Yet another 2.5 star thriller

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2004)

Spoilers included
National Treasure is no different than hundreds of movies that have come out of Hollywood in the last few years. Big star gets thrown into a situation and has to find a way out with the help of a goofy sidekick, an aging actor in a supporting role, and a hot girl who works in a job a girl who looks like that would never have. All the while avoiding the bad guy, played, as always, by Sean Bean. And, like so many of those movies, NT has it's entertaining moments, but it the end, it falls just short of being a good movie.
Nicolas Cage (Big Star) plays a man who has spent his life, or at least most of it, searching for a lost treasure. Where this treasure came from and why he is looking for it is so pointless and silly that it doesn't serve any purpose other than to kick the plot into motion. Early in the film, Cage is exploring the ruins of an ancient ship that has been frozen in the Arctic. His expedition includes Justin Bartha (Goofy Sidekick), who is best known as the retard in Gigli, Sean Bean (Sean Bean), and a couple of other guys who will only be killed later on, so we don't even need to know their names.
Once they find the clue they were looking for on the ship that will lead them to their next clue....dramatic music here....Sean Bean wants the treasure all to himself. So, he pulls a gun on Big Star and leaves him and Goofy Sidekick to die in the ship. I know you can't believe it either, but it turns out that Sean Bean is the bad guy. What a stunning and innovative casting choice.
Where the movie started to grab my attention is after this point. The next clue, they have discovered, is located on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Cage knows that Sean Bean is going to try and steal it, so he tries to stop that from happening. Wait a minute, I forgot to mention that Cage escapes the frozen ship and actually doesn't die 10 minutes into the movie.
Anway, Cage goes to the national archives and tries to explain to Diane Kruger (Hot Girl) that the Declartion of Independence may be in danger. When she won't listen, Cage decides he will have to steal it himself. What I liked about the film is that the action and all the clues take place in Washington D.C., in Philadelphia, and in New York City. I was expecting an Indiana Jones style film about digging through the ruins, but most of National Treasure takes place in broad daylight, in well populated areas.
The scene where Cage is trying to steal the Declaration is the movies' best.
It's a well crafted and well acted scene, only made better by the fact that Bean and his crew show up at the same time. Amazing that they both try to steal it during a party for hundreds of people, but it's an entertaining enough scene to overlook that. This scene kind of reminded me of Woody Allen's "Take the Money and Run" in which two different sets of people show up to rob a bank at the same time, and the people have to vote on who they'd rather be held up by.
I digress. Anyway, the heist doesn't go well, oddly enough, and Cage is forced to turn to his father, Jon Voight (Aging Actor) for help. He doesn't want to help since he is the family outcast, because "he has a job, a house, and health insurance." Again, a nice moment.
What follows up to and including the climax of the movie are a series of chases, dramatic music, and gun pointing. There are only so many times that Big Star and Hot Girl can be holding on by just one finger while the no name actors around them plummet to their deaths. There is just way too much of that in National Treasure. There's too much disbelief that we are asked to suspend for the sake of convenience.
Some may find this movie to be educational, with teaching about the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin, and the Liberty Bell. The problem is, pretty much every historical tidbit mentioned in this movie is stuff that anybody with half a brain learned in middle school. Anything we didn't already know, was made up for the movie.
If you're over the age of 3 months, you know how the movie ends, so I don't need to tell you. I also went through my whole review without mentioning Harvey Keitel, so that will tell you what little purpose his character serves in the film. So, the bottom line is, save your money, and just turn your TV on tonight, and you'll find exactly the same movie on 10 different channels.