Published: December 28, 2007 03:53 pm         

National Treasure: Book of Secrets a good end-of-the-year movie

Hey, if you’re looking for a good-time movie to see before the year ends, try National Treasure: Book of Secrets — or as everyone calls it, National Treasure 2. It’s imbued with the same spirit of adventure the original National Treasure had but expands to a more international scope.

Rather than focusing on just the lost treasure of the Knights Templar protected by the Masons, it went international this time around.

John Voight, Justin Bartha and Helen Mirren were what made the movie so enjoyable. Voight was great. His character was both funny and endearing and the synergy between him and Mirren, who played his wife, was palpable. Mirren showed once again why she is arguably the best actress in the business. Justin Bartha was a scene stealer and along with Voight had some of the funniest lines in the movie.

When I go to see a movie, I want to be entertained, and National Treasure 2 delivers.

It may not the best movie I have ever seen, but it was an entertaining escape from reality for two hours and it was, in my opinion, worth more than I paid for the tickets. Just take this film for what it is: a fun, nonviolent, fantasy adventure. No bad words said in the whole movie, no blood to be seen, and only one person dies.

For everyone who sees this film, remember it is a piece of entertainment, not a documentary or history text. Yes, some of the things (the two desks, made from the keel of a ship) are based on fact — some are not (the lake at the top of the presidential monuments in Black Hills of South Dakota).

Real pieces of history such as the twin desk set made from HMS Resolute are mashed together with bits of urban myth and historical trivia to create another fantastic treasure conspiracy. Ben and his friends solve one puzzle after another in their quest for the lost city of Cibola, typically under the time pressure of some crisis threatening life or liberty.

As one critic said, “It was a good popcorn movie wrapped in some real American history, but once the wrapping was removed, it was pure hokum, but isn't that what a movie is supposed to be? An alternative to real life? Wouldn't it be amazing if these treasures really existed and were found? But then I'd have to believe in the Illuminati, the Secrets of the Masons, the Da Vinci Code and Al Gore. If you want to be entertained, go see this movie. If you want to be challenged and think deep, critical thoughts about something, take a philosophy class.”

So if you enjoyed the first movie, you won't be disappointed in the second. It is, in my opinion, a better, more coherent film that the first one with a great cast who work well together. What more could you ask for in an adventure film released in December rather than in the summer.

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Helen Mirren, Harvey Keitel, Bruce Greenwood and Ed Harris

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Rating (**** out of *****)

Synopsis: (Courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures) Walt Disney Pictures’ and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ action-packed National Treasure: Book of Secrets reunites the stars of the blockbuster 2004 film National Treasure (which amassed a worldwide box-office total of $347,451,894)

For this second “National Treasure” adventure, the story expands into a global adventure and introduces new cast members Ed Harris and Helen Mirren.

For Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage), history isn’t just a dry record of what’s occurred in a distant and half-forgotten past…for him, history is alive, vital, and occasionally it offers the possibility of finding extraordinary treasures. After his astonishing discovery of the riches of the Templar Knights, Ben has become the world’s most famous treasure hunter…although he prefers the term “treasure protector.” In National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Ben and his father, university professor Patrick Gates (Jon Voight), are shaken by the discovery of one of the long-lost pages from the diary of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth.

The diary was found on Booth’s body when he was killed; however, several pages had been torn from the diary and have never been found…until now. Surprisingly, the information on this page seems to implicate their ancestor Thomas Gates as a co-conspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln.

Ben must work with his now ex-girlfriend, American history archivist Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), and his tech-wiz partner, Riley Poole (Justin Bartha), in a globe-trotting adventure which dangerously criss-crosses the inner sanctums of Washington, D.C., Paris, London and the American heartland. As Ben, Patrick, Abigail and Riley meticulously unravel clues which threaten to turn history, and their lives, completely upside down, their search for historical truth widens into a hunt for perhaps the most mysterious and highly guarded book on earth and, from that, to a famed mythological treasure. Much to Patrick’s consternation, Ben calls upon a secret weapon — his formidable mother and Patrick’s ex-wife, linguistics professor Emily Appleton (Helen Mirren), who hasn’t spoken to Patrick in 32 years. She is soon caught up in the intrigue, but the team is not alone in its pursuit. The man who brought the lost page to Ben’s attention, Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris), has his own family history to uncover. But his ambitions are less noble than merely discovering treasure, putting him on a deadly collision course with the others in a desperate effort to uncover the secrets that lie beneath the halfburnt diary page from America’s past.

MPAA Rating: PG

Running Time” 124 minutes