Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb Review

When the Tablet of Ahkmenrah, which has been the key to the figures in the museum coming to life, starts to lose its power, Larry Daley, his son and some familiar faces must go to the Museum of Natural History in England on one final adventure to confront Ahkmenrah’s parents, convince them to fix it and save the magic of the museum forever. Gear up for what may well end up being Ben Stiller’s final night at the museum.

There is no denying that the Night at the Museum franchise has always been films made for kids. With ‘dumb-dumb’ jokes and references to viral things at the time of release, the majority of the franchise’s jokes are made with children in mind. However, where Night at the Museum has always shined is in its historical references. These are the jokes that are more geared towards the adults or older kids in the audience that can understand these references. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb does not disappoint in that department. In an attempt to freshen up the franchise, the Night at the Museum team find themselves in the Museum of Natural History in London and the new characters and situations that are presented are infinitely more interesting than when Ben Stiller fell in love with a wax figure in the second film. The film has charm and is likable and though it reuses a lot of jokes from the first film, it is still a fun film to see on Christmas with the family.

Dear God... it's beautiful.

The film, as it always has, stars Ben Stiller. Stiller plays the same character as he has in every film he has been in for the last few years. It is almost impossible to hate Ben Stiller despite his appearances in several horrible films and despite his sloppy performances at times as he is an undeniable talent in Hollywood and has always had a certain likability about him. In addition to playing Larry the night guard, Stiller also plays Laa, the new caveman wax figure made to look like Larry. Although it was nice to see Ben Stiller play a role that is so different from his recent roles, I found Laa annoying all the time. His was the only wax character which was not drawing jokes based on well-thought out historical references but more based on childish slapstick comedy which, when done by a caveman, is really not so funny. The character did, however, have one interesting moment at the end of the film in which he turns around to see the annoying guard. In that moment when he turned around and the background got all flashy for a split second, it gave me chills as it was so reminiscent of the ‘Magnum’ from Ben Stiller’s classic, Zoolander. Other than that split second, Laa was not a good character.

Every other actor in the film does not do anything that deserves much praise. The returning cast does exactly what they have been doing since the first film. The new additions have very varying performances. I’ll go from what I thought was the best of the new actors to the worst. Dan Stevens as Sir Lancelot did well to fit in with the rest and with the film revolving around him as much as Stiller, he easily gives the best performance from all the new actors. Sir Ben Kingsley, on the other hand, brought nothing at all to the film and was just there so they can put his name on the posters. Larry’s son was surprisingly recasted in this film. To be honest, I had completely forgotten how the son in the first two films looked like so throughout the film, I thought that the only reason that particular actor was chosen was because he was the original actor to play the son. He was annoying, a horrible actor and has the most boring face in the film so I thought that there was no way they had recasted and chose this guy out of all the talent in Hollywood.

It's funny...cause she's fat.

Finally, the actor I was most annoyed by was Rebel Wilson as the security guard with the fake British accent. She was so bad that she gets her own paragraph. Rebel Wilson is the annoying female version of Kevin James in Adam Sandler movies. The only joke she has is that she is fat. Now, I have a problem with that. Actors like Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill are actors who are funny in their own right and them being fat is merely circumstantial or at the very least only adds to their comedy. Rebel Wilson, and to an extent, Kevin James, use the fact that they are fat as their only source of comedy. “O, this is funny because the fat girl is kissing him,” and “This is funny because he is carrying a fat girl with ease.” That is her gimmick in this film and every other film she is in. I find that insulting, cheap and outright unfunny. Now, there is no denying that a fat actor like John Goodman always has charm and that this charm does get lost a little if he slims down like Jonah Hill or Josh Peck. However, this does not give anyone the excuse to use these fat jokes to create cheap, lazy ‘humour’ and make fun of a particular physical characteristic of a human being, even if she is laughing at herself. We don’t laugh when an ethnic minority makes a racist joke about his own race on screen. Don’t even get me started on that fake British accent or the forced, unfunny romance. Rebel Wilson was like poison to this film.

Now that the negatives are gone, there is one short positive I would like to mention before the main part. There is a cameo toward the end of the film which may well be my favourite cameo in any film. When the particular actor appeared on screen, I laughed immediately as that was exactly where I would have expected him to be. In an instant, my mind thought about what would be the perfect way to end that scene and what I thought about was exactly how the scene actually ended. I don’t want to give away spoilers but you’ll know it when you see it.

Robin Williams' widow,
Susan Schneider, at the film's
premiere. Her first public
appearance since his passing.

And now for the big one. Despite the negatives and problems that are present in this film, it is a must watch for every fan of film on the planet. On the 11^th of August 2014, the great Robin Williams passed away at his home in California. Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is the last film we will ever see him in. Now, this is not a blog that talks about death so I will not talk about the circumstances of his death, but I must talk about him as an actor. Robin Williams was one of the greatest actors of our generation. With films ranging from comedies to deadly serious and emotional films, he has always completely and perfectly embodied every character he has taken on. From his early years in television with Mork & Mindy to his early films with Popeye and Good Morning, Vietnam to his 90s performances in Mrs Doubtfire, Jumanji and Jack to now playing Teddy Roosevelt in Night at the Museum, Robin Williams was almost always charming and lovable in everything he was in. To me, personally, two of his films stood above the rest despite ‘the rest’ already being amazing. The first is Good Will Hunting. Good Will Hunting is one of the most amazing and underrated films of the 90s. It is perfectly written and brought about two amazing performances from Matt Damon and Robin Williams. The famous “it’s not your fault” scene is, to me, one of the greatest and most well performed scenes of all time. The second, and my personal favourite, performance by Robin Williams is when he played Genie from Aladdin. Aladdin would be nothing without Genie and Genie would be nothing without Robin Williams. The amount of himself that he poured into the character is incredible and his performance was perfect. This was a role that was literally written for Williams. It was the perfect role for him and when I watched it back recently, tears filled my eyes. The Genie encapsulates the Robin Williams we all knew him as and is the performance I choose to remember him by.

"How kind he was to anyone who wanted
to connect with him...He would do anything
as long as it would keep you laughing."
-Ben Stiller

In this Night at the Museum film, Robin Williams isn’t given a huge part. However, the parts he was given is the reason to see this film. When he first appeared on screen, many were already choking up. He had an excellent introduction. I don’t like giving away spoilers but I don’t think this is one. At the end of the film, Robin Williams’ character says his goodbyes to Ben Stiller’s character and it was like him saying goodbye to the world. That scene, although unfortunately short, had me tearing up. It was perfect in every way and he acted exactly like how Robin Williams would act in saying goodbye.

That final scene, is THE reason anyone who claims to be a fan of film must watch this film. Yes, it’s boring. Yes, the film can be disappointing. Yes, the franchise has run its course. But that final scene is worth it. Unfortunately, I cannot give it a strong rating just because of what happened behind the scenes. I must give a fair assessment of the film on its own and it, as a whole, was just an okay family film.

Comedy Movie Rating: 5.5/10

After Credits Movie Rating: 5.5/10

The film is all about saving magic in the world and it perfectly ties to the dedication in the end to Robin Williams. Magic Never Dies.

Genie, you're free.