National Treasure double feature review

Disney's been going incredibly downhill with their live-action films lately. Who here actually remembers that Lindsay Lohan remake of The Parent Trap? How about The Game Plan? College Road Trip? Hell, there were even some people who didn't even know the remake of Race to Witch Mountain was out yet! However, there are two or three live-action Disney franchises that stand out in my mind even to this day (one of which I already reviewed), and one of them is National Treasure. Today, I'll be taking a look at both National Treasure films in a double feature review. So, let's begin!

The first National Treasure was released in 2004, under the direction of Jon Turteltaub, who directed a bunch of films you might not know or even care about like 3 Ninjas and Cool Runnings. :P National Treasure was about an extraordinary bundle of treasure that had been fought over for centuries, hidden away through Egyptian times and such until a group of knights known as the Free Masons discovered it. They knew it was too extraordinary for one man, and they hid it from the British, traveling across the sea, hiding it through a series of clues and puzzles. In 1832, Charles Carrol, the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence, attempted to speak with the president about this, but he was unable to. Carrol was dying, so he entrusted the secret with the only person he could reach; Thomas Gates. He gave the first clue to Gates; a little piece of parchment that said "The secret lies within Charlotte".

For over 170 years, the Gates family had been searching for the treasure with no luck. This led people to find the family to be insane, leaving a bad mark on the family name. But then, in the present time (2004), a man named Ben Gates, played by Nicholas Cage, had discovered that the clue was referring to a ship that froze into the arctic circle years ago. He goes up there with his computer genius, Riley Poole, played by Justin Bartha, and Ian Howe, played by Sean Bean. After discovering another clue leading to an invisible map on the back of the DOI, Ian betrays Ben after he nearly refused to steal the DOI in order to run chemical tests on it. Beyond that, they keep finding clue after clue embarking on a fairly well-written adventure with plenty of action and some silly antics.

My only real complaint with the writing in this film is that there are a lot of moments that seem way too coincidental. I can name at least five examples right off the bat.

1.Abigail Chase, played by Diane Kruger, just so happens to be missing that one button....
2........ And Ben just so happens to have that button she's missing!
3.Riley's able to get into the security camera's wires in the subway without any locks or authorization.
4.Ben right away pulls out a book showing how they could get the DOI through the observation room.
5.Ben's dad, played by Jon Voight, just so happens to have a bowl of lemons in his fridge.

And those are just examples; there's plenty more to add to that! But to be honest, after a while, I was able to ignore all that. It's not like every little detail has to be catered to, right? If they added more explanation or development than they already did, it would get boring. Apart from that, I thought the storyline was a pretty interesting premise; some will find it cliche, but in case you haven't noticed, I love cliches as long as they're pulled off correctly. :P

As for the cast, I liked it. Nicholas Cage manages to pull off a charm in this film, despite having his usual mumble moments. He's silly and likable, which is also how I can describe Bartha playing Riley. I don't really have much to say about the rest of the cast; they did okay.

Then there's the action scenes. It's pretty obvious that the film is kind of low-budget, but the action scenes are still kind of cool to watch. They don't leave much of an effect compared to the storyline, but they're still pretty cool to watch. I especially like that car chase in the middle of the city; that part where Abigail is hanging on the swinging open door is pretty creative.

Finally, there's the humor. Riley's a smartass, Ben and Abigail make probably the best Lifetime-style couple I've seen in a long time, and that's about all I have to say. The humor's pretty entertaining, though some will find it too silly.

Overall, National Treasure is no treasure, but it was definitely a fun popcorn flick for me. Some would be turned off by its cliches, but it's one of those films that manages to get the cliches right.

And as you can imagine, it was a huge hit. So, for the sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, they decided to add a bigger budget to it, making the sets and action scenes bigger and better than ever before. They also gathered up an even better cast, with members like Ed Harris, Helen Mirren, and of course, the rest of the cast from the first film. So, you must ask yourself.......

WHAT WENT WRONG?!?!

Well, unfortunately, the biggest problem with Book of Secrets is that it's like a crapped-up version of the first National Treasure; it's another one of those rehash sequels; just throw it on top of Karate Kid 3 and Rush Hour 3, please!

The film follows Ben Gates once again as a man named Mitch Wilkinson, played by Ed Harris, states that his father was the true murderer of Abraham Lincoln due to a page he found in the famous John Wilkes Booth diary. He and his father believe that this, once again, scars the family name, but Ben soon finds out that it's really a puzzle that leads to another big treasure; the City of Gold. So, he, Riley, Chase, and the others set out on yet another big adventure to find this long lost treasure, breaking into Buckingham Palace, sneaking into the President's office, and even kidnapping the president himself so that they can get ahold of a book that only the President himself ever had access to.

I don't even know where to begin with this crap! Who cares if his great, great grandfather murdered Lincoln? And how can a puzzle like that be mistaken for evidence of that anyway? And how could Ben have kidnapped the president so easily?

The cast has good selections, but it has poor direction and the performances come off as kind of dull.

It's funny, because the first film supported more on storyline and less on action scenes, but Book of Secrets is like the exact opposite. The car chase they have is much more intense, and the booby traps are bigger, better, and honestly more creative. My personal favorite is the one where they're on that giant balance board; it's complete evidence of what I'm talking about.

While most of the humor in the film goes along with the rest of the crappy writing in the film, some of the humor is not only funny, but actually funnier than the humor in the first film. My favorite, favorite, FAVORITE scene in the entire film is when Ben and Abagail are fighting in Buckingham Palace; Nicholas Cage at his absolute funniest! Better than Raising Arizona!

So, with that said, what's my verdict? Well, I'm right on the edge about it because it gives me some of what I wanted and some of what I didn't want. The action scenes are awesome and some of the humor is great, but apart from that, Book of Secrets is pretty underwhelming. So, my thumb is just barely down on this one.

National Treasure: 4.2/5
Book of Secrets: 2.8/5

As for National Treasure 3, they left a cliffhanger in Book of Secrets, so I'd definitely want NT3, but I get the feeling that it'll follow the "third the turd" rule. As long as it's not another rehash, I'll be fine with it, but either way, I have a bad feeling about it.

Thanks for reading, and good freakin night!