Review of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) by Greg R — 17 Jul 2015

Okay, while these Night at the Museum films are mostly harmless on paper, their constant pandering and insufferable attempts at humor give my ocular muscles lots of exercise as I roll my eyes at least 60 times on average in each of the movies' obligatory 90 minutes.

This third entry, however, has to be the worst of the trio. Why? The jokes aren't any worse. Ben Stiller isn't any more insufferable. No. This one simply has a lot less to look at. While clearly not genius films in the slightest, at least the first two have plenty of set pieces and historical/pop culture characters to throw into the mix. Indeed, those plots have clear, three-act structures that take the core characters on multi-step journeys. In Secret of the Tomb, however, they simply break into a British museum, meet up with three historical wax people, and then quickly proceed to fight in a hasty, climactic battle. This film seems to be over before it has barely begun. Perhaps a blessing in disguise, this rush to the climax still disappoints on a story level -- really bringing home how little actually happens in the movie. Maybe they should've picked a more interesting museum this time.

Side notes:

*Sad seeing Robin Williams in one of his last roles (same for Mickey Rooney).

*Rebel Wilson's museum guard is by far the most annoying character across the entire franchise.

*Glad to see that this appears to be the final installment in the series, but extremely baffled by the ultimate, nonsensical, oddly self-sacrificial choice made by the enchanted wax characters.

*Too bad they couldn't find some way to get Bill Hader's General Custer back this round.

*I did find it interesting how they brought the series full circle in delving a little deeper into the tablet and briefly re-introducing the old janitor trio from the first movie.