National Treasure

12/17/2004 03:22 Filed in: Movies and Television
I won't spend too much time on this movie. Most folks have seen it by now. It's a good picture, it's been well-received, and it's been number one at the box office three weeks in a row.

I'm sure you know this by now, but Nicolas Cage plays Benjamin Franklin Gates who is the inheritor of a family secret about an ancient treasure that has been passed down from the Templar Knights of the Crusades to the Founding Fathers of our nation. I'm not telling you anything the previews haven't to mention that the key to finding this treasure is written in invisible ink on the back of the Declaration of Independence. But Gates isn't the only one who knows this. And since the bad guys want to steal it, Gates decides the only right thing to do is to steal it himself. And thus, you have the setting for a race to get to the treasure first.

This movie has elements that you've seen before. Mix Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tombraider, Oceans 11/12, and the plot points of a Dan Brown novel and you have National Treasure. But in spite of the fact that it's not the most original of movies, it is a very well done movie, compared for instance with disappointing second Tombraider installment last year. If you like history, especially history of the Revolutionary War era, you will love this movie. I could realistically see a high school history teacher showing this movie to his class and then using it as a catalyst to discuss key events in the founding of our nation.

National Treasure makes a great date movie. It's just long enough at an hour and a half. It's clean, entertaining, and tells a great story.