film: National Treasure

National Treasure 2/5

Nicolas Cage is on a life-long quest to find hidden treasure, foretold to his grandfather’s grandfather, or something like that. His grandfather mentioned it to him, but his own father has ridiculed the claim, after spending twenty years of his own life looking for it. His family has gained notoriety as being conspiracy theorists, with the theory that the founding fathers hid a massive ancient treasure somewhere from the French.



This is just another hokey, Indiana Jones-ish Hollywood product, unfortunately. Were you expecting anything else?

Cage soon meets up a key bureaucrat in the US National Archives who just so happens to be a fabulous young, blonde (Diane Kruger, Troy, who is miscast. This reminds me of Denise Richards in the role of Dr. Christmas Jones from the Bond film The World Is Not Enough. There’s also a young sidekick who plays the role of tech wizard, able to tap into video surveillance lines at will, and fool the guards into thinking they are watching , real time when they are really watching taped playback, etc. We’ve seen it all before.

Sean Bean, once again, plays the main bad guy. Has this talented actor ever played anything else? I’m getting tired of him playing the same role over and over again – the team player who goes bad. Witness similar roles in The Lord of the Rings, in the Bond film Goldeneye, and in Patriot Games.

The film falls apart due to the enormous number of times that you will hear yourself say “How convenient.” Time and time again, we are asked to believe that the good guys won’t get caught, since the bad guys have lost their trail. Wrong.



The only redeeming quality about this lightweight fare is that it may spark an interest in history among some, due to its many historical references.

Would I see it again? Not willingly.