Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, Review: Lancelot, Camelot, Huge Ackman and Amen!

In this year’s Hollywood Christmas release, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, 'Santa Claus' is symbolically replaced by a whole team of entertainers, “eleven”, at director Shawn Levy’s last count. The star-cast includes two veterans who are no more—Robin Williams and Mickey Rooney—and inanimate objects and creatures by the dozen, who make-up for Rudolph, the Reindeer. So, don’t blame anyone who expects a huge booty of goodies from this third and final foray in the trilogy, which turns out to a cornucopia of corny capers. As you remove the layers of packaging and unwrap the ‘gifts’, you end up with mixed feelings: this is good, this could have been better, that one is not so bad, how cute, ha ha, etc. Like the dozen eons the film plumbs, the fare is diverse, sometimes disjointed, and, if you don’t let the knee-jerk disappointment cloud your judgement, some good fun and laughter, worth the night-visit to the muse-um!

When the exhibits at New York's Natural History Museum start behaving strangely, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller)—former guard and now the director of night-time operations--must find out the cause. He learns that the Tablet, which magically brings US President of yore Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), his companion and romantic interest Sacagawea (a Shoshone interpreter best known for being the only woman on the Lewis and Clark expedition into the American West, played by Mizuo Peck), Jedediah (Owen Wilson), Octavius (Steve Coogan), Laa (Daley’s lookalike, Stiller in a double-role), and the other exhibits to life at night, has started to decay. Unfortunately and unexpectedly, they wreak havoc at a special night he has organised to showcase the phenomenon of their living magic to select invitees, including the trustees, and this almost costs his boss (Ricky Gervais) his job.

He learns from a former security guard (Dick van Dyke) that there is a dark secret to the corrosion, and only the parents of Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek), who are housed in a London museum, know what it is. Larry, along with his son Nicky (Skyler Gisondo), travels to London's British Museum, but unknown to him, many of his exhibits accompany him as stowaways, emerging only after he reaches the museum. He tricks Tilly, the security guard at the museum (Rebel Wilson) into allowing him free access. Ahkmenrah’s parents (Ben Kingsley, Anjali Jay) are co-operative, but Sir Lancelot of King Arthur’s Camelot (Dan Stevens), who is searching for the Holy Grail, as well as multiple-headed snake monster and the lions (all statues that have come to life in the presence of the Tablet) are bent on playing spoil-sports.

The film’s gigantic canvas is the handiwork of no less than five writers: Story by Mark Friedman, Michael Handelman, David Guion, Screenplay by David Guion, Michael Handelman, Based on characters created by Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, and the characters are too many to even remember. They span real humans, in the company of wax figures to polyurethane figures, stone statues, constellations, animals, lizards and birds, inanimate entities becoming animated beings. Yet, the producers have chosen to limit the film’s length to under 100 minutes. To do justice to such a vast array of ‘personalities’, more footage would have helped. Just as you begin to sense some interesting or funny developments coming, the story moves on. What hurts is the repetitive pattern of many inter-actions and dialogue pieces, at the cost of novelty or pace.

Levy’s direction and narrative humour range from the audacious to the outrageous, but just when you think it is getting too puerile, a father-son bonding/alienation track emerges, and then there is the out-of-the-box romance between Tilly and Laa. As if that was not surprising enough, he brings a whole chunk of self-deprecating parody with the entry of Hugh Jackman as an actor playing King Arthur (alongside Alice Eve as Guinevere) and the Lancelot character landing up at the West End show of the play. When told that it is only drama and that ‘King Arthur’ is really Hugh Jackman, Lancelot ‘decodes’ his name as ‘huge ackman’. Language and accent is key to the film, what with Neanderthalean, ancient Egyptian, Roman, Red Indian, Atilla the Hun-ian, wild Western, British, Capuchin monkeyse, et al. There is joke about Ben Stiller’s character having Jewish-Irish parentage. This is slice of life. Ben’s parents are the once-very-famous comedy team of Stiller and Meara. His father, Jerry Stiller, appears in some of his Ben’s films. Anne Meara has written plays and still acts. Ben’s wife is Jewish. And what’s more, Shawn Levy is an Irish-Jewish name, isn’t it?

Keeping a straight face in such an incredulous scenario sure must have been tough, so due credit to Ben Stiller, who has to do it twice over. And pardon me for thinking that Laa was modelled after Tom Cruise! Not noticeable for its subtlety, Laa’s antics provide Stiller with an opportunity to do something that he is not often seen doing. Here’s a Stiller quote: “My favorite museum is the Smithsonian, which I got to visit as a kid. Seeing the Starship Enterprise (from Star Trek) was a mind-blower; I’ll never forget that!” Robin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt, (the wax statue of) the 26th President of the United, is somewhat forced, and his fans might feel that this role should not be among his abiding memories. It was only after I read the credit titles that I learnt about Robin giving voice to Garuda, so too late to comment on his double effort.

Of the two Wilsons, Rebel has a better-written role, although the Brit accent is over-done.  Owen is ok. Coogan is wasted, Gisondo has potential, Gallagher squints and goes over the top, Gervais seems to have been told to nuance himself as a panicky homosexual, Malek looks around and walks about, Andrea Martin as Candy Crush addicted archivist plays has a stock character, Mizuo Peck could have been the one statue that got left out inanimate, but for a truly funny one-liner from Robin, something like, “I don’t know why I am attracted to her. She is polyurethane and I am wax!” that makes you take a second look. Ben Kingsley as Merenkahre, the pharaoh and the Tablet's creator looks the part, but does not have very much to do. Anjali jay as his wife has even less to do. Dan Stevens is a good piece of casting. Good to see old-timers Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney in cameos. 

Now, as Shawn Levy, Canadian, and director of films like Big Fat Liar, Cheaper by the Dozen, Just Married, Pink Panther, Real Steel and this, the final fixture of the three Museum night-outings would say, “This Is Where I Leave You”. Amen!

Trailer: http://www.nightatthemuseummovie.com/videos/NATM3_TrailerB_720p.mp4

Rating: **1/2

The Other Shawn Levy

Read what author and critic Shawn Levy has to say about sharing his name with the actor-director-producer.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/mar/14/artsfeatures1