Night at the Museum 3… and a Farewell Film for Robin Williams

Saturday we went to see the Austin media screening of Night at the Museum 3, which is releasing on December 19th. Being a huge fan of the first movie in the trilogy, and owning the other two in our personal movie collection, we were not going to miss it.

You can’t top a cast like Robin Williams, Dick Van Dyke, Ben Stiller (now a favorite of mine after Walter Mitty), Ben Kingsley, the amazingly awkward museum manager Ricky Gervais, and the hilarious antics of Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan (who should always dress like a Roman Centurion in my opinion). Also: Patrick Gallagher, who made Attila the Hun a lovable character. As a bonus, they had a sneak appearance by one of my long time favorites, Hugh Jackman.

In the story-line, the golden tablet which brings all of the museum artifacts to life each night begins to decay and die. The night watchman (played by Stiller) hatches a plan to take the tablet to the British Museum in London to unlock the secret of the tablet and save the ‘lives’ of his friends. Rami Malek does a great job again as Ahkmenrah and he is reunited with his family in the British Museum. It was fun seeing an entirely new museum full of artifacts spring to life and journey with so many lovable and familiar characters in their quest. Definitely worth going to see this one.

On a side note, the movie had a huge emotional factor for me… and I suspect so many others because there wasn’t a dry eye in the house as the movie concluded with some poignant lines from Robin Williams. It was hard knowing this was his final movie and you could feel a sense of love in the audience as they clapped and cheered to see his name in dedication as the credits began to roll. If only you could turn back time!

My teenage kids always enjoy Octavius and Jedediah the best. I got a big kick out of them using a ‘Roman-built’ contraption to leave comments on Facebook in this flick. LOL is right!

The only down side to the movie was the fact that the caveman “La” and the British night guard “Tilly” get a little physical. I think that part could have been played down a bit and wasn’t totally necessary, but the film shouldn’t be missed on that account. It is a fleeting scene and the rest of the show was top notch. Tilly was a great character – played by Rebel Wilson – and I loved the way she was totally confident of herself and not deterred by her weight. One of my favorite lines in the movie was hers… “What, have you never seen a gorgeous woman before… who could be a model if she didn’t love pizza so much?!”

I’ve included the link to the the movie’s official website and one of the trailers here for you. Click over and check out their website and see extra trailers, follow them on social media, get downloads, learn about the movie characters, and play games. Makes me want to go out and buy it. Can’t wait to add this one to our movie night trilogy collection so we can do marathon movie night with them.

Marathon movie night this month at our house was Star Wars (the first 3 oldest movies… man, Star Wars movie numbers and order really throw me for a loop). Daddy’s birthday was this past week and he wanted those as his present… so I tried to pretend like I was interested for some of the however many hundred hours they lasted. And did you know that Disney bought out Star Wars? Why am I the last person on the planet to ever hear these things?!

I’ll leave you with a nudge in the direction of your local theater on November 19th to see Night at the Museum 3… and a silly Pinterest-friendly graphic meme of Princess Leia which I created the other night. May the force – and the magic – be with you!