Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb

A successful franchise is the ability to create clones from identical DNA, adding a petri dish of different cells to freshen things up. And so night falls upon the museum once more and the exhibits come to life. Again.

This time there's a prob. The Egyptian tablet, responsible for the magic, is mysteriously corroding which causes breakdowns and dangerous behaviour for Larry, the night guard (Ben Stiller), to cope with.

That's Plot #1: how to control Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), the T-Rex skeleton, the neanderthals, Attila, the Huns and the whole shebang. Plot #2 is a trip to London where Lancelot (Dan Stevens) and a new bunch of bronze/wax models do the resurrection shuffle, including the lions in Trafalgar Square.

Although the premise is the same, which is what the kids like, feeling safe with old friends, the CGI special effects have gone beyond the imagination of sci-fi writers and Tomorrow's World nerd buffs. They are truly magic.

The script is more fun this time, especially when it introduces Lancelot to the West End musical Camelot where Hugh Jackman and Alice Eve are performing to a packed audience and Lancelot leaps onto the stage, insisting that his theatrical double is called Huge Ackman and Guinevere belongs to him.

The miniature Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan don't have much to do. Neither does Williams in what must be his final role. Stiller doubles as a neanderthal which gives him a chance to do a comic turn although basically he demonstrates something often missed by the Ben knockers - he's so nice.

And this is a nice movie.