Pandering Junk Fare

Rating: 5/10 (22 May 2009)

Its pretty sad when a sequel's main objective is to pander and market itself into junk fare. The original National Treasure while not a masterpiece either, had a little bit more going for it in it's story. Here, in this money-vehicle, we have some top-rate actors including Helen Mirren and Ed Harris signing on to what is more or less marketing by-the-numbers tripe. Aside from a bit of the old Nickolas Cage best in Honeymoon In Vegas and his smug one-liner zinging, this movie is in-bred for the masses of people who want to be spoon-fed implausible junk packaged to seem historical and thus validated. Are we supposed to believe savvy educated folks cant figure out that their cell phones have been bugged? And just the pandering in the dialog bent on being provocative is awful. And why do we always need sidekick comic relief. Commonplace and unimaginative, the Book of Secrets seems written by a 3rd grader. Thumbs down.