A fetish for combining archaeology, action, and history is served.

Rating: 9/10 (29 November 2004)

National Treasure was great. I rated this so highly because it touched on several of my own personal movie fetishes: archaeology, action, history. My thoughts were turned to a childlike admiration for our founding fathers like I hadn't felt since watching "Johnny Tremain" in grade school. The "tomb raiding" qualities were far better than in the "Tomb Raider" movies, which hinge the survival of all humanity on ancient artifacts (though they didn't seem very effective at their task in past, why has humanity lasted this long beyond the invention of such terrible devices?)
To criticize NT, the movie is not going to win an Oscar in any category. and Bruckheiemer's addiction to Nicholas Cage made the main character (Benjamin Franklin Gates) seem like a reincarnation of the guy who saved San Francisco in the ROCK! In all, go see this movie if you like it's themes, please don't look for substance and suspend your disbelief when the good guys and bad guys easily navigate miles of historic Philadelphia at a pace that would put the significant sites on either end of the same block (or would qualify them for the Olympics.)