Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb

The third Night At The Museum movie throws a handful of new characters, a London setting, upgraded effects and a heavily worked father-son theme into the mix that made the first two entries in the Ben Stiller-led franchise major global hits. What comes out is a pretty scattershot family adventure that nevertheless delivers enough emotional warmth and impressive eye candy to justify its place in the holiday season line-up.

The comedy is just as silly and cosy as it was in the earlier films but the effects are more varied and more impressive, as a whole menagerie of characters, animals and even artworks are brought to life.

Worldwide distributor Fox is giving the oddly subtitled Secret Of The Tomb a North American launch on Dec 19, pitting it against the final Hobbit outing and family musical Annie. The competition – and a five-and-a-half year franchise hiatus – might make it hard for it to match the $177m domestic take of 2009’s second film, let alone the $251m of the 2006 original.

Most international markets get the film before Christmas and they will probably produce a bigger tally (as they did for the first film, with $324m outside North America, and the second, with $236m).

Franchise regular Shawn Levy is back directing, but the script comes from the new team of David Guion and Michael Handelman (Dinner For Schmucks). This time out, Stiller’s Larry, his late-teen son (Skyler Gisondo) and the familiar ‘exhibits’ from Larry’s New York museum – among them Teddy (Robin Williams, in his last on-screen appearance), cowboy Jedediah (Owen Wilson) and centurion Octavius (Steve Coogan) – have to go to London’s British Museum to solve a mystery that threatens their existence.

The British Museum attractions that then come to life include a Monty Python-esque Sir Lancelot (the UK’s Dan Stevens, from Downton Abbey) and a fatherly pharaoh (Ben Kingsley). Australia’s Rebel Wilson (from Bridesmaids) plays Larry’s London counterpart and Stiller himself plays an exhibit who appears to be Larry’s Neanderthal doppelganger.

Ricky Gervais, Dick Van Dyke and the late Mickey Rooney briefly reprise their roles from earlier franchise installments and there’s a funny surprise cameo by one other star of non-US origin.

The comedy is just as silly and cosy as it was in the earlier films but the effects are more varied and more impressive, as a whole menagerie of characters, animals and even artworks are brought to life.