A Small Treasure of a Film
National Treasure
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Sean Bean
Director: John Turtletaub
Movie Help Web Popcorn Kernels:
National Treasure is a pretty good action flick disguised as a (modified) history lesson. Cage stars as Benjamin Franklin Gates, a historian who has been searching for a fabulous treasure ever since a young lad, when his grandfather told him the tale.
Apparently the entire family had been chasing this chimera over the generations, which skipped his father (played by Jon Voight), who keeps trying to get him to give up the hunt. May as well try to write on water. After the introductory prologue, we join Ben as he uncovers a ship way up in the arctic, with the help of his geek friend Riley (Bartha) and funded by a wealthy treasure hunter (Bean). While they don't find the big treasure (did you really think they would 10 minutes into this thing?), they do find another clue to its location. Something happens to sever the relationship between Ben and his rich friend, and the hunt is on to see who can grab the big golden ring first.
We follow Ben as he tries to piece together clues and travel from location to location. I'm not giving anything away (it's in the trailer) by mentioning that he needs the actual Declaration of Independence. He brings his story to Doctor Abigail Chase (Kruger), who at first doesn't believe him (who would?) but eventually stumbles into his break-in and provides the de rigor female sidekick role required in all these films. And if you can sense a developing romance between the two, pat yourself on the back! Yes, the movie follows traditional Hollywood cliche lines here.
But otherwise there are some nice new touches. The plot moves along briskly, taking no detours, and our hero is just as brave and athletic as you'd expect a young academic to be (he does not shoot a gun, and I particularly enjoyed one scene when he evades one bad guy and sees another coming up and says in exasperation "No!", something any normal person would do, before taking off again).
His geek friend, while a bit whiny and annoying, isn't over the top and is moderately amusing. Kruger as the woman historian does what she can with the role, and Bean is always solid and dependable. All in all a very good entry in the treasure-hunter action genre, and definitely worth a look-see to spend some moderately enjoyable few hours.
