National Treasure: Book of Secrets
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(This post was updated on )
 Join Nicolas Cage on a heart-pounding adventure that will have you on the edge of your seat in a race to find the Lost City of Gold. Grounded in history, imbued with myth and mystery, Disney’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets takes you on a globe-trotting quest full of adrenaline-pumping twists and turns – all leading to the final clue in a mysterious and highly guarded book containing centuries of secrets. But there’s only one way to find it – Ben Gates must kidnap the President. Packed with fast-paced action and cracking humour, National Treasure: Book Of Secrets is a movie your entire family will want to rediscover again and again. Even more preposterous than the first film, this bloated adventure romp keeps us entertained with the sheer spectacle of the thing, rather than anything actually interesting. Treasure-hunter Ben Gates (Cage) is horrified when his all-American family name is sullied by allegations that his ancestor planned the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Evidence provided from a mystery man (Harris), leads him to the conclusion that if he solves a series of puzzles, he can find the lost city of gold hidden by native Americans and therefore clear his family name. He's joined in this quest by his bickering ex (Kruger), his goofy sidekick (Bartha), his befuddled father (Voight) and his bickering mother (Mirren). And besides the villains, they're being followed by a tenacious FBI agent (Keitel). Carful readers will have spotted the mammoth leap in logic right at the centre of the plot, but never mind. The story is packed with similar improbabilities as the characters progress from clue to clue towards the predictably outrageous climax and requisite comical codas. In other words, this is filmmaking by numbers, including the now-required addition of extra characters, random action sequences and spurious plot threads if the original was a mammoth hit (call this the Pirates of the Caribbean factor). Still, even with this lack of invention and general gonzo silliness, the film is strangely engaging. Credit mainly goes to the cast members, who throw themselves into the action while always remembering which part in the puzzle they play (mystery man, goofy sidekick, befuddled father and so on). It also helps that Cage is clearly loving every minute of it, and Mirren actually squeezes in a bit of proper thesping whenever she gets the chance. Along the way, director Turteltaub uses his big budget to give the film a frantic pace and epic feel, with busy crowd scenes, nutty car chases and globe-hopping antics in Paris, London and Washington DC. American landmarks litter the screen, while the complicated trail of clues requires our heroes to outwit the Buckingham Palace guard, White House security and the Secret Service. Child's play! Which is exactly what this increasingly nonsensical movie is. And the award for the most predictable film of the year goes to...To tell you the truth, I loved the first National Treasure. I was actually dreading seeing the original as much as I was dreading seeing this sequel. The first one I would probably give a solid 4.5 rating. This one wasn't nearly as good and just way too over the top. They tried so hard to throw too much comedy into the film and so many of the jokes just fell flat on their ass. Right as the film starts, they played this Disney animated short movie about Goofy getting a big screen TV. It was just a mockery on our society and how we are obsessed with everything big. I actually liked that whole 4 minute segment better than I enjoyed National Treasure: Book Of Secrets. You know you are in for predictability and cheesiness when Jerry Bruckheimer's lightening street imagery comes flashing on screen; though he has produced some sillies like The Rock and Con-Air, which both also starred Nicolas Cage, or should I say Nicolas Coppola. I almost didn't get a chance to see this film because the screening happening to be the same night as the WJFK-FM Christmas party and I couldn't miss that. Luckily, there were midnight screenings, which would explain why I am up at 2:50am writing my review for the film. Besides Nicolas Cage being the headliner of the film, the flick does have some other pretty big names involved; such as Ed Harris, Helen Mirren, Harvey Keitel (my boy Mr. White and Mr. Wolfe) and Jon Voight. The film also stars Diane Kruger (Troy) and Justin Bartha (Failure To Launch). They were also both in the original National Treasure as the same characters. The plot line to the film couldn't be simpler. It takes place after the first film, in which Benjamin Gates (Cage) found a massive treasure. Now, he is pretty much famous and his assistant, Riley (Bartha), is trying to live off of that fame as well. One day, while Cage is lecturing a class, a man named Mitch Wilkinson (Harris) stands up in the middle of it says that Gates's great grandfather, Thomas Gates, was actually a conspirator in the murder of Abe Lincoln. Benjamin Gates is flabbergasted by these remarks, but there is evidence because Mitch has a piece of John Wilkes Booth's diary with Thomas Gates's name in it. Mitch is going to the press with this because he wants the Gates name to be diminished. We later learn why. Obviously, Benjamin Gates will not have this and will stop at nothing, and I mean nothing, to help clear his great grandfather's name. What better to do that, then to go on another treasure hunt. Gates and his ex-girlfriend Abigail, along with his assistant Riley and Gates's father (played by Voight) go on a quest looking through clues to find this "City of Gold." This apparently will help prove that his great grandfather was not involved in the murder of Abe Lincoln. They start by using the page torn from Booth's diary. Under infrared lights they are able to read a cipher which leads them to clues. Some of these clues include the resolute twin desks, in which one is located in London and the other in the Oval Office of the White House. Gates will clearly stop at nothing to help clear his grandfather's name, even if that means kidnapping the President. That scene was a little over the top by the way. Meanwhile, they get Gates's mom in the mix because she teaches at the University of Maryland and is only one of a few people who can help translate a scroll they find in both of the resolute twin desks. Gates's father (Voight) and mother (Mirren) haven't spoken in 32 years. What better to bring them back together than a good treasure hunt, right? Overall, if I heard one more motivational speech from Nicolas Cage with the clichéd music behind him, I was going to shoot myself. Now listen, I can sit here and hate on the films flaws all I want, but as my buddy pointed out, it is entertaining and pretty much just mindless fun. That doesn't take away from the fact that it has a million flaws. I could just start listing them; horrible script, terrible acting on certain people's parts, terribly predictable and cheesy at times. I really hated the character of Riley, played by Justin Bartha. This character was obviously put in the film for comic relief. I was talking with my boy Drab after the film and we agreed that he only had like 1-2 good lines the entire film. There is one scene where he has to leap off of a moving rock to save his life and he says something along the lines of, "I wish a girl could have seen me do that." That was pretty funny. Speaking of the moving rock scene; it was absolutely amazing. The four main characters are all on this BIG FLAT PIECE OF STONE that is balanced at the middle point. If you walk around it, it can become off balance and eventually fall over. The characters have to eventually get off of this flat rock and watching them maneuver themselves was definitely intense. It is kind of hard to explain in writing, but it is amazing to watch. They did a great job filming that. It did not look fake at all. If you can set aside the movie's countless flaws and just go to watch a stupid mindless movie, then you are good to go with this film. I give it a solid 3.5 because if you are into this kind of film, check out the matinee. You won't be disappointed. If not, wait for the rental. The movie is not as good as the first one though. So if you are hoping for that, you will be let down. Cage is definitely getting older and in his old age he is becoming more clichéd. I wonder if he knows how terrible he sounds when he is doing the motivational speeches with that cheesy music behind him.  Nicolas Cage ... Ben Gates Justin Bartha ... Riley Poole Diane Kruger ... Abigail Chase Jon Voight ... Patrick Gates Helen Mirren ... Prof. Emily Appleton Ed Harris ... Mitch Wilkinson Harvey Keitel ... Agent Sadusky Bruce Greenwood ... The President Ty Burrell ... Connor Michael Maize ... Daniel Timothy V. Murphy ... Seth Alicia Coppola ... FBI Agent Spellman Albert Hall ... Dr. Nichols Armando Riesco ... FBI Agent Hendricks Joel Gretsch ... Thomas Gates Download Torrent 
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