Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014) Review: Ranking Robin Williams’ Farewell
Is Secret of the Tomb (2014) a good movie? It is a messy but ultimately heartfelt 2014 family comedy. While it is easily the weakest film in the franchise, it serves as a beautiful, tear-jerking farewell to Robin Williams, landing it in the lower-middle of our ultimate movie ranking and review.
The Premise: What is Secret of the Tomb About?
Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) discovers that the magical tablet bringing the museum exhibits to life is malfunctioning and turning green. To find answers, Larry travels to the British Museum in London, reuniting with familiar figures like Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) and meeting new historical characters. They must race against time to understand the tablet's secrets before the magic dies forever.
What Works: Robin's Heartfelt Goodbye
The good news is that they ditched the forced love stories of the previous films, and Robin Williams is actually in this one quite a bit more than the second movie. As always, he is warm, funny, and effortlessly charming. While the main story is weak, they do a solid job wrapping the series up. The final 15 minutes are genuinely good, and Robin Williams' farewell to the franchise is incredibly heartfelt and will likely leave you choked up.
What Doesn't Work: Rambling 2014 Improv
The entire conflict boils down to simply taking the tablet outside into the moonlight once in a while. Instead of doing that, the film drags us to London for a string of half-baked storylines, including a pointless flashback and a Neanderthal romance. It is an aggressively "2014 movie," letting improvised scenes ramble on forever without actually being funny or moving the plot forward. The absolute peak of comedy in this film is a monkey peeing on a miniature volcano.
The Robin Williams Ranking & Performance Score
Robin Williams Performance Score:RETIRED Out of respect for Robin's battle with undiagnosed Lewy Body Dementia, we have officially retired our performance score rating.
Good Mourning Robin Ranking: In our ranking, it is the weakest of the trilogy, but it lands better than House of D.
FAQ: Secret of the Tomb (2014) Movie
What is the plot of Secret of the Tomb? Larry and the museum exhibits travel to the British Museum in London to fix the magical tablet before it loses its power forever.
Is Secret of the Tomb the last Robin Williams movie? It was one of the last films he starred in before his death, and his final scene as Teddy Roosevelt serves as a beautiful, tear-jerking farewell to the audience.
How does Secret of the Tomb rank? In our review, we note that while the plot is messy and filled with rambling improv, the emotional ending makes it a worthwhile watch for fans of the franchise.
