A Simple Old Fashioned Adventure

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2006)

A very silly film which, for all it's many faults, is a refreshing antidote to the overrated (and underwritten) 'Da Vinci Code'. It covers much the same territory  Templar/Masonic conspiracies, bizarre and convoluted ciphers concealed within buildings and artworks, hidden treasures, yada-yada-yada  but does so sure in the knowledge that it's a flashy, shiny easily disposable piece of toss.
All of the key elements of the Templar Treasure Myth (TTM) are in evidence, from the mysterious cargo of the lost SS Charlotte, the coded messages sent between the fifty five Masons who wrote the US Declaration of Independence, and even oblique references to the Nova Scotia 'Money Pit' beneath which the treasure was said to have been hidden (though for reasons of dramatic unity this is moved to Philadelphia). The film is nonsense from start to finish, but is fun  unlike Dan Brown's dreary by-the-numbers 'thriller'.