National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

Joyous boys own yarn full of the serial silliness of movies past, present and the first movie!

As with the enormously successful first film, this sequel irritated as many people as it entertained. It's just the nature of the family friendly blockbuster, that some film fans refuse to accept them as viable fun family fare, whilst others can easily run with it and have a great time. The highbrow versus the lowbrow? Well maybe if you want to really be speaky arty about it...

National Treasure: Book of Secrets made over $450 million at the worldwide box offices. Now we are told that financial success is no marker for quality of product, that's fair enough, but what is undeniably true is that it means there were considerably "a lot" of happy paying punters! From way back in the day when we had the likes of Gunga Din, Beau Geste and The Adventures of Robin Hood, there has been a considerable market for the action adventure movie. Some are better than others, some are even more brainy, but mostly they deliver a set pattern of what many people want.

The makers of this sequel just go bigger than the first film whilst following exactly the same formula. Nicolas Cage's treasure hunting Benjamin Franklin Gates has to follow clues to treasure again, only this time it's to clear his family name since his granddaddy has been implicated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Justin Bartha and Diane Kruger are again along for the ride, while Jon Voight gets more screen time as Daddy Gates. Helen Mirren joins the fray as the estranged Mommy Gates, Ed Harris slots in for villain duties and Bruce Greenwood adds class as the president of the USA.

The stunts and set-pieces are humongous, the traps and clues more elaborate than before and the photography (Amir Mokri and John Schwartzman) once again is gorgeous. It hurtles along at a nifty pace, stopping only to explain the various plot machinations to younger viewers, and the comic by-play between all the principal players is set in stone. Is it full of implausibilities, insulting history and credulity stretching beyond belief? Yes! Of course, that's why many of us action adventure fans escape into such high energy nonsense. Those expecting cerebral tickles or those offended by basic family blockbusters should quite simply stay away. 7.5/10

Well, what do you know, a sequel that's pretty much the same story as the original. But so what? This movie isn't as good as the first but it's just as enjoyable. So let's get on board and find some treasure. Just one thing, can someone explain to me why Nicolas Cage got so loud in this one?

Following on from the original 2004 adventure, we discover that "Mitch" (Ed Harris) is now alleging that Nicolas Cage's "Gates" family were embroiled in the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln - and he claims to have proof from a diary by none other than John Wilkes Booth himself! It seems that in order to disprove these scurrilous rumours, he must galvanise his now estranged wife "Abigail" (Diane Kruger) and partner "Riley" (Justin Bartha) to track down a legendary city of gold. Surely it doesn't exist? Well there might just be a clue in the President's "Book of Secrets" - but he doesn't even know if that exists - and to find out, well he's going to have to get face to face with the President before embarking on a trip that will take him to Paris and then to the Queen's private study in Buckingham Palace before asking his dad (Jon Voight) and academic mum (Dame Helen Mirren) to chip in to help them rescue the family's reputation. Oh, and yes - menacing "Mitch" is hot on his trail, determined to use "Ben" to do all of the heavy lifting whilst he hopes to sneak in and claim the treasure for himself! It's very similar to the first film in style and pace, but the story is not so good and the quirkiness of the adventure struggles to stay as entertaining. There's a little too much familial dysfunction from both couples and the hapless "Riley" is much less engaging here, too. It's watchable enough, but nothing much to write home about.

Out the door, the movie would never be made today, it's why people aren't rallying for a National Treasure 3, it's too pro-America and it does really celebrate US history while not feeling propagandistic or preachy, it's done as a part of the adventure. Which also makes it a lot different than movies today that would feel much heavier with the lecture and pushing the anti-American narrative. The movie is about Lincoln, the CSA gold conspiracy, and if it were made today we would have to have a stop every mention to explain how horrible slavery is, how horrible white people are, how America is the most evil country that ever existed, how horrible everyone not left wing enough is.

But it was made in 2007 so you don't get that. You get American history, you get characters that respect American history, you get a fun adventure that is, yeah, just like the first one but who cares? It's supposed to be, and it's supposed to be fun, light, action packed, and the sort of movie that the whole family could enjoy.

And what you get is the sort of movie that the whole family can enjoy... so it succeeded there. However, it did it in a way where the lore is good old fashioned patriotic American history, and that is a treasure.