National Treasure (2004) **** out of *****

Rating: 8/10 (29 January 2009)

Nicholas Cage plays Benjamin Gates, who comes from a long line of treasure hunters, as a young boy he was told by his grandfather (Christopher Plummer) of treasure hidden by the founding fathers, somewhere in the Country, now an older man, he sets out to find it, along with friend Riley (Justin Bartha) and Abigail (Diane Kruger) a curator at the National archives who becomes initially an unwilling participant and his sceptical Father (Jon Voight) but one of his former associates (Sean Bean) is after the treasure for himself and Ben has to stop him, and on top of that the FBI is on his trail led by Harvey Keitel.
Review:- Yes, I Agree 'National Treasure' is silly and absolutely preposterous - but that's what makes it such a great film, one that the entire family can enjoy - It is effectively Disney capitalising on 'The Da Vinci Code' and while the script might not stand up to much scrutiny, It's a joy to watch from start to finish and despite being over 2 hours long, you're never bored and looking at your watch, you're totally engrossed in the Film, no matter how many times you see it,
Director & Co-Producer Jon Turteltaub whose more well known for schmaltz (1993's Cool Runnings, 1995's While you were sleeping and 1996's Phenomenon) wisely keeps the schmaltz out for the most part and does a great job cranking up the tension.
The FX and set design are very good,without being OTT - so the $100M Budget was well spent, and was a very well deserved box office hit.
Stop bashing this movie and let your inner child come through.
followed by National Treasure: Book of secrets - which opened much larger and finished with a far higher gross, which is rare in sequels (they tend to open larger and finish smaller) so a second sequel is on the way.
**** out of *****