Posted: 11/28/2004

National Treasure

(2004)

by Hank Yuloff

Mr. Cage tries his hand at the adventure film that’s part Indiana Jones, part Da Vinci Code.

Having just read The DiVinci Code, watching National Treasure seemed oddly familiar. In both, there is a vast treasure being hidden by an ancient secret society that has come down to the last person who knows the secret only to be double crossed by a trusted ally. I think I will save this review for when The DVC becomes a movie and change a few of the facts.

National Treasure is about a fortune of mythic proportions that was added to over the course of centuries by the Egyptians, the Romans, and evidently several other warring peoples. During the Crusades it fell under the control of a group of knights who felt that this much wealth under the control of one person corrupts too much so they do what all people faced with unimaginable riches would do… THEY HIDE IT. Eventually they smuggle it to the New World during the mid-1700’s and hide it in …(shhhhh… Can’t tell you.). This group, which evolved into the Free Masons, becomes an organization determined to hide the treasure from the British. But through a series of unfortunate events, the location is lost when the last keeper of the secret dies before he can tell someone in the US government what has been done. On his death bed, he entrusts a manservant by the name of Gates and … fast forward to current times… Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage) is now the 6th generation in his family to hunt for the treasure.

Like his grandfather, and father, no one seems to believe there is a treasure until Gates finds Ian Holm, a rich man of some ill repute, to bankroll the treasure hunt. The Founding Fathers have hidden clues in many places, including printed on the back of US currency, and on the back of the Declaration of Independence. When they find what they consider to be the final clue, Holm (Sean Bean who was Boromir in Lord of the Rings and the bad guy in Patriot Games) turns out to be using Gates and plans to take the wealth all for himself. This includes a plan to steal the Declaration of Independence in order to see the map on the back. Unless, Cage (Valley Girl, Guarding Tess, 8mm) thinks, he can save it first, himself. The tenseness begins.

Gates is joined willingly on the adventure by his best friend Riley Poole (Justin Bartha from Gigli) and UNwillingly by National Archives curator Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger from Troy). Chasing all of them is the FBI who add the third leg of the mystery triangle.

This is a fun romp of a movie, but I was left quite disappointed that director Jon Turreltaub (The Kid, Instinct, Cool Runnings) used so many clichés that a story that was already seeming familiar to a popular book, was tied to dozens of other movies’ plot twists. You will see the Hero-Hanging-off-the-back-of-the-runaway-truck-while-being-shot-at-only-to-be-grabbed-safely- into-another-vehicle. There was also the Sliding-off-the-dangerous-precipice-only-to-be-saved- by-the-love-interest-who-should-be-falling-off-the-same-dangerous-place. And there is the ever popular, oft seen on Alias: The-use-of-video-equipment-to-play-a-tape-on-a-loop-so-people- watching-the-closed-circuit-feed-think-they-are-still-watching-a-live-shot. And it might just be me, but haven’t I seen the Father/Son relationship between Cage and Jon Voight (Angelina Jolie’s dad—Thanks, Jon) in the Indiana Jones movies between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery? Someone please save me.

National Treasure won’t be a national treasure but it is worth renting at home for a cool family movie night.

Hank Yuloff got taken to National Treasure by his own ‘treasure’ because she loves Nic Cage and everything he’s ever been in. Yes, everything.

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