National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
A simple follow on from National Treasure, you know the storyline. Ben Gates is a treasure hunter, but manages to find obscure treasure maps in the strangest of places. We open on a scene of partying at the end of the American Civil War. Thomas Gates is in a pub with his son writing some things into his journal. He's approached by two men who ask him to decode a cryptograph. At this time he has no idea what it is in relation to. One of them promptly goes off an assassinates Lincoln while the other shoots Gates in front of his son. With his dying breath he reveals the codex needed to decipher the code that was on the page. Skip to Ben Franklin (Nic Cage attempting to show genius) and introducing his great grandfather into the Civil War Hall of Fame. Wouldn't you know it? Some sneaky bastard has what he calls evidence that shows Thomas Gates out to be ringleader of the group who want to bump off the Prez. Are you getting at all yet the fact that this is all pretty samey? Same old cliches are bandied about, same old dire acting by all involved. The only ray of light being the wonderful Helen Mirren who quite obviously wanted to take something that was a bit more light than her recent movies. OK, Ok, I know it's Disney, I know it's the same folks who wrote Pirates of the Caribbean and I know that historical accuracy goes out of the window for things like this, but please! Olmec glyphs written on wood, hidden in desks held in Buckingham Palace and the Oval Office, leading to the fabled lost city of gold that has Mayan architecture, Incan idols and is on Lakota land? Suspend all that and, well it's ok. It's fun, it's brain candy. It's no Indiana Jones, it's no Pirates of the Caribbean. It is over long and it is over indulgent but it is a bit of an adventure movie so it doesn't entirely suck. As for the cast. Voight, dude, do yourself a favour and give it all up. Cage, I don't know why I keep giving you the benefit of the doubt. Kruger, well you're slightly less wooden than the average oak tree so you're getting there. Mirren - Love you baby! And whatever your name is that plays the sidekick. Guess you've found your niche in life. 2/5
A simple follow on from National Treasure, you know the storyline. Ben Gates is a treasure hunter, but manages to find obscure treasure maps in the strangest of places. We open on a scene of partying at the end of the American Civil War. Thomas Gates is in a pub with his son writing some things into his journal. He's approached by two men who ask him to decode a cryptograph. At this time he has no idea what it is in relation to. One of them promptly goes off an assassinates Lincoln while the other shoots Gates in front of his son. With his dying breath he reveals the codex needed to decipher the code that was on the page. Skip to Ben Franklin (Nic Cage attempting to show genius) and introducing his great grandfather into the Civil War Hall of Fame. Wouldn't you know it? Some sneaky bastard has what he calls evidence that shows Thomas Gates out to be ringleader of the group who want to bump off the Prez. Are you getting at all yet the fact that this is all pretty samey? Same old cliches are bandied about, same old dire acting by all involved. The only ray of light being the wonderful Helen Mirren who quite obviously wanted to take something that was a bit more light than her recent movies. OK, Ok, I know it's Disney, I know it's the same folks who wrote Pirates of the Caribbean and I know that historical accuracy goes out of the window for things like this, but please! Olmec glyphs written on wood, hidden in desks held in Buckingham Palace and the Oval Office, leading to the fabled lost city of gold that has Mayan architecture, Incan idols and is on Lakota land? Suspend all that and, well it's ok. It's fun, it's brain candy. It's no Indiana Jones, it's no Pirates of the Caribbean. It is over long and it is over indulgent but it is a bit of an adventure movie so it doesn't entirely suck. As for the cast. Voight, dude, do yourself a favour and give it all up. Cage, I don't know why I keep giving you the benefit of the doubt. Kruger, well you're slightly less wooden than the average oak tree so you're getting there. Mirren - Love you baby! And whatever your name is that plays the sidekick. Guess you've found your niche in life. 2/5
Enjoyment of this film will generally hinge on whether you enjoyed the first, as this is very much same-shit-different-day territory. I loved the first one. It's not a masterpiece, but it's the sort of enjoyable light-hearted stuff you can put on of an afternoon and enjoy yourself. It's hokum, but fun hokum. Book of Secrets is very much similar ground. All is not happiness in paradise - Riley seems to have squandered his millions through a dodgy accountant's attempt at a tax dodge, while Gates who 'got the girl' at the end of the last film, much to Riley's envy, has apparently lost her again. The cast are all having a great deal of fun, and it's an inclusive sort of fun, rather than one where we're not invited. Jon Voight, who has been accused of choosing questionable roles of late, is having terrific fun, and why shouldn't he? Helen Mirren nails that curious Englishwoman-living-in-the-States accent as an odd mix of English and American, but that works - and more importantly, is also having a lot of fun. That's really the word for this film - fun. It's what sets these films apart from, say, The Da Vinci Code (2006), whose po-faced seriousness buried it as certainly as the revelation at the end. Ed Harris is a rent-a-villain whose revelation at the start of this film is the macguffin that gets the ball rolling - Gates has to clear his family's name. How does he do it? Why, he has to find treasure, of course! How else?
This film isn't treading any new ground, but it was exactly what I needed after a day's decorating. Don't expect a lot, but expect it to be fun.
It would have been nice to have a more revelatory ending. After the hugeness of the treasure in the first one, the treasure here seems lesser, which is not what you want in a sequel. That being said, there was a rather obvious pointer to a threequel with Gates' conversations about 'page 47'. The dialogue was clunky, as you'd expect.
Also, there were lots of scenes in the trailer that simply weren't in the film. Riley telling Gates that there was 'death, despair, a horrifying drop, and then a horrid sudden death' was missing. As was Gates saying, 'hellooo' in a car when noticing a helicopter, in the same way Riley said 'hellooo' in the first one. Finally, the scene where the president tells Gates that he is the number one on the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA, is also missing. I can't see why, but it's weird that they weren't included. Sadly, the laugh-out-loud moment where Gates puts his hand in the rock and joke-screams, after his mother's warning that it 'might be a trap' was in, and it would have been funnier had we not seen that already.
The Acting - 6/10: Predictable, as you'd expect, and no stretch for any of them. That being said, it gets a point above the mid way 5/10 for the fact that they're all having so much fun.
The Look - 7/10: There are some great scenes - the car chase through London being the standout - but not enough.
The Music - 6/10: Much like the first, the music is typically action-orientated, and maintains the same tone as the film - it doesn't take itself too seriously.
The Story - 5/10: 5/10 is sort of the starting point for my consideration. It was neither below nor above expectations - it served its purpose, but didn't cross any new boundaries, nor was it overly insulting.
Success of Intent - 7/10: Like other films of this sort that I enjoy, I always seem to rate this category above the others as it is the one where the film excels. It's not great drama, nor original, but it's good honest fun, and serves as a nice warm-up for the real McCoy out this summer.
Overall - 31/50, or: