Great Adventure movie

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2008)

As with the first film by John Turteltaub the Gates family headed by Ben Gates played by the hairpiece clad Nicolas cage pursue the families tradition of code cracking of secret societies set up by the founding fathers of the American Constitution. By cracking these codes once again as with the first film the great historical and mythological lost treasures from around the world are hidden by the first American presidents somewhere amongst its national and historical monuments. During the pursuit of these treasures the FBI's special secret society of Freemasonry squad monitor Ben Cages activities. Ben Cage gets involved in a sequence of highly improbable and implausible events along with the vivacious blond Abigail Chase , played by Diane Kruger, who again compromises her position in Government in exchange for priceless antiques from Ben Cage. Riley Poole plays Ben Cages side kick in this latest pursuit with Mitch Wilkinson, played Ed Harris, assuming the rival treasure hunter with traditional family claims to code cracking but with a lust for the booty. As with the first film the sets are flimsy and solid wooden beams appear to have rotted over a couple of hundred years which would be highly unlikely especially if they were built around national treasures. The notion of secret societies and secret president business is very superficially explored and given a token academic mention. For experienced movie fans you will see a plagiarized scene from Gregory Pecks "A Roman Holiday" where he places his hand in a stone monument.As with that silly film the "Da Vinci Code" Ben Cage stumbles on the crack of each code just in time. One wonders how these treasures were hidden so secretly when it must of taken hundreds to move them. As with the first film and very predictably the treasure is found but it doesn't appear to g;litter that much. Cage and his party end up with healthy commissions. A very entertaining film although not up to the first one. Worth seeing.