 [Larger view] | National Treasure (Widescreen Edition)
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Average user rating:  | |
 Not good! | |
| While I am a Nicholas Cage fan this is definitely not one of his finer works. The plot is not only not believable but also not enough to keep you interested in the movie. This was definitely a Indiana Jones wanna be that did not have it. | |
 It's All About the Benjamins Baby | |
| Typically I try to avoid anything that has to do with Jerry Bruckheimer (how does his last name pass spell check?) at all cost considering I'm not a big fan of watching things blow up surrounded by a lousy plot. Black Hawk Down is one of the few movies I've seen that he was attached to that didn't suck massively. Seriously, how can you possibly mess up a movie about Pearl Harbor? Well by poorly ripping off Titanic I guess. So I broke down this weekend and picked up National Treasure and hoped Bruckheimer actually devised a plot for the movie.
National Treasure follows a family in search of a long lost treasure that was supposedly hidden by our founding founders. Nick Cage plays the son who is still searching for it while Jon Voight is the skeptical dad whose life was ruined by unsuccessfully looking. With the son being the treasure hunter (or as Cage's Ben Gates says, "Treasure protectors") and dad being skeptical, parallels are easily drawn with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. They even throw in a hot German chick just for fun. But the German chick in this movie has been nationalized and has access to the Declaration of Independence. That, of course, comes in handy when Gates needs to steal it. Gates need to steal the Declaration of Independence because his former partner, evil English dude, plans to steal it to use it to find the treasure for his own personal collection. Rounding out the cast is Gates' sidekick, Riley (think Short Round from Temple of Doom but older and less Asian), and Harvey Keitel in a rare good guy turn as the FBI agent who is looking for Gates. The plot is surprisingly decent. They is a good balance between historically accuracy and aspects that were made up to go with the storyline. You can really tell that some did their homework to make sure what could be accurate is and what is made up could be plausible. As for the action, Bruckheimer kept the big explosions to only one, which has to be a record low for him. The biggest disappointment I had with the action was, if you remember back to the trailer (which is missing from the DVD release, I hate when that happens), Gates is holding on to the hot German chick and asks her; "Do you trust me?" And she say, "yes" than Gates drops her. Everybody and their mothers were like "Whoa" when they first saw it but when you see it in the context of the film, it is obvious that she really isn't in any danger. As for the extras on the DVD, I mentioned earlier that it lack the theatrical trailer yet it had the Verison commercial that when along with the film for some reason. It also had a nice documentary about present day treasure hunters and another one about the making of the movie. It also had the prerequisite deleted scenes, neither of which were that interesting. It also had an alternate ending, and to honest they went with the better ending in the movie. The cool thing about the extras is they give you clues that will help you unlock some more extra materials. | |
| Not a national treasure, but entertaining and behaved. | |
| This movie has done something that very few others movies have achieved. It has contained all the things that people look for in a movie (comedy, drama, romance, action) and kept it well within the PG range.
That's right!!! No nudity, no sexuality, no swearing, no gore, and no toilet humor. It even had some educational value. I've seen PG cartoons that didn't behave this well. My hats off for making a movie like this. It is soooo nice to have a movie that I'm not afraid to have my 8-year-old watch. This movie is very entertaining and well paced. There is some action but even when it slows down so we can catch our breath it remains entertaining. It isn't the smartest movie out there, but it is smarter than most of the crap that Hollywood wants to spoon-feed us. And nobody ever gets lost watching this film. Also, I like the character of this film. Especially the character of Benjamin Franklin Gates, the movie's protagonist. This is someone who really wants to do well for others. Even when what he does seems wrong on the surface, he is doing it for the right reasons (ie, he lies about his name and steals, of all things, the Declaration of Independence). Again, this is better than the brand of heroes that Hollywood pushes down our throats. I wish Hollywood would take notes on this film. There is a lot here that is good (no, no... excellent) that critics were more than happy to ignore. And America, no, the world loves it. It has grossed over a third of a billion dollars worldwide in ticket sales... that doesn't include DVD sales. If more movies like this would be made then the box office slump Hollywood is concerned about would go away. Give us more, we are demanding it!! |
