MOVIE - NATIONAL TREASURE - Review Rating $$$$$ $$ (OUT OF 10)
STARRING - Nicolas Cage (Benj Gates), Harvey Keitel (Sadusky), Jon Voight (Patrick Gates), Diane Kruger (Abigail Chase), Sean Bean (Ian Howe), Justin Bartha (Riley Poole), David Dayan Fisher (Shaw) & Christopher Plummer (John Adams Gates).
DIRECTOR - Jon Turteltaub
The history of "Art" includes a sub-history of artful forgeries. Movies are "Art" of a particular form and National Treasure is, if nothing else, an artful forgery.
There is nary an original idea in this film that borrows heavily from both The Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Da Vinci Code. In fact, National Treasure so completely rips off The Da Vinci Code that unknowing viewers, of the future movie based on that book, may well think it to be a forgery.
The artfulness of this particular forgery lies in its pacing. The first hour goes by so quickly that you barely have time to ponder the gaping plot holes or lament the lack of significant character development. National Treasure does bog down a bit near the end and the conclusion is anti-climatic (the movie has happy ending written all over it) but it's nevertheless really hard to resist going along for the ride.
Forgeries aren't as good as the real thing but National Treasure is at least smart enough to steal from the best and the end result is an entertaining, if unoriginal, movie.
Running time - 100 minutes
Alternative Reviews:
Roger Ebert's Review
Peter Travers / Rolling Stone Review
Rotten Tomatoes Reviews
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