07/01/2008 NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS When National Treasure was originally released in 2004 it was savaged by the critics, but still went on to become a huge box office hit. Which only goes to prove what I’ve always thought – critics are clueless dullards with turnips for brains and absolutely no grasp on reality.
Starring Nicolas Cage – one of my favourite actors in all the whole wide world as it happens – the original movie was directed by John Turteltaub and earned a mouth watering $347m all over the world with an involved story about a hidden treasure trove hidden by the founding fathers of America. It was an unlikely plot but solving the riddle captured the imaginations of the movie-goers and with a strong cast (Sean Bean, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Plummer and Diane Kruger also star) the trail through the Knights of Templar and the Masons made a monkey of the critics’ ridicule.
This sequel is already well on the way to becoming every bit as successful as the original and has already been cleaning up at the holiday box office throughout the US. Nicolas Cage again takes centre stage and Helen Mirren joins the rest of the gang as the theme takes an ever-more darker twist that leads us to the American Civil War, Confederate ideals and the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth. Again it follows a Da Vinci Code type path through a web of clues, maps and secret societies as long buried treasures are sought and old loyalties and prejudices are stirred. In the course it throws up a new theory on Abraham Lincoln’s murder that is barely plausible but is still richly entertaining.
That, surely, is the secret of its success and a key to the movie that critics somehow seem to fail to grasp. When I go to a movie – with or without one of my young male friends – I like to get totally lost in it and not worry too much about how REAL it is. Escapism has always been one of the most telling factors in the appeal of the movies and this film does exactly that, guiding us into a strange, murky world rooted deep in American history. With the wondrous Nicolas Cage leading us through the puzzle, then it’s easy to lose yourself. I mean, this is a movie that takes us to a secret cave in the bowels of Mount Rushmore. Doesn’t that sound great?!?
So while the critics have again been plunging their knives in, my advice to you babeluvers, is to ignore them. This movie grossed $65m in its first week in the US and if there’s one thing I do know, it’s that $65m can’t be wrong.
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