Indiana Jones for the modern kid and family

Rating: 7/10 (1 August 2005)

"National Treasure" is actually quite a good movie. It's Indiana Jones for the modern family with kids - minus the epic and the totally blow you away male lead. "National Treasure" is about a guy named Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage) who has spent his entire life looking for the greatest treasure ever known, the treasure of the Knight's Templar. Of course, everyone calls him and his family crazy for believing that it's real, but they go right on searching. A clue leads Ben and his friend Riley to believe that there is a map to the treasure on the back of the Declaration of Independence so of course, they decide to steal it. Naturally there are the bad guys who want the treasure for themselves; resulting in a few nice chase scenes and several ingenious clues that end with a scene that screams a soon to be Disneyland ride.
I was totally surprised when I found out that Nicholas Cage was going to be in a kids movie. I mean, its Nicholas Cage! But he actually does quite well. He has nothing on Harrison Ford in "Indiana Jones" but he doesn't really try to be like him. Well, at least he doesn't try to hard. The bad guy is Sean Bean from "Lord of the Rings", who has a distinct Aussie accent but is pretty low-key. Of course you have the girl (Diane Kruger) who actually does quite well in an okay role. My personal favorite character is Justin Bartha, a new comer, who plays Riley Poole. He gets the punchlines that are designed to bring comic relief and he delivers them with a perfect dose of sarcasm.
The most promising thing about this movie is the fact that Jerry Bruckheimer ("Pirates of the Caribbean") produced the movie which gives it a pretty good life span. Also, Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio (writers for "Pirates of the Caribbean") are connected to the script which can almost ensure that there is good dialogue.
Go ahead and see this movie if you really aren't looking for something that is super deep or is saturated in love. It's a pretty good flick.