Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian

Ben Stiller leads an all-star cast as Larry Daley, a former Night watchman At the Museum of Natural History, where the exhibits come to life after dark. But now Larry's nocturnal friends are being retired to the archives of The Smithsonian Institution, luring him back for a hilarious, all-out battle against museum misfits who plan to take over the Smithsonian...and the world! Based on characters created by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon. (Tricia Spears)

Special features include commentary by Director Shawn Levy; commentary by Writers Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon; a Scavenger Hunt Mode, which allows you to go on a scavenger hunt while watching the movie; the following featurettes: The Curators Of Comedy: Behind-The-Scenes Of Night At The Museum 2 (HD 27:52), Historical Confessions: Famous Last Words (HD 06:29), Directing 201: A Day In The Life Of Director/Producer Shawn Levy (HD 19:19), Cavemen Conversations: Survival Of The Wittiest (HD 04:18), Museum Magic: Entering The World Of The Photograph (HD 05:41), Secret Doors And Scientists: Behind-The-Scenes Of The American Museum Of Natural History (HD 15:58), Phinding Pharaoh (HD 04:50), and three Show Me The Monkey featurettes—Monkey Business (HD 05:04), Primate Prima Donnas (HD 06:27), and The Secret Life Of A Monkey Movie Star: Life Off Camera (HD 06:27). Also included is The Jonas Brothers In Cherub Bootcamp (HD 03:53), nine deleted/extended scenes with optional commentary by Levy, a Gangster Levy pretend film war (HD 01:57), a gag reel (HD 08:10), "Fox Movie Channel Presents: Making A Scene" (SD 09:36), "Fox Movie Channel Presents: World Premiere" (SD 05:29), trailers, up-front ads, a DVD, and a digital copy.

The 2.35:1 1080p AVC picture is dramatically superior to the DVD included with the combo package. Colors are nicely saturated and vivid, with a rich and warm hue rendering. The colors, at times, pop and are visually engaging, especially apparent with the diversity of the ornate art and historical treasures and the varied costumed characters. Contrast is generally excellent, with deep, solid blacks that reveal detail, and shadow depth that is nicely delineated. As a result, the picture exhibits effective dimensionality. Resolution is nicely rendered, with sharp images and details that are revealed in close-ups. The look is cinematic, with slightly fine film grain apparent, but not distracting. Scenes with contrived backgrounds are unimpressive and reveal poor production values. The black-and-white scene inside the V-Day photograph with Emelia Erhart is a great effect, and the gray scale exhibits good contrast and graduations. The black-and-white character insertions also look great. This is a wonderfully colorful and visually intricate picture that is fun to view. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack is generally well produced and recorded, with a terrific dynamic orchestral music score that presents a wide and deep soundstage and an aggressive surround presence. The scenes shift from a monaural focus to fully engaged surround envelopment. Deep bass is solid and extends, at times, to below 25 Hz in the .1 LFE channel, creating an effective low-frequency foundation. Aggressive and directional surround engagement intensifies as the chase and battle scenes progress, especially the ending scenes, with airplanes and rocket sounds panned around the soundfield and the unleashing of the underworld army. The sound is dynamic, with powerful SPL energy. Otherwise, the sound is often frontal-soundstage contained. When fully engaged, the sound is holosonic® and engaging and delivers a fun sonic experience. (Gary Reber)