NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS
Director: Jon Turtletaub Stars: Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Ed Harris, Helen Mirren, Harvey Keitel
Reviewed by GREG KING
Exciting stories about hidden treasures and daring treasure hunters date back to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novels; while films like the classic The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre have also tapped into this rich genre. Cinematically, Indiana Jones may be the spiritual godfather of more recent treasure seeking archaeologists and historians who embark on breathless adventures and a race against time and powerful forces to decipher a series of esoteric clues planted centuries ago by master craftsmen and ancient civilizations that hold the key to unlock a riddle that has ramifications for our time.
Dan Brown perfected this template in his phenomenally popular The Da Vinci Code; but this formula has also driven the thrillers of Steve Berry and young Australian author Matthew Reilly. Cinematically, the formula worked for uber producer Jerry Bruckheimer with his film National Treasure, which first introduced us to treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates, played by Nicolas Cage. The original film was such a huge box office hit that a sequel was inevitable.
In this sequel Gates is forced to try and uncover proof that his great-great-grandfather was not involved in the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. The chase of centuries-old clues leads Gates to Paris and London, from the White House to Mount Rushmore. It also sees him on the trail of the President’s Book of Secrets, which supposedly explains many of America’s key conspiracies, as well as the location of the fabled lost city of gold. All the while he is being pursued by rival treasure hunter Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris), who also has a personal stake in the outcome. Assisting Gates in the pursuit of the truth are his usual crew, including his father (Jon Voight), his girl friend Abigail (Diane Kruger) and assistant Riley Poole (Justin Bartha, who brings a bit of comic relief to proceedings). Along for the ride this time is Gates’ mother (Helen Mirren), a specialist in linguistics.
Bruckheimer’s brainless big budget blockbusters are usually critic proof, but they certainly deliver what the audience wants in terms of action, spectacle and adventure – and National Treasure 2 is no exception. Although its spurious take on history can hardly be taken seriously, National Treasure: Book Of Secrets is rollicking good fun from start to finish.
And what other film offers the chance to see three Oscar winning actors let their hair down and have a bit of fun?
***1/2
Reviewed by PETER MALONE
When you’re on a good thing…, make a sequel. It’s much of the same as the very successful National Treasure. The principal cast are back plus Ed Harris as a villain and Helen Mirren as Nic Cage’s mother.
This is contemporary matinee escapism: adventures decoding documents, uncovering coded secrets and then, whoosh, into Indiana Jones territory and action.
National Treasure came out in the wake of The Da Vinci Code, taking another historical (and hugely questionable) hypothesis and comically going where it led. And one wonders why millions of readers believed the absurd and exaggerated theories of Dan Brown and would not dream of taking the hypotheses of the National Treasure films seriously. Clearly the latter are preposterous, entertainingly so. But, The Da Vinci Code!
After the family found the Templar’s treasure in the crypt of the church in New York’s Wall Street (because they were able to decode the message on the back of the Declaration of Independence which they were able to steal), they now need to clear the family name when an upright ancestor is implicated in John Wilkes’ Booths assassination of President Lincoln. Clues and codes? Clues on the side of the statue of liberty in Paris. Codes to be found in the desk of the queen in Buckingham Palace and the desk of the president in the Oval Office. This necessitates visits to England, a car chase through London, infiltrating the White House. A great opportunity was lost when the intruders into Buckingham Palace did not see Helen Mirren as the queen in a cameo!
The climax is at Mount Rushmore in the Spielberg vein.
Nic Cage, Jon Voight, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Ed Harris and Helen Mirren all find themselves in all kinds of dangers and adventures. Nonsense, but enthusiastic derring-do nonsense.