Terrific popcorn movie with fun performances...

Rating: 7/10 (19 November 2007)

History buff Nicolas Cage, who as a young child was enraptured by his grandfather's story of hidden treasure left behind by a secret sect of our founding fathers, defies generations of failed attempts and hopes to locate the fortune which would be worth about ten billion dollars. Treasure map movies are usually a lot of fun if the clues are tasty enough and the characters engaging, and here (rather surprisingly) both are. Cage doesn't have much of a character to play (we get very little exposition about the man behind the obsession), yet his hangdog determination and dry delivery serves this frantic scenario well. The story isn't worked out fluidly, with holes and gaps of logic (and a point mid-way through involving an FBI helicopter where the plot almost capsizes). Still, Jon Turteltaub's direction is focused and exciting, helped immeasurably by fast editing and a handsome production, all of which pick up the slack--to the point where even the script holes are just about irrelevant. *** from ****