Capone Kicks Off A Fistful Of NATIONAL TREASURE Reviews!!

The tag----------- Nick Cage plays Benjamin Franklin Gates descends from a family of treasure-seekers who've all hunted for the same thing: a war chest hidden by the Founding Fathers after the Revolutionary War. Not just any treasure, the treasure from the Crusades and empires past going all the way back to Jesus ‘s time and long before. Ben's close to discovering its whereabouts, as is his competition, but the FBI is also hip to the hunt.

The movie opens in the attic, nic cage as young boy in his grandfather’s attic looking through a scrapbook. His granddad breaks down the family story ------ It is 1832, and the valet (nick s great - great granddad) of Charles Carroll, 96 yrs old, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a free mason to the White House, to see President Andrew Jackson about a matter of dire urgency as Carroll is dieing. The president is out of town, but before the old man passes on, he tells the young valet, Thomas Gates, about a great treasure. A grand treasure amassed throughout the ages. From the pyramids of Egypt two thousand years before the birth of Christ, through the Roman Empire and The Crusades, brought to the New World over two hundreds years ago. A treasure whose clue lies in the line --. The secret lies with Charlotte. Thus begins what will become a family curse, as generation after generation of Gates males search for Charlotte and the secret treasure.

The next scene moves to present day and treasure hunters are looking for the ship named CHARLOTTE in the Artic Circle. They find the ship, as they search the cargo hole they find a small ivory pipe. Cage senses that this is the last riddle. He deduces from the clue that he has to see the back of the Declaration of Independence where there is an invisible treasure map. But of course we are only 10 minutes into the movie..So the audience knows that this is not the last clue. His money man and adventurer played by Sean Bean figures this is the last clue and doesn’t need nick cage anymore...So he and his co-hurts blows him up in a Bruckheimer way. Cut to Washington D.C. and Nic has been laughed out of the FBI is trying to tell the head of the attractive head archives someone will steal the Declaration of Independence. Not a soul will hear that money of the most protected documents will be stolen and for some crazy story about a long lost treasure. So Cage decides to steal the item himself before SEAN BEAN gets to it at the gala event held on the weekend.

All right I do not want to give the ending away... so i will summarize the rest with the theft that cage commits in time with Sean Bean firing at him and the archrivist Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Krueger-TROY- HELEN) seeing him steal the document so she of course agrees to help decode the map at his father’s house (Jon Voight).... they are off to Philly after more free mason mythology and some cool history lessons about Ben Franklin. They find another object in Philly but lose it to Sean bean and the FBI head (Harvey Kietel also free mason) Sean demands they go to NYC where the treasure is and they need cage's help. Finally Cage and the Dr kiss, then the ending with the treasure and some smart plot twists than the epilogue.

Hey it's a pretty good Bruckheimer movie, y'all, it’s not THE ROCK but it’s way better than PEARL HARBOR and CON AIR and though there are some effects, most are like CON AIR and have to do with the down to earth plot and characters and there is not too much gunfire in this film more of a thrill ride chase like TOP GUN ......I love History and got most of the history riddles in this film, like when was the set your back /forward clock thing invented?

One small advantage “National Treasure” does have is that it’s major set-piece, the breaking into the Rotunda in the National Archives to steal the Declaration of Independence, which purportedly has a map to the treasure on the back in invisible ink, is not the climax or the main focus of the film, but the transition from the first to second act. If anything good can come from the making of this movie, it’s that it could spark an interest in American history to a new generation of people. With visits to Washington DC, the Ben Franklin Museum and the Liberty Bell Pavilion in Philadelphia, plus the USS Intrepid and Trinity Church (near ground zero - 9/11, a great church if you have never been there) in New York and Boston's Old North Church (go RED SOX- world Champs baby). NATIONAAL TREASURE has just enough of one foot in the past to make kids think history might be interesting. Of course, the film also condones crimes of high treason but the ends justify the means in this day in age right?

This is the basis for “National Treasure,” the upcoming inevitable Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer/Nicolas Cage blockbuster, currently scheduled to invade motion picture houses in November of 2004. Predestined indeed, as the three previous films from this trio, “The Rock,” “Con Air” and “Gone In 60 Seconds,” (, yes even 60 broke even with DVD and international B.O.) have a combined worldwide gross of nearly $750 million. When you’re dealing with forces like that, who needs a script that makes sense? It’s a wonder how this script spent more than half a decade in development before finally earning a green light. I read the early drafts and they did improve the plot lines... and this is going to be a fun ride.... clunky in the love line and pain in the ass father parts played well by Jon Voight.

Here’s one that I got with a headline that quoted my closing line from the last batch of reviews, “So has anyone else seen the film?” He answered, “YES...”

And I sent you the review way back in October. Twice!! Did you ignore it because it wasn't a positive review, like the two you just posted?

Anyway, here it is again:

Hi Harry and Moriarty,

'Tis the season to see free screenings, in New York at least. Got to see another one tonight. "National Treasure", starring Nicolas Cage, directed by John Turteltaub, but more distinctly bearing the handiwork of producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who was on hand to introduce the movie at its "first New York screening", according to him. The audience applauded him enthusiastically and many mobbed him for autographs afterwards. It's not many Hollywood producers who have that kind of fan base, or any kind of fan base.

The movie was a near-completed print. Bruckheimer said some color and sound work still needed to be done, but I couldn't tell. Unfortunately there were no end credits, and only a title credit in the beginning, so I can't give correct credit to all talent involved. I recognized Nicolas cage, Harvey Keitel, Sean bean and John Voight, I believe the female lead is Monica Potter, but may be wrong, and the funny sidekick role was an unknown to me, but he reminded me of an Americanized Dominic Monaghan.

"National Treasure" owes a HUGE debt to Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code". It really seems like Bruckheimer said to a committee of writers, give me "DaVinci Code", take out all the intellectual stuff, add more chases and set pieces, and change the particulars enough so we don't get sued. Those who have read Dan Brown's Book will see the parallels: the egghead manly hero, on a race to follow clue after clue in historical or cultural landmark after another in a treasure hunt conceived by a historical secret society; the plucky female heroine with the big university degree tagging along for the hunt, the chief inspector of the law tracking down our hero, the villain(s) also tracking down the clues who will not stop at murder and who have immense resources at their disposal. Only instead of European Churches and Museums we got American churches and museums. Only instead the treasure being linked to hundreds of years of church history and revelations about church dogma and religion-foundation shattering ideas about Jesus Christ, in this case the treasure is simply...a treasure, worth billions, perhaps of great cultural value, but really, no one need to worry their pretty head about it, it might as well be the Goonie's treasure.

Which doesn't make the movie bad, just ultimately pretty mindless. It hints at maybe once having tried to have something to say about the meaning of our Declaration of Independence and the other "National Treasures" that figure in this plot, but if that ever was in the script, any relevance has since been long leeched out. This film functions pretty squarely on the level of an eight year boy's fantasy.

So there are plenty set pieces, and action scenes, and reversals and stuff and sometimes I felt diverted and near if not on the edge of my seat, and sometimes I felt a little bored. The problem with the movie is that it so clearly cobbles together ideas from other sources. The big idea story-wise is the DaVinci Code, but from cinema history it is a grab bag of moments from Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Mummy, True Lies, Oceans Eleven, Bourne Identity, which all themselves were referencing previous movies and which all are superior to this film. The action and plot machinations are just all very second hand and unfortunately not i mproved upon this time around. And all the great actors I listed in the first paragraph are given very little to work with. Nicolas Cage tries to inject some idiosyncratic moments into the picture, but his effort is mostly doomed. The film is resolutely determined not to be original, but just steal the best it can from its betters. The result is maybe worth a rental, when you really don't want to be thinking too much, and just want to watch things move quickly and divertingly for a couple of hours.

Best,

Julius

And here’s our last one for this morning:

Harry, Moriarty, whoever,

Harry Roat here. Got out of an advanced screening of NATIONAL TREASURE a few hours ago, and thought you might be interested. I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum.

The first 20 or so minutes of this movie are absolutely atrocious. Right off the bat, Christopher Plummer, sits down his Grandson Kid Nicolas Cage (with the improbable name of Benjamin Franklin Gates) and tells him in great, hokey detail, the story of the treasure that the Gates family has been after since almost its inception. The story of the treasure starts during the pyramids, is amassed and grouped during the Crusades, then a group of soldiers finds it, and declares themselves the Knights Templar. Then that group becomes the Free Masons, and it turns out that many of our founding fathers were Masons, so they have the treasure, and they've hidden it somewhere in the Northeast, to either keep the treasure protected or use the idea of the treasure to throw off the British (the latter is something the filmmakers put out there, half-assedly). There are all sorts of clues embedded in American culture - the dollar bill being the example that Christopher Plummer points out. This is where Eye Roll # 1 occurs - it's almost as if Jerry Bruckheimer read the Da Vinci Code and said, "Make me this - just take out all that religious stuffs."

Then, we head to present day, where Grown-up Nicolas Cage (Nicolas Cage) is now a "treasure protector" heading down to the Artic or whatever hot on the trail of a clue. It doesn't really matter where they are - the only thing that matters is that Sean Bean is there, and being that this isn't TROY, Sean Bean's mere presence means that some shit's going to go down between him, Nicolas Cage, and alleged comic relief Riley Poole, who is a computer guy a little uncomfortable around people but DON'T WORRY HE'S HIS-TER-I-CAL. Riley is Eye Roll #2, and unfortunately, he's in the movie for the long haul. In the Artic, Nicolas Cage miraculously solves a complicated riddle written by the forefathers in thirty seconds and realizes that the map to the treasure is on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Sure enough, Sean Bean throws all logic out the window and turns on Nicolas Cage and that oh-so-witty computer guy (who is, again, uncomfortable around people), the two people with any knowledge of what they're going after. Nicolas Cage, a man whose family has been hunting this treasure for 220-odd years, does the same thing anyone else in this position would - he splodes it to get away from Evil Sean Bean.

Bored yet? So was I.

But surprisingly, after this two clunky, exposition laden scenes, the movie takes off, and takes off big. The film is very obviously geared at a more universal-type audience, young and old, and because of that, nothing too crazy ever happens - but there are a few exciting moments along the way, especially a fun chase sequence in Philly, and the stuff with the Declaration in Washington. I actually don't want to give too much of the bulk of the film away, because really, it's fun...once you get past those first 20 minutes.

I think it's important to note that while most of the elements of the film - the writing, the directing, the cinematography, the editing - are done with a professional yet lackadaisical ease, the acting is really subdued, and therefore, more effective. Even Nicolas Cage, who really turns down the acting dial from 11 to 10, is a lot of fun to watch, kind of like a more aloof Indiana Jones. Also on the could've-been-hammy-but-chose-not-to route is Jon Voight, playing Nic's Dad and the one Gates's family member who thinks the treasure may be a bunch of horseshit. Diane Kruger is good with what she has to do, and if she wasn't, it wouldn't matter, because she's fun to look at.

There's not really a whole lot to say about the movie. The first 20 minutes are awful Bruckheimer shit, but after that, the movie's really fun; not too exciting, or too boring, but fun. It'll be a great date movie, or a matinee to bring the kids to, or...any time with anyone, really. Leaving the theatre, it kind of occurred to me - and I realize that this is the second time I'm making this comparison - that this movie is the closest I've ever seen to an America-set Indiana Jones. I know that that's probably not a wholly accurate comparison, but it's the first one that comes to mind. I think that if people go in to just sit back and enjoy the flick, they'll find themselves having a really fun time. I did.

Sincerely,

Harry Roat Jr./Sr.

Well, just one more week to release. My bet is still that there’s nothing else like it in the marketplace right now, so it’ll do really well. I hope it’s a fun ride and worth the hype and all the development effort that went into it. Time will tell...

"Moriarty" out.