Suspend Your Disbelief and Enjoy

Rating: 8/10 (26 November 2004)

I went to this movie with fairly low expectations--I just didn't think the previews looked that great. And I was pleasantly surprised. The "puzzles" are not completely obvious, the pace is good, and the ending pays off nicely.
I got impatient once, at a car chase (but I admit to a very low tolerance for car chase scenes).
While the dialogue is "clean," it's "clean" in the same way an "R" movie is clean when it's overdubbed to air on network TV--they "swear" but they say "Holy Lord" or things of that nature, so I thought that made the dialogue seem awkward at times.
If you don't know anything about "mysterious" Freemasons, enjoy the mysterious references to the mysterious order. If you do know a bit, try to forget that you know it's basically just one of those last-bastion boy's clubs in the 21st century. That's the only part I found a bit hard to swallow, the dead-earnest seriousness of Nick Cage as he describes how a bunch of Shriners hid a fortune in gold under their mini-motorbike seats or whatever. Hey, Nicholas Cage sure owes a lot to them there Freemasons--didn't the Masons get Peggy Sue back into the future for him in "Peggy Sue Got Married"?
Other than that, it is a very fun movie; don't expect any uniquely amazing cinema and you will be surprised at how much you enjoy it!