Cage's best white-knuckled actioneer since "Con-Air"

Rating: 8/10 (18 March 2005)

The only characters missing from director John Turteltaub's "National Treasure" (*** out of ****) are Scooby Doo and Casper, the Friendly Ghost. Otherwise, this lightweight but entertaining 'live-action' Walt Disney-produced adventure opus about an invisible treasure map on the flip-side of the Declaration of Independence lands somewhere between an Indiana Jones cliff-hanger and an bloodless "A-Team" TV episode. The people who made "National Treasure" have recycled every cliché in the 'quest-for-buried-treasure genre' and borrowed ideas from bestsellers ranging from "Raise The Titanic" to "The Da Vinci Code" to make this harmless hokum about the exploits of the Knights Templar and the Free Masons. After suffering through a string of box office losers, including "Windtalkers," "Matchstick Men," and "Adaptation," actor Nicolas Cage finally has another hit under his belt, thanks largely to "Pirates of the Caribbean" producer Jerry Bruckheimer. "National Treasure" amounts to an anthology of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew stories with grown-up go-getters. "National Treasure" ranks as Cage's best white-knuckled actioneer since "Con-Air." Anybody looking for ideal Thanksgiving Day fare will find few faults with the kid-friendly, PG-rated "National Treasure," unless you think about what you watch while you watch it. Sure, "National Treasure" is hopelessly unrealistic, overwhelmingly unconvincing, and predictable from start to finish, but the chemistry conjured up between cast members, especially Cage and leading lady Diane Kruger as well as Jon Voight as his quarrelsome father, make this tongue-in-cheek tale downright fun to watch. At times, "National Treasure" acts like a 1930's screwball comedy masquerading as a sophisticated heist caper. Best of all, director John Turteltaub of "Instinct" and "Phenomenon" keeps this 100-minute melodrama moving at a whiplash pace with hyperbolic heroics occurring in every other scene. Okay, its credibility strained to the breaking point, "National Treasure" huffs and puffs through its last quarter hour to deliver its inevitable happy ending, with a chance for a sequel.
Nicolas Cage plays good guy Benjamin Franklin Gates, a discredited historian as well as ex-Navy diver, who believes that America's Founding Fathers concealed a cache of loot amassed from other countries that constitutes our version of the Holy Grail. This high-concept premise would have been perfect for a Depression-era romantic comedy back in the 193Os. Anyway, Turteltaub and writers Jim Kouf of "Rush Hour" & "Operation Dumbo Drop" and Cormac & Marianne Wibberley of "I Spy," "The 6th Day," and "Bad Boys 2" lay out all the necessary exposition that audiences need to know in the first 15 minutes. Exposition is the information that the characters already know, but they have to discuss openly among themselves, so that audiences will understand what's happening. Once they've established their improbable premise, Turteltaub and company never look back. "National Treasure" barrels along like an old-fashioned Republic serial with its heroes and adversaries lunging intrepidly through one flaming hoop after another. As it turns out, our stalwart hero's crusade to uncover the hoard behind the Declaration of Independence has been something of an obsession to the Gates Clan. In the beginning, an adolescent Benjamin learns about the fabulous fortune from his grandfather (Christopher Plummer of "Dracula 2000") while his father Patrick (Jon Voight of "Ali") stands by and scoffs at the fable. Patrick Gates belittles the family quest as a pointless hunt that turns up nothing more than a trail of clues. Initially, the story takes Cage to the Arctic. Fellow treasure hunter Ian Howe (Sean Bean of "GoldenEye") and he discover an ancient ornate meerschaum pipe in a frozen-over, 19th century wooden sailing vessel. At this point, Howe double-crosses Gates and leaves our protagonist to perish in the icy, inhospitable wasteland. Naturally, our hero and his wise-cracking computer-whiz kid sidekick Riley Poole (Justin Bartha of "Gigli") escape death just by the hair of their chins. When our heroes learn that the Declaration of Independence contains a treasure map, Gates realizes that Howe, an unscrupulously wealthy Brit, will inevitably steal the document. (The anti-British sentiment in "National Treasure" may be the film's only lapse in political correctness.) Meanwhile, Riley and he alert the FBI and Washington conservator Dr. Abigail Chase (sexy Diane Kruger of "Troy"), but neither believe them anymore than anybody believed the old man when he cried 'wolf!' At this point, Gates decides to purloin the Declaration to protect it from Howe. The message here clearly is that the ends sometimes justify the means.
"National Treasure" ought to have been called "National Treasures." The adrenaline-laced action transpires at the National Archives, the Lincoln Memorial, Philadelphia's Independence Hall, New York's Wall Street Trinity Church, and the Old North Church in Boston. No sooner does our hero swipe the Declaration than he contends with not only the greedy Howe and his gun-toting minions, but also the National Archives conservator who refuses to let the document out of her sight. Gates, Chase, and Riley manage to stay one breathless step ahead of Howe's henchmen and the FBI headed up by Sadusky (Harvey Keitel of "Reservoir Dogs") until the last half of the movie when Howe gains the upper hand. Harvey Keitel appears to be channeling his Winston Wolfe character from "Pulp Fiction," with make-up designed to recall Johnny Depp from "Pirates of the Caribbean." Overall, Turteltaub confines violence to the absolute minimum, dispenses almost entirely with profanity, and shows nothing of an overtly sexual nature, typically the bread-and-butter of this type of pulse-pounding potboiler.
"National Treasure" doesn't hold up well to close scrutiny, but the characters are so charismatic and the storytelling so snappy that this popcorn thriller will have you cheering from the edge of your seat even though you know there's a happy ending in sight.