum of Natural History, he finds that his old friends are being packed up and shipped off to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC –to be put out of sight in permanent storage.

He misses his old chums, including Robin Williams’ horse-riding Teddy Roosevelt and Owen Wilson’s pintsized cowboy, Jedediah, and follows them to the Smithsonian for what turns into a replay of the first Night At The Museum but on a grander scale.

His old museum friends face annihilation by Egyptian ruler Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria, the voice guy from The Simpsons, here with a Boris Karloff lisping English accent) and his cohorts, Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest, the creator of Spinal Tap), Napoleon (Alain Chabat) and Al Capone (Jon Bernthal, in black and white while all around are in colour).

Larry has help from unexpected quarters, including an entire brainbox of Albert Einsteins and a larger-than-life statue of Abe Lincoln (Azaria voices that too) that comes to life.

Then there’s a flying visit from pilot Amelia Earhart, played by Amy Adams in clipped tones and a pair of tight trousers. Ricky Gervais returns for a scene as the museum director which is a waste, especially as what he does do isn’t particularly funny.