National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Plot synopsis:
When a missing page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth surfaces, Bens great-great grandfather is suddenly implicated as a key conspirator in Abraham Lincolns death. Determined to prove his ancestors innocence, Ben follows an international chain of clues that takes him on a chase from Paris to London and ultimately back to America. This journey leads Ben and his crew not only to surprising revelations but to the trail of the worlds most treasured secrets.Five days after the end of the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth and Michael O'Laughlen, both members of the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC), enter a tavern and approach Thomas Gates (Ben Gates' great-great-grandfather), a well-known puzzle solver, to decode a message written in Booth's diary. Thomas recognizes the message and begins to translate it. While he does so, Booth leaves for Ford's Theatre to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Thomas solves the puzzle, a clue to a map to Cibola, the city of gold, and realizes the men are still loyal to the South and have a sinister motive for finding the treasure. A fight breaks out, and Thomas rips several pages from the diary and throws them in the fireplace. Thomas is shot, and the gunman attempts to retrieve the pages, but only obtains a page fragment. As Thomas dies, Thomas tells his distraught son, Charles Gates, "The debt that all men pay..."Over 140 years later, Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) is telling his great-great-grandfather's story at a Civilian Heroes conference. Black market dealer Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris), a Virginia Military Institute graduate, shows one of the 18 missing pages of John Wilkes Booth's diary, with Thomas Gates' name on it, convincing everyone that Thomas was not only a conspirator, but the grand architect of the Lincoln assassination, which tarnishes the Gates family's reputation and Ben is disgraced. Refusing to allow his ancestor's name to be tarnished, Ben sets out to prove the innocence of his great-great-grandfather. Ben discovers a cipher pointing to Édouard Laboulaye hidden on the back of the diary page. He travels to Paris, France, where he finds a clue engraved on the torch of the scale model of the Statue of Liberty on the Île des Cygnes, referring to the two Resolute desks. Ben then heads to England to look at the desk at Buckingham Palace with the help of his friend Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and estranged girlfriend, Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) (His relationship with Abigail having soured due to him constantly predicting what she might want without even bothering to ask her, even if he is often correct in his assumptions). From the Queen's desk, he obtains an ancient wooden plank with ancient symbols carved into it.Meanwhile, Wilkinson breaks into Patrick Gates' (Jon Voight) house and clones Patrick's cell phone in order to track Ben's whereabouts. Wilkinson eventually obtains the wooden plank, but not before Ben manages to photograph the symbols carved into the plank. At Ben's insistence, Patrick reluctantly asks his ex-wife and Ben's mother, Dr. Emily Appleton (Helen Mirren) for help in translating the symbols. She does so, but points out that some of the glyphs are partial, leading Ben to conclude another plank must be hidden in the other Resolute desk located in the Oval Office. Ben and Abigail coax Abigail's new love interest, Connor (Ty Burrell), who works at the White House, into letting them into the office to see the desk. Ben discovers that the second plank is missing, but he does find a stamp bearing the seal of the Book of Secrets. Riley tells Ben that the Book of Secrets contains documents collected by Presidents for Presidents' eyes only, covering such controversial subjects as the eighteen minutes erased from Watergate tapes, Area 51, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.After he and his family set the situation up so that all other hotels where the party might take place are fully booked, Ben crashes the president's birthday party at Mount Vernon, where he meets the president (Bruce Greenwood). After showing him a map of Mt. Vernon drawn by George Washington, Ben convinces the president to follow him into a secret tunnel under the House where he confronts him about the book; the president sympathetically warns Ben that his actions will be interpreted as an attempt to kidnap the president, confirming a conclusion Ben and his companions have already reached; Ben is now wanted for committing a federal offense. Ben convinces the president to reveal the location of the book, which is at the Library of Congress. The President also tells Ben to read page 47 along with the information he needs.
Shooting of the film in LondonIn the book, Ben finds a picture of the missing plank from the desk and an entry by President Coolidge, who found the plank in 1924, had it destroyed, and commissioned Gutzon Borglum to carve Mount Rushmore to erase the map's landmarks in order to protect the treasure. Ben, Riley, Abigail, and Patrick head to Mount Rushmore where they meet Wilkinson, who has kidnapped Ben's mother. He helps them find the entrance of a cave containing the legendary Native American city of gold, Cíbola. Once inside, they encounter several traps, and Ben, Abigail, Riley, and Wilkinson get separated from Ben's parents. Eventually, they find the city of gold behind Mount Rushmore. However, in order to leave the city of gold when it suddenly begins flooding, one person has to stay behind to hold open the stone door to the drainage tunnel beneath the city, an action which would result in certain death. Wilkinson demands to go first by threatening Abigail, so Ben agrees to stay behind. However the pounding of waves causes Wilkinson to be the one to stay behind, where he drowns in the cavern beneath the city.Ben clears his family's name with the discovery and is cleared of all charges when the president tells everyone that Ben did not kidnap him, but actually saved his life when the secret passage they were looking at was accidentally activated. Everyone including Wilkinson is given credit for the discovery of the Lost City of Gold. The president then asks Ben about what he read on page 47 of the Book of Secrets, to which Ben replies, "It's life-altering, sir."The last scene shows Riley walking down the street when he sees his towed car. He jumps in, and discovers a letter from the president. The back says "Tax Free." Riley reverses, and crashes.

Tags: entertaining, historical, murder

Review:
The outraged Ben decides to prove the honor of his ancestor and together with his wife Abigail (Diane Kruger) and his best friend, the writer Riley Poole (Justin Bartha), they head to France, England and Washington to collect clues to lead them to a lost city of gold Cinola and clean the name of Thomas Gates.
But Mitch Wilkinson is following each step of Ben and his friends to take the merit of finding the treasure for himself."National Treasure: Book of Secrets" is an entertaining and full of action adventure that follows the style of Indiana Jones combined with "Da Vinci Code.
It almost felt like the writers could not think of any new, clever clues for Nicolas Cage to solve or more suspense without action scenes.First lets look at the positives.
The cast is excellent, Nicolas Cage in a role he knows very well, Jon Voight as Cage fathers is very convincing, Ed Harris is the bad guy that the only thing he wants is to find the treasure and keep it to himself, Harvey Keitel as an FBI agent wit a brief but convincing performance and Helen Mirren as Nicola's mother with a good and even funny performance.
Coupled by the fact that the Indiana Jones trilogy (at the time) probably will not have another sequel see the light of day, then the onus is on crafting a tale based on controversies, with Indy Jones tendencies, and chances are a new winner will be born.Hence, National Treasure in the year end of 2004, which made a decent dent in the box office, starring Nicolas Cage as an Indy like clone Benjamin Gates, embroiled in a mystery of the Templar's treasure, with sidekick Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) as the tech wizard necessary to assist him, while at the same time romancing Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), who joins his band of treasure seekers against her wishes.
However, like the first installment, the material, clues and riddles are still quite US history heavy, so if you're well versed with certain characters (brought to life early in the movie) or events (thanks to paying attention during history lessons), then yes, Book of Secrets will give you an additional boost in being able to identify with it.
Otherwise, don't fret, as the casual movie goer with popcorn in hand will definitely not feel lost.The narrative and plot still feel a little staged and rigged for convenience (and run time of course), as one event will inevitably lead to the next and to the inevitable ending (like how CSI solves crime within 45 minutes sans ads), but they're still a lot of fun watching how the characters go through the motion in believing that they're onto something really big.
While the first had a lot of puzzles to solve, which kept some of us guessing and playing along as well, this time round the number of riddles have been reduced significantly, and signs of Mission: Impossible creeping in as our band of treasure hunters seek to perform the impossible, pertaining to levels of security guarding their mark.In an excuse to make the sequel, we have Ben Gates and GATESENIOR reuniting to clear the good name of their ancestor, who's recently accused of being a co-conspirator, or even mastermind, behind the assassination of US President Abramham Lincoln.
And of course, help comes in the form of Abigail, who's now estranged from Gates, trusty tech sidekick with the complementary witty lines Riley (and his red Ferarri), and now joined by Ben's mom Emily Appleton, played by Helen Mirren, who's in the movie to contrast her relationship with Patrick to that between Ben and Abigail.However, we're not really interested in whimsical attempts to add depth to characters, are we?
And toward the end, I can't help but to compare it to Jackie Chan's The Myth, which in itself was somewhat of a treasure- hunter movie, involving the elixir of life (We're still stuck with gold here though).And add to that Harvey Keitel's FBI agent Sadusky, the office of the most powerful man in the world, and teases from the Book of Secrets, we've got ourselves a handful being squeezed within 2 hours.
The film cast is pretty good , in fact , it includes includes three Oscar winners : Nicolas Cage, Helen Mirren and Jon Voight ; and two Oscar nominees: Harvey Keitel and Ed Harris .
So much could have been done, but instead the world has another soul blackening B movie that cost more money than I'll ever have in my entire life.National Treasure: Book of Secrets made me want to cry..
Obviously, I was thinking they stepped up the game to the surprise hit, first movie, but, alas, 'National Treasure: Book of Secrets' was a lot worse.
So, here I am, Astonished at how amazing Jerry managed to direct an amazing movie like this one; how Nicholas Cage, Diane Kruger, Bartha, Voight, and Harris, act this one out, into a somehow very terrific movie, funny but tense, and yet, very entertaining, just like the first one.National Treasure: Book of Secrets, talk about how Ben Gates try to prove that his ancestor's (Thomas Gates), is not the mastermind behind Lincoln's assassination.And just like the first one, it's still filled with laughable, serious, and patriotic sense.
The film isn't painful in the sense there is nothing to read into nor is it a disaster in the sense the film fails from scene one and doesn't let up alá Batman & Robin or Thunderbirds but it still grates and grates in its own way.In fact with the National Treasure films, I am quickly developing another natural hatred of a Disney franchise; a hatred that began in the Summer of 2006 when I saw the first Pirates of the Caribbean film and quickly cottoned onto the masses of followers who just seem too brainwashed by the actors, pacing and 'fun' the films offer to even notice how crap it was.
Emily (Mirren) and Patrick's (Voight) bickering runs parallel with Ben and Abigail's falling out and it is the common-denominator in treasure hunting that threatens to bring them all back together again as a happy family.So the adventure sees them propelled through Paris complete with funny looking French policemen who show up on bicycles (yes, proper push bikes) and act in an oblivious manner; it sees them propelled to London during which I actually took offence to Cage's impression of an Englishman as he rolls out the accent and the clichés before outsmarting the British police who are equally inept.
The films wants to think that Abigail kissing the white house official in the Oval Office just as Ben finds what he needs is 'funny' and the characters in general rely too much on technology to see them home; scenes like the button that 'pops the trunk' and the overuse of computers and phones are examples.
Still, if the film can get kids interested in history, whether it's the legend of El Dorado or Lincoln's assassination, then I suppose "National Treasure: Book Of Secrets" can be said to have some redeeming value, it's plot implausibility notwithstanding..
get me wrong.there are still some thrilling moments,just not as many as as i had hoped or expected.plus,there were a few absurd moments even in the context of the film.still,it is entertaining and worth watching.this time around,Ed Harris joins the cast as does Helen Mirren who adds some class to the film.for me,National Treasure: Book of Secrets is a 7/10.
I liked National Treasure 1.It was not a great movie but it could keep me very entertained.Bot,now,National Treasure:Book of Secrets forgets any logic or credibility.The first part also neither was too logic but,at least,it could get a good balance between stupidity and humor.But,the second part totally falls in the silliness and it uses the humor to tell a ridiculous and forced story.Also,the action scenes are irrelevant to the story.Nicolas Cage repeats the achievement he made in Ghost Rider and Next(two other crappy movies):he puts a lot of enthusiasm to his character.I think Cage is the only positive element in this film,as he was in the mentioned films.I'll talk about the rest of the cast.This film wastes four excellent actors who are Ed Harris,Jon Voight,Helen Mirren and Harvey Keitel.Diane Kruger does what she can with her role and Justin Bartha does not show any charisma as the comic-relief.National Treasure:Book of Secrets is a very crappy sequel.I do not recommend it..
Nicholas Cage,Diane Kruger,Justin Bertha,Jon Voight,Ed Harris,Bruce Greenwood,Helen Mirren, and Harvey Keitel make a fantastic cast of characters.
The historical story and visits to Buckingham Palace, The White House, Mount Rushmore, The Library of Congress, Mount Vernon, and a rendition of the assassination of President Lincoln make National Treasure:Book of Secrets a great,fun film for anyone.
NT2 contains the same base formula as NT1, but this time it is far m ore watered down, with much less clues and less real action, but more development of the interpersonal relationships between Ben Gates (Nic Cage) and his parents (Helen Mirren and Jon Voight) and his lady.
I then imagine you split up the workload for the script of the movie like this: 1 guy thinks of funny clues, 1 guy thinks of some extra background story for the characters and the dialogue they have George Lucas write, because let's face it, he's cheap.Finally you put all 3 into the same Word document and you send it straight to production because damn it, it's milking time.
Finally the thing get's edited and every scene gets as much dialogue and story cut out because of how awful it is.Seriously, those of you saying Jon Voigt or Helen Mirren do a good job in this movie, come on.
Along the way, Patrick is forced to reconcile with Ben's mother Emily (Helen Mirren) and Ben must reconcile with his love interest from the previous film Abigail (Diane Kruger) as well as his friend Riley (Justin Bertha) all whilst being pursued by FBI Agent Sadusky (Harvey Keitel.) It all builds up to an 'explosive' finale where Ben must kidnap the president (Bruce Greenwood.) Critics have been pretty unanimous with their condemnation of this unnecessary sequel to the only marginally enjoyable 2004 film National Treasure.
I have to admit that I enjoyed the first Treasure film and was expecting a lot of the same with the second.It did start off with a good premise with the secrets and hunting in the first half but after it seemed to resemble a serial of the 30's.I could pretty much know what was going to happen in the next "cliff hanging sequence".It seems everyone just phoned in their lines.No amount of rum and eggnog prepared me for this .All in all I was pretty much bored in the second half and could not wait for the film to end so I could go home and open my Christmas gifts.
Black cabs, double decker red buses,Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, red post boxes...........yawn, it really is as predictable as that.The plot is preposterous, and helen Mirren looks as though she would have been better employed looking for a decent script rather than trotting out the banal dross she has to speak.The two hour running time is desperately short of both decent action and witty script, instead we have to trudge through a formula so clunky that you find yourself screaming for an on screen mechanic to give it some oil.Of course the set pieces are fine, and the stars do their bit - but no more.Avoid unless you are pretty desperate for something to do..
Yes, National Treasure 2 could've been a very fun popcorn movie, and it is, but the film is filled with too many immature jokes to make kids laugh.
A surprisingly good find this year, or in any year, is "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." Canned style music always implies a better film than the filmmakers delivered, but this time the pic lives up to the almost impossible climaxes in the score.The thing with this one is the actors, and the characters they play.
Despite all this, the film is still a lot of fun, thanks to some awesome chase scenes, the great special effects and the fun performances of Nicolas Cage, Helen Mirren and Jon Voight.
I watched national treasure 2 and must admit I really enjoyed the movie (apart from the fact it was freezing cold in the cinema), the action and plot line were kept moving at really good pace so you never really felt bored (something I did feel in the first movie).
The characters themselves have grown and developed since the last movie you can see the bond between cage and voight as father and son, riley now trying to step out of cages shadows etc Oh and the person criticising kruges acting who cares she is fit and does her job well (i.e she looks good)If you want to see a movie that will not challenge you to much, keep you entertained, and also have a good plot line (which it does no matter how un realistic at times) then I do recommend this film.
A couple years ago I saw that little movie we called National Treasure, sorta like the new Indiana Jones wanna-be, I didn't get into the film.
But the sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets came last year and I had again no interest in seeing the movie, but my mom bought the film and wanted to watch it together, so I figured to just sit through it, it actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting.
I think the reason why I disliked the first National Treasure was due to the fact that it was too deep with history in order for it to be a family film and could be confusing at times.
But National Treasure: Book of Secrets explains itself well and has more exciting action sequences and just a great story.Ben Gates is back, this time his life isn't looking so good, his girlfriend, Abigal, threw him out, his friend, Riley isn't the best seller on his new book, then his great great grandfather is accused of helping John Wilkes Booth kill President Lincoln.
But Ben is determined to clear the family name, but Mitch Wilkinson wants his family name to remain sacred and plans to drag Ben's family down and claim all the fortune for himself.National Treasure: Book of Secrets is an exciting adventure film, one of the better I've seen in a while.
But National Treasure: Book of Secrets otherwise is a decent family film that is enjoyable and exciting, I'd recommend it if you're looking for a fun film.7/10.
The cast includes many actors from the first film, with Nicholas Cage and Diane Kruger leading the way and keeping the flaws and virtues shown earlier, like the lack of depth and personality of their characters and some very enjoyable comical vein.
However, even though it isn't the best movie ever, I had a good time watching the film.
It's a thrilling story line that allows the viewer to feel like they are part of the adventure.The first movie was great but generally sequels are never as good.
In addition, Justin Bartha returns as comical sidekick Riley Poole, Jon Voigt returns as Patrick Gates, Ben's father; and Diane Kruger returns as Abigail Chase, Ben's romantic interest.The story line is full of archeology, history, humor, and adventure that takes our lead characters to Paris, London, Washington DC, and Mount Rushmore.All in all, this is a pattern with which many are very familiar: the pattern successfully rendered in the Indiana Jones movies.I won't give away anything except to say that I myself think that the National Treasure franchise is far less engaging than the Indiana Jones franchise.
Neither this National Treasure movie, nor its predecessor, lead me in this direction.As for the lead characters, Indiana Jones is so much more appealing, to me, compared to Ben Gates.
And I was able to tolerate Mr. Cage this time, I thought he did a very good job and as usual Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Helen Mirren and Ed Harris were great (although Harris' villain was pretty bland, luckily he can act).The action was also very well filmed and at times highly excited and well thought out (the balancing rock sequence was exceptionally well done).
Nicholas Cage plays the lead character Ben Gates a treasure hunter like his father before him who becomes involves in a fight to clear his families name names from being involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Watched National Treasure:Book Of Secrets Featuring Nicolas Cage(Face/Off) as Ben Gates, Justin Bartha(Failure To Launch) as Riley Poole , Diane Kruger(Troy) as Abigail Chase, Jon Voigt(Mission:Impossible) as Patrick Gates , Oscar Winner Helen Mirren(The Queen) as Emily Appleton-Gates , Ed Harris(A History Of Violence) as Mitch Wilkinson, Bruce Greenwood(Thirteen Days) as The President,Ty Burrell(Dawn Of The Dead) as Connor, Albert Hall(Malcolm X) as Nichols and Harvey Keitel(Reservoir Dogs) as Sadusky.
Released in 2007 and directed by Jon Turteltaub, "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" brings back Nicolas Cages as Ben Gates, along with his assistant, Riley (Justin Bartha), hot girlfriend (Diane Kruger) and father (Jon Voight).
So, when I saw this sequel, I wasn't expecting it to be an improvement over the first, but can at least be enjoyable and my wish came true at last.I'll admit that the story, just like the original's, is predictable with a weakest script, an even longer climax compared to the first, and the villain not being big enough throughout the film, but those flaws didn't matter as it had some redeeming qualities the first National Treasure had.The cinematography is magnificent and the cast is great with some great performances from Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Jon Voight, Helen Mirren, and Ed Harris.
It entertains, and as such, it's definitely fulfilling its promise.I enjoyed it, and Nicolas Cage is well cast as the treasure hunter, while John Voight's and Helen Mirren's appearance is refreshing and makes the movie all the more fun to watch..