 Movie
Reviews
with Evelyn Gough
National Treasure (PG)
Directed by Jon Turteltaub
 Searching for a lost Indiana Jones plot - Sean Bean, Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Stewart Finlay-McLennan, Justin Bartha and Diane Kruger star in National Treasure.
It's been a while since an action-packed, rollicking adventure film involving hidden treasure graced our big screens. That was the fantastic Pirates of the Carribean, starring the to-die-for Johnny Depp. Now from the same producer, the man with the golden touch, Jerry Bruckheimer, comes National Treasure, an edge-of-your-seat, follow-the-clues action romp that will keep you guessing right to the very end.
Ok, I admit Nicolas Cage is no Johnny Depp but he's still a damn fine actor. He plays Benjamin Franklin Gates, a treasure hunter who has spent his whole life searching for a mythical fortune that has been hidden through the ages, the secret of its whereabouts only revealed in riddles, clues, and an invisible map on the back of, wait for it, the Declaration of Independence.
Yep, those Masons were clever chappies. Forget about their silly "secret" handshake, their mission to protect ancient treasure worth over $10 billion was a lot more ingenious.
Will Ben (Nicolas Cage) find the treasure before bad guy Ian Howe (Sean Bean)?
Or will the FBI, led by Harvey Keitel, catch them first? And who is going to get the girl? Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) may be blonde but she's definitely no bimbo (even if Kruger remains as wooden as the horse she starred beside in Troy) and the award for the world's cutest sidekick would have to go to Justin Bartha as smart-ass technical wizard Riley.
National Treasure is fun with a capital F! It's exciting, cleverly written with twists galore and its top-notch cast also includes Jon Voight as Ben's daddy and veteran actor Christopher Plummer. Fans of Dan Brown's bestseller, The DaVinci Code, will also find something strangely familiar about the story (if you substitute loot for Christ). This is a film the whole family, with the exception of real littlies, can enjoy.
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