So many things wrong here!

Rating: 3/10 (29 June 2008)

Where to start? Nicolas Cage is not an action hero. He is ugly, he is a bad actor and he doesn't have the physique for the part - he never had. I don't t even think he has proper personal hygiene. He is especially unbelievable as a brainiac and he simply comes off as a wimp. However, he is extremely convincing as an insensitive "ugly American" who abuses the hospitality of every country he visits. The storyline could have been more interesting than even "The Da Vinci Code" ... if it made the slightest bit of sense and if the director had not simplified it to its barest, more unsatisfying elements. All it boils down to in the end is a very uninvolving video game, which is the rule of most action pics these days. The hero wants to prove his ancestor is innocent of having conspired against Lincoln's life. That is his primary motivation. Yet, it is never shown how he actually achieves this. The business about the twin desks is full of holes and Helen Mirren's false decoding - under duress - of the second wooden plank just doesn't make sense and is never satisfactorily resolved. The most interested viewers are left dangling left and right and in more dire danger of losing their mind than any of the protagonists tumbling down an underground river. The City of Gold is disappointing and simply unattractive. It actually feels like recycled footage from the first film. And the music score represents the umpteenth rehash of the theme from "The Madwoman of Chaillot" (penned by Michael J. Lewis, 1968). Oh! And the main character pronounces the word "repartee" as if it was written "repartay", which is an infallible proof of ignorance and lack of culture, even in an American. Poor Helen Mirren must have cringed at that one...