National Treasure [2004]

It starts out with Nicolas Cage (Con Air) out in the North where he is looking for the treaure from hundreds of years before. He gets the clue but one of his teams members (Sean Bean) turns his back on him as Cage refuses to steal one compulsary thing they need, The Declaration of Indepedence. After an exciting beginning Cage and a fellow accompient try to stop Bean from stealing the Declaration of Independence.

To stop Bean from stealing it, they must steal it themselves. They do so but the police identify Cage and are after him. Diane Kruger is forced to tag along otherwise she would tell the FBI where Cage is and the Declaration of Independence. They're going from place to place looking up the clues and breaking them down to reach the treasure although Bean hasn't stopped either. Will Cage and his fellow people reach the treasure before Bean or the FBI catch Cage.

A briliant paced film which i would recommend buying.


Dumbed down Da Vinci Code   May 2, 2005
L. Davidson (Belfast, N.Ireland)
19 out of 20 found this review helpful

"National Treasure" is probably the first of a string of films set to cash in on the "Da Vinci Code", "Angels and Demons", "Rule of Four" phenomenon that has set the world of paperback fiction alight over the past year or so. Like most of these novels , "National Treasure" popularises some hitherto arcane secret society knowledge and combines this with riddle solving ,treasure hunts and fast paced action sequences.To an extent it works fairly well; the film is entertaining and keeps your attention right to the end ,with the plot a sort of combination of the "Da Vinci Code" and "Rule of Four". However it could have been a lot better ;the cast of the movie were Hollywood "B" team and the choice of incidental music was inappropriate to say the least.While Nic Cage and Sean Bean were entirely convincing in their action set pieces,I thought both of them , especially Bean and his goons, were miscast as quick-thinking, puzzle solving historical scholars. They looked more like heavy-drinking brickies who would collectively struggle at solving the Daily Star crossword. No doubt a really stunning movie will translate the success and style of this paperback genre onto the big screen in the near future; something with the quality of say one of the "Bourne" films perhaps. "National Treasure" falls short of this standard, although it is an appealing enough movie and better than many recent thrillers.


Disengage your brain to enjoy "The Founding Fathers Code"   May 4, 2005
Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota)
15 out of 18 found this review helpful

Here is your first clue: "National Treasure" is to "(fill in the blank)" as "Jezebel" is to "Gone With the Wind."

While the millions of book readers wondering who was going to play Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) and Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) in Ron Howard's next movie did not approach the passionate debate over who should play Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara, there is no doubt that "National Treasure" is an attempt to capitalize on the great interest in a best-selling novel about unraveling arcane clues left by famous people in the same way that "Jezebel" got to the silver screen with a movie about the ante-bellum South before "GWTW." The question is whether "National Treasure" is just an appetizer to whet our appetite for next year's version of Dan Brown's novel or if this will turn our stomach to the whole idea of films where only the hero can decipher the clues and solve the mystery.

The key is not to take this film seriously because it does not. After all, there is not a secret society that is dodging the steps of Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage), but a villain, Ian Howe (Sean Bean) who wants the treasure because it is worth billions of dollars. Yes, there is a pretty blonde with a foreign accent (Diane Kruger) to provide informative, help and a love interest for the hero, but there is also a nerd (Justin Bartha) for comic relief and hard science. Ultimately, "National Treasure" is more like an adventure computer game, where you around a collect strange objects and visit interesting places while solving puzzles that eventually get you to whatever you are looking for, which suggests that a younger audience that does not often get away from their computer screens long enough to read an actual novel will enjoy this film more.

Gates is the latest in a line of family members named for the Founding Fathers and committed to the search for a fabled ancient treasure originally discovered under King Solomon's Temple moved from Jerusalem by the Knights Templar and brought by Free Masons to the New World where it was secreted away by those same Founding Fathers. Having discovered the meaning of the first clue given to him by his grandfather (Christopher Plummer), Ben Gates figures that the next is found on the back of the Declaration of Independence, written in invisible ink. Gates knows this, Howe knows this, and the race is on to beg, borrow or steal the most important piece of parchment in the United States and figure out the next clue in the puzzle.

On the plus side the film can be seen, as one kid observes in the alternative ending, as an attempt to make the viewers learn something about American history, which is a laudable if secondary goal in and of itself. But basically this is a caper film, which means you do not have to try and figure out the clues because the screenplay gives Gates just enough time to figure it out while the rest of us try to follow along. Otherwise, what this 2004 film from director Jon Turteltaub ("Phenomenon," "Instinct") says to us is that the Founding Fathers must not have cared as much about establishing a new nation if they sat on all that money instead of using it to buy weapons to gain independence or pay the soldiers in the Continental Army who were freezing to death at Valley Forge. Of course, then there would be no treasure to hunt in this movie.

They always said that if Ben Franklin had written the Declaration of Independence rather than Thomas Jefferson he would have put a joke in it, so perhaps it is not surprising that he is the merry prankster behind a lot of the code breaking and puzzle solving in this film. Fortunately the codes and puzzles on the DVD special features that get you to bonus sections and the trivia track for the film are a lot easier to solve. Why the treasure is lost makes no sense since the colonists did win the American Revolution and the signers of the Declaration were not slaughtered like the Knights Templar. So the desperate situation told reached in the story Gates is told by his grandfather would not have been reached. Of course, that would take the wind out of this movie and we just cannot have that. Instead we move along so that we get to the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" big finale. "National Treasure" is not anywhere near that good of a ride, but it is solid escapist fare with touches of American history.

At least this film will not inspire anyone to wonder if the story is true and we will be spared dozens of books arguing out the fact and fiction of the tale. Then again, the Declaration of Independence DOES have a back...


Treasure hunting at its best   January 19, 2006
Blue hunter (England)
15 out of 20 found this review helpful

If you like all action or all adventure films i would recommend national treasure,because it has a perfect mix of them both.

Nicolas cage is the star of the movie and brings his own unique style of acting to this film,a good mix of slight comedy in some parts but mainly serious throughout the movie.
The rest of the cast certainly isn't bad Jon voight,Sean bean,Harvey keitel and the gorgeous Diane kruger.

All do their bit to make this in my opinion a must see movie.