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'Night at the Museum' trilogy wraps with 'Secret'

In "Night at the Museum: Secrets of the Tomb," Robin Williams' last studio movie and the last in this series, the gang goes to London.

From left, Mizuo Peck, Robin Williams, Ben Stiller, Rami Malek and Patrick Gallagher. (AP Photo/20th Century Fox, Kerry Brown)
From left, Mizuo Peck, Robin Williams, Ben Stiller, Rami Malek and Patrick Gallagher. (AP Photo/20th Century Fox, Kerry Brown)Read moreAP

THE MOST POPULAR Google search of 2014 was "Robin Williams," spiking on the day of his death.

Now his last studio movie has arrived - "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb" - and it ends with Williams (as Teddy Roosevelt) saying he's ready to recede into memory, waving goodbye with a smile.

The moment is inevitably sad, given what we know about Williams' state of mind at the time - his depression, his relapse, a devastating medical diagnosis.

What makes his exit poignant is what we bring to it, though, and this is experienced despite what transpires in "Secret of the Tomb," the last installment in a trilogy that shows signs of extreme fatigue.

Ben Stiller returns as Larry Daley, a museum security guard who's learned to manage the exhibit that magically come alive at night, causing comical havoc.

In this threequel, Daley is looking for the cause of decay in the Egyptian relic that makes the magic possible. His investigation takes him (along with a returning Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan) to a British museum, where a pharaoh (spray-tanned Ben Kingsley, currently a Hebrew in "Exodus: Gods and Kings") helps the relic regain its power.

Obstacles to this project: an intrusive Sir Lancelot (Dan Stevens), spoofing the single-minded gallantry of a Round Table knight, a VERY watered down version of characters we know from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Will children, this series' target audience, really care that "Secret of the Tomb" is a third-rate version of a 30-year-old movie?

No, they come to see the monkey pee on people, a joke that is repeated here several times.

"Secret of the Tomb," by the way, also features the final performance of Mickey Rooney, who makes a return cameo along with Dick Van Dyke.

Online: ph.ly/Movies