Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

Part of me is glad that they have finally put this franchise to rest. Some of this has to do with the fact that it has become a bit stale, there's only so much you can do when a museum's exhibit's have the ability to come to life. The other and more major thing is that it wouldn't be the same without Robin Williams (this is the final onscreen performance he did before his death).

After a disastrous dinner planned at the Natural History Museum of New York, where all the exhibits have gone haywire, night curator Larry (Ben Stiller) discovers that the magic that keeps the exhibits alive is fading fast and journeys to the British Museum to find a solution. He is joined by Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams), Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek) and the others to help. Once there he is confronted by Sir Lancelot (Dan Stevens), who believes the magic tablet to be the Holy Grail.

A lot of the jokes in this movie are subpar, if not complete repeats of jokes from the previous movies. Robin Williams, the most seasoned comedian of the group provides the most jokes, even referencing his Oscar winning role in Good Will Hunting ("Once more unto the breach, dear friends"). There are some historical jokes as well, which may float above younger audiences heads. A great example of this is a reference to the Egyptians owning many Jewish slaves, to which Larry replies that they weren't too happy about it.

Apart from Robin Williams, there are no real standout performances. Ben Stiller does his thing, but it just felt like he was recycling his role in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. He was humourous as the caveman Laa, but this character wasn't exemplary. Rebel Wilson has a small role as the night guard of the British Museum, but I found her over the top English accent unbearable. Skyler Gisondo plays Nick, Larry's teenage son, and I felt like the character was just annoying and unnecessary.

The movie's cameo's are probably more rewarding than the lead roles. Dick Van Dyke makes a small appearance as Cecil, the former night guard, along with Mickey Rooney, who died not long after this film. Hugh Jackman appears as himself playing King Arthur along with Alice Eve as Guinevere. Ben Kingsley plays Ahkmenrah's father, but doesn't stick around too long.

Verdict: Slightly funny, but if you've seen the first one of these films, then you'll know why this one seems redundant. It's very sad and poignant that Robin Williams' final line is "Farewell, good friend".

Philomena

For a very straightforward film, Philomena is an exceptionally hard film to write about. It covers a period of history that I found confronting and hard to forgive.


Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) has just lost his job as a government adviser and is desperately looking for something to pass the days. He comes across Philomena Lee (Judi Dench), an elderly Irish woman who has just revealed to her daughter that she gave birth to a son fifty years earlier and has been trying to track him down since. Philomena gave birth in an Irish convent, where she worked as an indentured servant, before be forced to give her son up for adoption. Martin decides to help her while writing a human interest story on her to get out of his rut.

For me, I found this story very confronting. I didn't know that young women were abandoned by their families for the shame of having a child out of wedlock. The Catholic Church's stance that what these young women had done is a sin, is a ridiculous concept and results in having people like Philomena Lee keep a secret like this for the majority of their lives.

So its no surprise that an actress like Judi Dench is able to pull off such an emotionally difficult character like Philomena. She is able to put a lot of emphasis on the extremely emotional scenes, as well as be fantastically funny when humour is needed. She was also able to pull off an Irish accent with extreme ease and is entirely convincing.

For someone who has built an entire career off comedy, Steve Coogan slipped into this role with relative ease. At first, I was expecting him to make joke after joke, but without his comedy partner Rob Brydon by his side, that would seem like a betrayal. But his performance as Martin Sixsmith was spot-on and I really felt the anger that he was feeling throughout the film.

Verdict: A extremely well-made film about a time in history that is heartbreaking. Excellent performances from both Dench and Coogan.