* Spoilers ahead.

Snow days mean movie watching, and since temps in the negative double digits closed down all the schools in our district recently, we put on all the warm things and headed to the theater to see Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. 

Turns out it was legit good.

Surprising (because threequel), yet quite witty and irreverently charming nonetheless, with an all-star cast including Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Dan Stevens, Ricky Gervais, Rebel Wilson, Hugh Jackman, Dick van Dyke, and Mickey Rooney among others.

My two loved it, and at six- and eight-years-old, they consider themselves expert at identifying picks and pans. So I thought I’d ask them what they thought.

These are their words. The laughter is collective.

So what was the movie about?

Winter: First there was a little boy who fell in the sand, and his dad and some men were trying to get him out, and then he saw an awesome thing.

William: It was a gold tablet. But then later in the movie, the tablet is dying, so everyone – the man, his kid, Teddy Roosevelt, Dexter, Pocahontas – goes to London to try and save it.

What was the best part?

William: La made me laugh because he eats packing peanuts, and he kept calling Larry “da-da” and Larry said ‘I’m not your da-da.’

Winter: Dada say stay.

[They crack up for the next 10 minutes.]

William: Lancelot was hilarious, and I liked the part with his nose, and then when he tried to dance at the end.

Winter: I liked the knight’s nose too, because it had one big hole and one small hole, and it looked so funny!

William: I really liked La with all the hair scrunchies too.

Winter: Yeah, and then he went like this to the lady guard (cups her own face to demonstrate and makes goo-goo eyes.)

William: Oh! And my other favorite part was when Dexter peed on the guys to put out the fire.

Winter: Mine too! Mine too! The mini-guys got peed on TWO TIMES.

Were there any sad or scary parts?

William: Nope, no scary parts. But when all the people in the museum almost died because the tablet was dying, I was sad. When Dexter was dying it gave me the meeps.

Winter: But then he woke up again and didn’t die, so that was happy.

William: It was epic.

Would you tell your friends to go see the movie?

Winter: Yeah! Kids will laugh a lot like me.

William: I’d definitely recommend this movie for Family Movie Night. There’s family humor and it’s funny and happy and sad – everything that makes a good movie.

And there you have it.

Photo credits: Twentieth Century Fox